What is Microsoft Teams? Here’s what you need to know about the workplace communication tool.

• Microsoft Teams is workplace integration software that lets you communicate with your entire business in one window, with defined conversations for different groups.

• It provides integration with other Microsoft applications, such as Microsoft 365 programs.

• It also allows integration of third-party productivity apps, such as Asana.

Now that companies are used to remote work, it’s more important than ever to have functional, well-integrated software that can help colleagues connect with each other and share information – without having to hold a meeting.

Enter Microsoft Teams. Like other workplace integration programs, such as Slack, Teams allows you to easily communicate with your colleagues in one secure window.

Teams, scheduled to replace Skype for Business by July 2021, can do many things that competitors can’t do thanks to the ability to easily integrate with Office 365. So in addition to chatting with colleagues and creating chat rooms for smaller groups, you can also use some useful Office applications, such as Outlook, OneNote, and Excel.

Here’s an overview of how Microsoft Teams works.

What you need to know about Microsoft Teams

When you create a new team and add members, they’re all automatically added to the “General” channel. From there, you can create new channels for smaller teams or groups, which essentially function as different group chats or conversations.

For example, while your general channel may include everyone in your business, you can also create specific channels for different departments, such as marketing, accounting, sales, etc. You can also create one team for one department, if it’s a larger one, and divide that team from there into subdivisions. You are free to set up your workplace the way you want.

These conversations act as the most important method of communication, but you can also send private messages to other team members at any time. Conversations are easily searchable, and you can even tag specific people if there’s a message you should watch them for.

Within these conversations, you can easily plan and run group conversations with your team or channel – so now those afternoon meetings and meetings can also take place directly in the workspace app at the end of the week.

Microsoft Teams works with other Microsoft apps and third-party apps

Creating a new team also creates a corresponding planner, SharePoint, Office 365 group, and shared OneNote. All of these additional programs are directly accessible from the Teams window and allow you to work on shared documents and projects simultaneously, without having to send files back and forth.

These integrated workspaces appear as tabs in the Teams window. The three tabs that stand by are Conversations, Files, and Notes. Files is a tab on which you can open any Microsoft 365 file you’ve shared in the workspace, so you don’t have to switch between windows each time you want to work on a different project. Notes is a tab on which your entire team can keep notes, whatever purposes they deem necessary.

In addition to these integrated Microsoft programs, Teams also lets you add new tabs with other third-party software, such as Asana or Soapbox. Even if your workplace doesn’t just use Microsoft products for your organization, you can keep everything in one clear and uncluttered window.

Source: business insider