yasoon meets customers: Connecting trade and logistics teams with Jira, Outlook and Microsoft Teams

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At Atlassian Team Europe in Barcelona, Jan Graeber, IT Business Partner at Peter Cremer Holding GmbH & Co. KG, shared how his team connects Jira with Outlook and Microsoft Teams across IT service management, product management, and development workflows.

Cremer is a globally active group operating across industry, trade, and logistics. In Jan’s role between business and technical teams, requests, ideas, feedback, and decisions often reach him through email or Microsoft Teams. He explained how Microsoft 365 for Jira helps turn this communication into structured Jira work, retain its original context, and reduce the manual effort required to move information between tools.

Customer challenge: Fragmented communication between business and technical teams

Jan described two main Jira use cases: IT service management and Jira-based project work.

In both areas, relevant information arrives through several channels. Service requests may begin as emails or Teams messages instead of structured Jira tickets. Product ideas, feedback, decisions, and early requirements may also first appear in an Outlook conversation.

This leaves someone responsible for transferring the information into Jira. The task is not limited to copying text. The Jira user must interpret the message, write a useful summary, select the correct project and work type, and add enough context for the receiving team.

As an IT business partner, Jan is frequently the person connecting these worlds. Manually rewriting every incoming request creates extra work, delays ticket creation, and increases the risk that useful details will be omitted.

The implemented workflow: Creating Jira work from Outlook and Teams

Using Microsoft 365 for Jira, Jan can create Jira work items directly from emails in Outlook. The Outlook integration transfers the relevant email content into the Jira creation dialog. Jan can review the initial draft, add missing information, choose the appropriate project and work type, and send the work item into the Jira workflow.

The same approach supports product management and development. When an email contains an idea, requirement, decision, or customer-related observation, it can become the starting point for a Jira story. The message provides an initial refinement that the team can develop further.

Microsoft Teams conversations can also be connected with Jira. Teams users can create work items from chats or channel conversations, while relevant discussions can remain linked to the resulting work. This preserves the background behind a request or decision instead of separating the Jira record from the conversation that produced it.

The outcome Jan observed

Jan identified time savings as the clearest practical result. Creating a Jira work item from an email avoids manually rewriting the request and gives him a usable first draft.

He estimated that this saves approximately 5 to 10 minutes per work item, depending on how much information must be transferred. Applied to the reported volume of around 5,000 tickets per year, that represents approximately 400 to 800+ hours of potential annual time savings.

This is a calculated range based on Jan's estimate, not a formal time study ;-) The actual result will vary with ticket volume, request complexity, and the amount of manual work previously required.

Jan also highlighted qualitative outcomes:

• Requests can enter the Jira workflow sooner.
• Original email and Teams context is easier to retain.
• Product ideas and feedback can be captured before they disappear into inboxes.
• Business and technical teams can continue using their preferred tools.
• Jira remains the structured system for tracking ownership and progress.

What Jira admins can take from this

Jan's experience suggests several practical steps for Jira administrators:

• Map where requests, ideas, and decisions currently enter the organization.
• Start with a repetitive workflow that requires frequent manual transfer into Jira.
• Define which Outlook or Teams content should be shared with Jira users.
• Involve both Jira and Microsoft administrators when planning deployment and permissions.
• Measure ticket volume and approximate handling time before rollout.
• Review the results after implementation.

For workflows like Jan's, users can create Jira work items from emails or Teams conversations and retain relevant communication alongside the structured work. Jira administrators should select the features that match their organization's processes, permissions, and collaboration requirements rather than enabling every available capability by default.

Connected communication creates a stronger foundation for AI-assisted work. When relevant emails, Teams conversations, decisions, and Jira data are available around the same work item, AI features have richer collaboration context for generating summaries, drafting descriptions, and suggesting next steps.

Full disclosure: I'm Britta, and I work at yasoon, the company behind Microsoft 365 for Jira. I had the pleasure of interviewing our customer Jan Graeber. The opinions he shared are his own and do not represent or imply endorsement by Peter Cremer Holding GmbH & Co. KG.