Teams is, in our humble opinion, the best collaborative tool on the market for businesses right now!
Chit-chat Redefined
Think of Teams as Zoom after a double espresso shot! It’s not your Grandad’s email-based communication. Teams lets us fire off instant messages akin to popular apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, not just to our contacts but also to those outside our business.
The beauty of Teams is that it marries the best of both worlds. It integrates with a user’s Outlook client, allowing traditional email directories to send these messages. But here’s the kicker – the responses are instant and don’t end up in the Bermuda Triangle of junk folders and subfolders.
Teams can also buddy up with your Outlook calendar, transforming meetings into Team meetings. You can assign these to various teams and locations within your business, add a joinable meeting link, and then catapult this meeting into people’s calendars. But wait, there’s more!
Collaboration Unleashed
Within your Teams setup, you can create… you guessed it, Teams! You can control access to these Teams centrally through Office 365 group memberships, SharePoint access settings, or a central Teams administrative console in your 365 tenancy.
Within these Teams, you can do things like post updates, message your team, or even share a meme or GIF (because who doesn’t love a good GIF?). You can also kick off meetings within your teams, whether they’re spur-of-the-moment or scheduled.
This allows you to host video calls with your staff, and you can even jazz up these meetings by changing your webcam background (no need to reveal your chaotic office!). Don’t worry about note-taking; with participants’ consent, you can record these meetings and store them for later viewing. This segues us nicely into…
Continuity Uncovered
Here’s a little secret: Microsoft Teams’…Teams… are actually SharePoint sites in disguise! Within these sites, you can upload your business’ files and folders (including those meeting recordings), which are all stored in the cloud. Your staff can access these from anywhere, as long as they have the necessary permissions, have their OneDrive activated and signed in, and have Teams open.
If they click into the “Files” section in any Teams they have access to, they can view the files stored within that SharePoint Site. They can even work on Excel sheets and Word documents within the Teams app, with changes being applied in real-time.
One concern with all these files being in Microsoft’s cloud is potential data loss. But fear not, we at Affirm IT are here to subtly mention that we offer a comprehensive backup solution for your 365 enterprise.
Conclusion
As you can hopefully see, Teams is an incredibly potent, multi-layered tool that opens up a broad spectrum of possibilities for a centralized system of collaboration and communication within your business. If you’re interested in learning more about Teams and what it can do for you, or would like support with your existing Teams installation (maybe some backups!), then feel free to call us on 01157530123, or email us at support@affirmit.co.uk.
