There’s no doubt 2020 has been a cracker of a year. Thanks to COVID-19, work practices had to transform, and for many organisations, this has been the catalyst to accelerate their adoption of new cloud technologies.
While there are businesses returning to working on site, we believe remote working is here to stay. As a result, organisations need a more permanent and streamlined solution to engage and connect teams without being limited to one’s location or certain hardware.
Microsoft Teams has long been considered one of the best tools in enabling business productivity on a day-to–day basis but since the pandemic hit, this has become even more apparent. That’s because Teams removes the need to coordinate stand-alone systems like Zoom and Slack – managing everything within one easy platform. Also, it’s accessible from any device or tablet, keeping you connected on the go.
So, without further ado, let’s look at our top 6 favourite features about Teams:
1.Teams and Channels
Conversations in MS Teams are organised under a Team with its respective channels. To clarify, have a gander at the wise words of Microsoft: “a team is a collection of people, content, and tools that work together to produce a business outcome for your company”. So then, ‘what are channels’, you ask? Channels are dedicated sections within a team to keep conversations organised by specific topics, projects, disciplines – whatever works for your team! For example, you can create a Human Resources (HR) Team with an Events, Recruitment, Training and Reporting channel to organise conversations.
2. Chat
The Chat feature enables threaded 1:1 or direct group conversations (yep, even for office banter) in your channels. It also allows audio or video calls and screen sharing.
3. Meetings
Teams delivers full-featured online meeting capabilities for impromptu or scheduled meetings with internal teams or external stakeholders; including audio, video, chat, and screen sharing functionality.
4. Collaboration
Teams integrates with other Microsoft 365 services such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and SharePoint. This means users can collaborate on work in real-time and easily share work documents within Teams.
5. Calling
As the name suggests, Teams is the bee’s knees for cooperating with your team. But if you also require an efficient way to communicate with the outside world i.e. place or receive business phone calls, create voice menus and call queues, record calls and more, we can help extend your Teams solution to become your business–grade phone system too. Plus, you can even keep your existing number if necessary.
6. Continual enhancements and updates
Microsoft is constantly investing in R&D so they’re always coming up with newer and cooler ways to work. And since our work culture and landscape have shifted exponentially in 2020, updates for Teams have been coming through like hot cakes; so much so, we thought all the new features deserved to be showcased in all of their individual glory via this four-part series.
And with that said, stay tuned for Part 2, where we take you for a comprehensive deep-dive through the Teams Calling feature…
