We gathered some tips and recommendations from Microsoft on how to make the most of Microsoft Teams on daily-basis
Since the pandemic forced a good number of professionals from different areas to work from home and remote, something that was more common for the tech professional became a common part of our society. More and more industries are realising that it is possible to have part of their workforce remotely, therefore tools to integrate and connect these professionals are in high demand.
To help our audience to navigate thought this new moment, we put together this article covering how we can all work together and in a better way using Microsoft Teams. Teams is the platform that most of the companies are using to work remotely. It integrates meetings, messaging, and calling services – plus the familiarity and power of Office apps – into a single, secure hub.
Communicate with Anyone
Connect one-on-one or in group chats
With Microsoft Teams, users can choose how to communicate – in private one-on-one chats, group chats, or broader conversations that are visible across the team.
Transparency while sharing information
Increased visibility of communication can transform the culture of a team and help employees work better together. In Microsoft Teams, discussions in channels keep things organised and in context, as well as making it easier to access and share information later.
Provide context for conversations
Microsoft Teams maintains a history of communication that’s independent of people coming and going. Chats are threaded, which means replies to a post-stay grouped with the original post. A useful resource to track or catch up on multiple conversations in a single channel.
Work virtually with anyone
Guest access through Microsoft Teams enables easy collaboration with contacts outside your organisation by granting them access to existing teams and channels. People with business or consumer email accounts, such as Outlook or Gmail, can participate as guests in Teams with access to team chats, meetings, and relevant files.
Tips to Make Meetings More Productive
Microsoft Teams provide a wide range of communication opportunities for spontaneous, scheduled, or formal meetings. From a quick chat with a colleague to a team-wide presentation, meetings can be launched with one click to enhance team collaboration.
Record, transcribe and translate
It is a recurrent best practice to record meetings and group calls, so people can access it later. For example, attendees from different time zones, who were not available. Using Microsoft Teams you have the option to create automatic transcriptions, so team members can playback meeting recordings with closed captions and locate specific discussion items.
In Microsoft Teams, people can record their meetings and group calls to capture audio, video, and screen-sharing activity. There is also an option to create automatic transcriptions, so team members can playback meeting recordings with closed captions and locate specific discussion items. The recording is saved to Microsoft Stream for easy and secure sharing across an organisation.
Connect your way
One of the things that make Microsoft Teams broadly used and easy to manage is its availability across a wide range of options, such as mobile, desktop, browsers, and a wide range of devices – from headsets to Surface Hub to meeting room devices. From home, at work or on the go, users will have a seamless experience across web and mobile apps. When you switch from web to mobile, or from one-on-one to group chat, Teams enables an easy, consistent, and natural workflow.
When it is used integrated with Microsoft 365, device management is simplified. Sensitive data is kept safe while your team is communicating.
Work remotely, but together
Screen sharing is essential for collaboration. Whether you are presenting, having a meeting, or even chatting with a colleague about some daily-basis tasks, Microsoft Teams gives you the flexibility to share your workspace at nearly any moment. Plus, you can choose which window to share, so only relevant information is displayed.
Collaboration with Office Apps
Files, apps, meetings, and calls together
Microsoft Teams uses SharePoint for storage, so your Office 365 files are accessible and editable directly within the Teams workspace. Because meetings and calls are in the same place, your information is contained within one environment. You will end up spending less time searching for files and information and more time collaborating.
Integration with Office 365 apps
When it comes to collaboration, Office 365 integration enables today’s multigenerational workforce to use the Office apps they know and love. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint, etc can be accessed directly within Microsoft Teams. So, you can create and edit files in Teams, as well as the native app itself.
Share, Edit, and Co-author in Real-time
Because Microsoft Teams brings your Office 365 applications together, you can easily share, edit, and co-author files. Unlike sharing files over email, where version control can be challenging, Teams stores documents in SharePoint and automatically tracks version history.
Co-create on the fly
Seamless virtual meetings and screen sharing with Microsoft Teams empowers people to connect at the most crucial moments, removing barriers to collaboration, especially when your team’s in a creative flow. A great option for brainstorm meetings.
Synced with Outlook
Easily schedule and join Microsoft Teams meetings from Outlook
You can join and schedule Teams meetings directly from your Outlook App, which is probably the most used Teams feature now.
View and edit your synced Outlook calendar
Outlook calendar is viewable and editable within Teams. When you are using Microsoft Teams, the hub for teamwork in Microsoft 365, collaboration is simplified.
Easy to manage
From the technical perspective, Microsoft Teams has a unified and familiar administration experience with the controls and granularity that IT departments need. This means that administrators can manage the end-to-end user experience in Teams and other Office 365 apps from the same place.
Customise your own experience
Pin important files, apps and dashboards
Personalise your own workspace is part of the routine while in the office, in an online environment this simple action can help to get the most value from Microsoft Teams and make daily life easier.
Use built-in and custom tabs
Tabs in Microsoft Teams allow team members to access services through a dedicated space within a channel or chat. This lets them work directly with tools and data and have in-context conversations.
Build integrations to existing business apps with the Teams developer platform
Microsoft Teams has an open developer platform with third-party services and a rich set of capabilities to build custom apps or integrate with new or existing business processes and services.
Bots help you get tasks done in conversations in Teams. For example, bots can kick off workflows and provide status updates, give and receive kudos from team members, create lightweight surveys to gauge employee satisfaction and answer natural language questions about sales and customer usage data.
Connectors are useful to integrate your Teams channel with content and updates from other services like GitHub, Trello, Bing News, or Twitter.
* You can access more about Microsoft Teams on its official website.
* The above article is based on the information provided by Microsoft in the “Crash course in Microsoft Teams: How to work better together” pdf.
Microsoft Teams Training at New Horizons Ireland
At New Horizons Ireland, one of the leaders on delivering Microsoft courses we offer a wide range of courses. From all levels of IT professionals to end-users. Check it out with one of our Account Managers and choose the best option for your needs.
Microsoft Teams Courses
Microsoft Teams Quick Start Guide
Click below to download the latest version of the Microsoft Teams Start Guide.
