Are You Leveraging Microsoft Teams? A Basic Primer to Help You Find Out.

Most people have probably heard of Microsoft Teams.  It is Included with most popular Office 365 Plans, but is your organization using all the features that can help with productivity as your workforce may be scattered between home and office?  Getting the value out of your organization’s technology, especially if it optimizes productivity, is more important now more than ever.

The technical definition of Microsoft Teams is that it is a Unified Communications Platform (UCP).  Basically, it's a way to communicate with your team that is NOT email.  Why is that so important?  There are some fundamental issues with email in business.  On average, people receive 121 emails per day.  When you are trying to collaborate with team members, going back and forth on communication, emails can get lost in the noise.  Another issue is that emails are not always responded to in a timely way, if at all.  On the other hand, Microsoft Teams can help teams communicate effectively & efficiently in real time, collaborate with other team members, and connect with people inside and outside of the organization through virtual meetings.

For any organization, communication is extremely important, and Microsoft Teams can help organizations communicate better, whether it is during the Work From Home era or when people return back to their offices.  Some of the key features that help with communication are:

•       Instant Messaging (Individual) – This would be used for office “chat,” such as when a team member would walk into someone’s office to ask a quick question or get a status update.  Microsoft Teams logs the history of the chat, and it syncs across all devices.  Text, emojis, GIF, images, and video can be used in the chat.

•       Teams Messaging (Groups & Channels) – This is used for messaging a specific group of people, such as a quick company-wide announcement, a status update for a specific project team, and it can even replace some “huddle” meetings.  The group can be private, public, or organization wide.  Multiple channels can also be created within a team.

•       Voice (VoIP) & Video Calling – This feature is helpful for one on one trainings or smaller meetings.  Teams makes it easy to hop on a call, and when video is used, it helps convey tone and body language.  To be able to make and receive external calls, additional licensing is needed.

•       Virtual Meetings – Provides the ability to meet with people inside or outside of your organization, such as with clients.  It is also a very effective way to conduct remote team or department meetings.  The meetings feature requires a Microsoft 365 Audio Conferencing License.

•       Other Features: Live Events, Phone System (PBX), Share Files, etc.  – There are multiple other feathers such as webinars and sharing team files that can be explored more in depth with your IT team.  

Microsoft Teams is a very useful tool to use in most any organization.  As you determine if it works best for your organization, it is helpful to consider if it integrates with other software in your organization, if it meets your security and compliance needs, and of course, the cost.  Teams is Tier D Compliant, meaning it complies with HIPAA (BAA agreement in terms by default for all customers), SOC 1 & SOC 2, ISO 27001 & ISO 27018 and SSAE16 standards.  All data within Teams is owned by the organization, giving more control over the data.  It is supported across most platforms, including Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS (iphone/ipads), Android phones/tablets, and the web.

When your organization installs the Microsoft Teams client or decides to begin using more of the features, it’s important to have a deployment plan.  Plan ahead on how you are going to structure and use Teams, setting expectations on consistent use across the company.  What Teams and Channels need to be set up – from departments to company-wide?  What permissions or licenses do you need?  It does require some time to setup admin settings by your IT partner or administrator.

Do you need help evaluating how Microsoft Teams or other technology could work for your organization? Please reach out to Affinity Technology Partners.  We love to help empower companies in the Nashville area!

This article is based on our 15-min pre-recorded webinar. View recorded webinar below for more information.