Exploiting Microsoft TEAMS

Microsoft TEAMS is not just for video-conferencing or messaging but is a comprehensive collaboration tool that can raise your company’s productivity by multiples. The key to this is creating a roadmap for implementation and sustainment. 

While Zoom enabled the masses to continue working from home during the pandemic, the Microsoft Teams platform is becoming the defacto tool in private enterprises enabling teams to communicate as well as collaborate.

The power of Office suite (Word and Excel), and the ability to store documents online in One-drive as well as Teams Files is being leveraged by companies to let teams work in a shared environment.  Some of the key elements of the Microsoft Teams platform to explore are:

1 – Chat – by far the most used feature is good for keeping messages private within the organization. Tools like WhatsApp are on a public platform, and you may lose access to messages. TEAMS keeps messages in your private space on the cloud giving your administrator access to messages and recover.

2 – Calendar – allows your team to create a calendar integrated with Outlook. People in the organization can have access to different calendars of their bosses and team-mates in ‘View-Only’ mode as well. The ability to book meetings as well as company resources such as meetings room is an added feature.

3 – Calls – make a video or audio call to any person in your organization directory or an external person registered in your organization. The calls can be recorded, and you have the possibility to leave a voice message as well.

4 – Files – is an alternate storage space for documents that are shared across organizations or within groups.  The files also allow access to the document stored on a shared OneDrive.

5 – Teams – the least used but perhaps the most important feature to explore is the ability to create groups around common projects or disciplines in the company.  A Teams page is a collaborative space for group members to communicate and collaborate. Using tabs you can add basic as well as different apps to create your own workspace.

6 – Add-Ons – There is a complete suite of apps that can be integrated in your TEAMS environment. These are Microsoft as well as third-party tools.  Most common are Microsoft apps like Planner, Power BI reports, and Forms as well as tools like Trello, Jira Boards and more.

Find a consultant who can help you explore and exploit the awesome power of Microsoft TEAMS.

Mohammed Sutarwala, Managing Director, emQube