Teams is Microsoft’s cloud-based communications platform and collaboration hub; a shared, secure workspace where your teams can chat, share and work on files together, hold online meetings, call and instant message one another, making business-wide communication and collaboration easier than ever.
Part of Microsoft 365, Teams includes useful features like drag and drop file shares, simultaneous in-app editing, chat functionality and most crucially given the end of Skype for Business is on the horizon, video calling. In 2019, more than 13 million people worldwide used Teams every day and nearly 20 million people worldwide used it weekly.
Within the app, users can create Teams and Channels for specific projects, adding users to each Team and in the process creating a project-specific forum where files and documents can be shared and stored, and where conversation can take place, without the need for email.
Teams has been designed to make teamwork effortless for every organisation, no matter what industry or sector. With the ‘@’ functionality, users never need to miss an action or message that is intended for them – something which is far too easy to do with email. Documents can be co-authored and edited without even leaving the app, so it’s really easy for people from different parts of the business to work on a document at the same time. To reach more people at once, Teams also allows cross channel posting, which lets users post a single message to multiple users at once, and to make sure your Teams environment is streamlined and always relevant, Teams that you don’t use very often can be hidden or deleted when a project ends. Your Outlook calendar can also be viewed in Teams which means, essentially, a user could work in Teams all day, writing and editing documents, chatting with colleagues, holding and scheduling meetings, and viewing their calendar, without ever leaving the app.
With the announcement last summer that Skype for Business - both online and on-premise - will be retired, Teams is Microsoft's unified communications hub lined up to replace SfB. Skype for Business Online will reach end of life in summer 2021, which means organisations using the platform should start planning their move from SfB to Teams. Core can help you make this transition; contact us to find out about our Teamwork and Collaboration workshops focused around Microsoft Teams, and advice for organisations moving from Skype for Business to Teams.