Microsoft Teams: how does it work, what are the business benefits and what else should you know?

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What is Microsoft Teams? 

Microsoft Teams is a cloud-based, online hub for teamwork. It’s a centralised workspace for teams of people, where they can:

  • Chat via a user-friendly chat function
  • Make video or audio calls
  • Share files and apps
  • Live edit documents with team members 

Plus a whole lot more, which we’ll cover off later. 

Teams is a major step forward in terms of working collaboratively.

It’s a part of the Microsoft 365 (M365) subscription service, along with other familiar Microsoft business applications and services such as Excel, Word, Outlook and Sharepoint. Check out our blog post for more information on M365 .

Both Teams and the wider M365 offering are designed to enhance end-user productivity, with a varied and integrated set of tools.  

How Microsoft Teams works:

As with many of the apps and services in the Microsoft range, Teams is an ever-evolving platform. There are a host of popular features, which Microsoft continues to add to constantly behind the scenes. 

Capabilities:

  • Chat function
  • Audio conferencing – allowing team members to join online meetings via phone 
  • Voice and video calls
  • Screen-sharing 
  • Interactive meetings and webinars
  • One-drive integration – so if a team member stores a file in OneDrive, it can also be easily added to the relevant Teams channel  
  • Mentions – a feature which enables users to alert other users or channels to particular comments or actions
  • Channels – a way to organise team communications. Channels can be set up to group people by relevant categories – by topic, team, department, or more informal conversations.
  • Premium compliance and security features – to ensure any data shared in Teams is kept secure
  • Azure back-up – every piece of data that you send via Teams, be it a file or instant message, is stored and backed up in Azure. Read our blog post on Microsoft Azure here .
  • Integrated document sharing with SharePoint – automatic syncing between Sharepoint and Teams
  • Translation feature – for multilingual events and meetings. Translate in real time across certain languages.

Teams works on all major operating systems too. In terms of price, well – that all depends on the plan you select for your business. There are free versions available too.

The increasing demand for effective remote collaboration 

The need for an efficient solution for remote team working has never been greater. During the global pandemic, millions of people were, of course, forced to work from home. This massively increased the demand for platforms such as Teams. 

In fact, in 2022, Microsoft Teams reached a massive 270 million users , which is up from the 145 million that was reported in 2021.

Teams has become known as the corporate go-to for effective collaboration and teamwork in remote working scenarios.

Let’s take a look at why…

What are the benefits of Microsoft Teams?

Where to begin…

Teams is unparalleled in its ability to connect a remote workforce. Below are just some of the many benefits it could bring to your business. 

  • Ease of billing: if you’re already paying for your M365 licenses, then there’s no additional cost for Teams. Simple.
  • Integration with Microsoft 365: one of the key benefits of Teams over competitors such as Slack and Zoom, is its integration with Microsoft 365 (and all the additional services and apps that brings). While competitors develop multiple add-ons to try and compete with the breadth of services on offer in M365, none have really come close to creating such seamless integration. 
  • Constant improvement: Microsoft is constantly improving Teams and all of the other services on M365. Updates are made without you even realising sometimes, with new features being added all the time. For example, the new break-out room feature was a recent addition within Teams. Sometimes it’s not possible to have certain discussions or conversations in a wider group setting. So break-out rooms enable smaller groups of people to gather separately from the main session.
  • Collaboration: we might be labouring the point, but Teams makes remote collaboratio n EASY . Whether your team wants to chat, host video calls, live edit together, share files or host a webinar – Teams has a solution.

The Evolution of Teams…

Microsoft Teams was launched worldwide in 2017, announced by the Microsoft team at an event in New York.  Before that though, Microsoft had launched several other communications and collaboration tools, which have since been merged into the Teams platform many know and love today.

For example, in May 2017, Microsoft announced that Teams would replace Microsoft Classroom in Office 365 Education.

Then in 2019, Microsoft phased out Skype for Business in favour of Teams, and Skype was discontinued completely in July 2021. Teams of course, provides all the capabilities of Skype but with plenty more alongside. Before Skype for Business, there was also Microsoft Lync and Office Communicator.

As you can see, it’s been an ongoing evolution and, with Teams now being Microsoft’s fastest growing app, the work has clearly paid off. It’s a huge success story. 

Did you know?

In 2016, Microsoft considered bidding 8 billion dollars for competitor Slack, but Bill Gates was opposed to the idea – preferring to improve Teams as a competitive solution instead. The decision appears to have worked out well!

 

As you can see, Teams is a LOT more than a messaging and video conferencing platform.
 If you need help to unlock the full potential of Microsoft Teams – we can support.  Contact us to find out how .

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