Back in 2017, when Microsoft Teams was launched as a competitor to Slack, it created quite a few ripples in the world of collaboration work platforms.
In the past few years, Microsoft Teams recorded steady growth and emerged as a solid performer. In the second quarter of 2021, the number of active users touched 145 million. With the sudden change in our work patterns due to the pandemic, the numbers will surely rise further. Here’s a common question.
Can I Use Microsoft Teams for My Business?
Yes, you can. And in this article, we will talk about how you can use it to enhance efficiency and productivity in your business.
What is Microsoft Teams?
The collaborative workspace in Microsoft teams works within the framework of Microsoft 365 or Office 365. That means applications like Excel, Word, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Outlook are fully integrated with it.
With a wide range of tools, it assists a team to converse, collaborate, share documents, and video chat. Each team within a business can contain up to 25000 members.
Here are some of the features that make Microsoft teams so popular.
- Team members can use multiple channels for conversation and invite other members. There’s also a chat function to aid conversations between teams and individuals.
- Channels are classified into two categories. For confidential conversations, there are private channels. For general conversations, there are standard channels.
- Users have access to SharePoint Online with a document library folder. This folder is used to store files shared between teams. There are security features to ensure data safety.
- To ensure real-time collaboration, Teams allow video calling and screen sharing. Video calling is possible within the team and also with external clients.
- Conducting online one-to-one or team meetings for discussion and training is simple. Meetings can support up to 1000 users at a time. Other features include a scheduling aid, a note-taking app, and file uploading.
- Teams also offer the feature of audio conferencing. This means that anyone can join the meeting from a phone by using a dial-in number.
- You can bookmark specific content pieces and use slash commands to work more efficiently. Teams have also added features like workspace personalization and meeting whiteboards.
Since the platform is versatile, it’s used by a wide range of businesses and organizations. Some of these are Air France, TalkTalk, Helsinki University, and Beiersdorf.
Is Microsoft Teams Good for small businesses?
For any small and medium-sized business, Microsoft Teams is a great tool to keep the workplace well-organized. It’s also a user-friendly tool that can ensure effective communication between remote users.
Take a look at how Microsoft Teams can help your business in various ways.
Creating an Organized Workplace
You can create separate teams for individual departments or projects to help people collaborate with each other. Each team can use multiple channels for conversation. Storing and sharing the necessary data is super simple. Beyond that, accessing various apps and web pages is extremely easy through the platform. That said, larger businesses might find the number of channels per team is limited. This is one aspect that needs improvement in the coming days.
Empowering Tool
Any business that’s looking to ensure smooth teamwork and empower team members will find Teams a great tool. The platform allows clear communication and eliminates the need to use emails.
That itself is a great way to enhance productivity. Besides, Teams can help you to connect with support staff and field technicians too.
Leaders can send instant notifications or company-wide announcements with just the click of a button. In addition, sharing files and feedback is simple and hassle-free. Admittedly, Teams will help you to prevent any duplication and confusion in the process of file storage.
Interactive Meetings
One of the best features of Microsoft Teams is real-time meetings. This helps to bring together employees from different locations in the best possible manner.
You can use the custom layout capabilities or make a presentation with the screen sharing feature. Since teams remain in sync with Outlook calendar, scheduling meetings is super easy. And with the background image option, you can conduct a meeting from anywhere in your home.
No Hardware Limitations
Since Microsoft Teams comes free with Microsoft 365 or Office 365, it can be easily accessed from anywhere and by using any device. Users can use a Windows or Mac platform. It also supports iOS and Android devices. As long as you have an internet connection, you can stay connected with your team.
A Perfect Tool for a Digital Makeover
If you want to bring about a digital transformation, Microsoft Teams is a great way to start the journey. It’s a cloud-based platform that’s easy to use for all employees. Not to forget, it also allows you to integrate third-party apps like Google Drive and Dropbox.
How Do you Use Microsoft Teams Effectively?
While Microsoft Teams is a powerful platform, there are some ways to use it more effectively.
Time to take a look at a few tips.
- There’s a powerful search feature to help you to search through your conversations. Teams also allow the use of keywords to boost your searching power.
- There are plenty of keyboard shortcuts that you can use to improve your work efficiency.
- Feel free to manage your notifications if you want to concentrate on a task without getting distracted.
- You can hide your background by using a stock image or by the process of background blurring.
- One great feature is the translation of chats and video calls from a foreign language. You can view the live captions like subtitles on the screen.
- Mark important messages as urgent or important in a few steps to get more attention from the recipient.
- You can conduct polls to collect opinions from a team in a few simple steps. Use the Forms icon in the message box for this.
Conclusion
Microsoft Teams can be a great solution when your business needs to support remote working and improve productivity. It is a feature-packed platform that’s powerful as well as simple. All in all, Microsoft Teams is the right tool to erase geographical boundaries between the workforce.
If you need assistance planning, training or implementing your business use cases, contact us and speak with one of our Microsoft Teams specialists.
We are here to help. Our in-house team has an excellent track record in providing customized training sessions for a wide range of Microsoft products. Feel free to get in touch with us for any queries.
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