Many business organizations still have a remote workforce set up to keep their employees productive and motivated. This also drastically reduces the cost of operating the office physically. After the COVID-19 pandemic, remote working has become a new normal.
Setting up a remote workspace can provide more flexibility as well as reduce the extra costs. But you will need the right devices, software, and collaboration tools in place to assist your team members to collaborate and communicate effectively.
In this blog post, we will talk about a collaboration tool within your Microsoft 365(Office 365) subscription i.e Microsoft Teams – a must-have tool for remote working. Here is what we will cover:
- What are Microsoft Teams?
- Pros of using Microsoft Teams for Remote working
- Ways to improve remote working.
- How do Microsoft Teams work?
- Is Microsoft Teams best for collaboration?
- Top 5 alternative to Microsoft Teams
- Our Recommendations
What are Microsoft teams?
To understand the benefits of Microsoft teams you should first know what it does.
If you already have a subscription to Microsoft 365 business or enterprise license, then you will get Microsoft Teams within the suite. If you have the license and you are not using Microsoft Teams yet, you should definitely consider trying it.
Microsoft team is a hub of teamwork and collaboration. It brings together everything a team needs. With teams, you don’t have to wait for your colleague to progress to the next stage of your work. It’s very important for companies searching for a modern workplace.
Microsoft teams is included in your Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) subscription, So it could be one of the most valuable collaboration tools that you already have access to. Teams has the ability for more customization within your communication options. You can create different teams and channels to organize your groups.
Core features of Microsoft Teams
- Instant messaging: group conversation and direct messages
- Video chatting voice calls at the click of the button
- File-sharing and screen sharing
- Gifs and emojis to spice up your conversations
- Integrations with many Third-party apps
If you want to set up Microsoft 365 for your organization, Contact Fridell Solutions to get a free consultation on how we can make it easier for you.
Pros of using Microsoft teams for Remote Working
Business owners and their employees can get each and everything they require from Microsoft Teams that will help them communicate more effectively as well as skyrocket team productivity. Meanwhile, it also adds security, simplicity, and innovative enterprise models that make Microsoft Teams stand out among its competitors.
– Employee productivity increases
Employees can help their teammates to communicate whenever and however they prefer. Since Microsoft Teams is platform-independent it can run on almost any device and has inbuilt features that enable employees to chat, send emails, and conference audio and videos.
– Employee collaboration gets improved
If a team can communicate freely, then it can work more efficiently. Moreover, if a business doesn’t have a central repository to share information and documents, Microsoft Teams will be one for them.
– Opportunities for increasing Innovation
With the help of Microsoft Teams, employees can get connected most of the time where they can share ideas. And that may be the start of something big. However, it doesn’t limits within the business only. People can communicate across the globe and innovate something much better.
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Ways to improve remote working
First things first, Organizations must be willing to change their policy to allow remote work and makes required improvements. This can range from the technological adoption of business applications like Microsoft Teams to ensuring that a workflow is established to enable remote working.
– Plan your Remote Workforce structure
When it comes to establishing a remote workforce structure, having an open and transparent discussion with teammates on what you’re thinking whether it be professionally or personally, is important. Since there will be new work structures, everyone needs to get some training on how to establish effective communication and meeting practices, so that everyone will be updated about the new regulations and the tasks they will get.
– Streamline Communications
Microsoft Teams also provides tools for streamlining communications when it comes to communicating across the entire company rather than sending emails to everyone. With Teams, you can use group chats for conversations that prevent slow response rates and encourage quick chats.
– Centralizing Resources
It’s easier if there is one place to access useful information in an organized way from a single place. And that’s what Microsoft Teams does. The most amazing and best part about Microsoft Teams in this context is that there’s an option for TABs, where the users can link convenient resources on top of channels, which everyone needs to access.
Related post: Planning to change your IT Managed Service provider? 8 crucial steps to follow while changing your Managed Service Provider.
How do Microsoft teams work?
Teams provide a simple and easy-to-use app that allows you to chat with your team via text, have a voice conversation, or a video meeting.
Enhanced communication: breaking the language barriers is the key to international business. Microsoft teams provide features to translate languages in chat or messages with one click. It allows you to have threaded conversations, conference calls, and stores data into easy to find a place.
Scheduling at ease: Microsoft teams provide the option to choose if the meeting is private or public, useful when you are hosting a voluntary session. You and the attendees can post about the meeting and in the separate chat thread, set reminders, as well as upload agendas and relevant documents.
Security and compliance: Microsoft’s prime priority is to keep its users safe. It protects the users from accidental unsafe links by providing a time of click verification of URLs in email messages or business documents.
Free and convenient: Considerating on small-scale businesses as well, there’s a free version of Microsoft Teams available worldwide with over 40 languages in it. With this great introductory experience, any team can use Microsoft teams to discover the true potential of office 365 as they grow and scale their portfolios.
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Is Microsoft teams best for collaboration?
Everyone can work from a remote area with the help of the correct setup and right tools installed in their devices. They don’t have to worry about where to store their information and panic if they have missed any notices from their colleagues. By deploying Teams, you can:
- Boost employee engagement
- Improve productivity
- Reduce operation costs
- Empower your employees to be more flexible
– It’s easy to use
Teams is designed to simplify group work with easy-to-use channels for group chats. The easy user interface helps to set up multiple channels in just a click or two. As the conversations remain in the threads, it will be easier to follow up and get notified about them. Microsoft Teams focuses on making it easier for business employees to work faster, better, and smarter.
– Everything You Need is in One Place
Teams is more than a simple chat hub. To make it easier, teams have made every Office Productivity app accessible from a single place. Additionally, you can also get access to cloud storage tools as cloud storage and syncing solutions like SharePoint, Delve, and Power BI. It brings together different tools into all-purpose collaboration hubs. With this employees can shift to email and document collaboration from messaging in an instant.
– New Features are Being Added Every Day
Teams is evolving constantly adding more features, better integration, and constant updates.
– Maximize your Microsoft Investment
Teams help to get your employees to move away from the more traditional email approach to become more comfortable with a streamlined method of collaboration. Microsft Teams is just like an office in a digital form where employees can share files with each other, organize their schedule directly from their personal calendar, and most importantly sync with other Office apps like OneDrive, OneNote, and Skype for business. In fact, Microsoft Teams is a great platform to improve collaboration and communications among your office employees.
Top 5 alternative to Microsoft Teams
- Slack
- Google G Suite
- Workplace by Facebook
- Flock
- Cisco Webex Teams
Learn More about these alternatives: Top 5 Microsoft Teams alternative by JotForm
Our Recommendations
If you already have a subscription to Microsoft 365 (Office 365), then Microsoft teams are worth considering for your remote workforce as well as day to day business operations and team collaboration. If you are looking for a Managed IT service provider who can help you with any kind of IT services from setting up Microsoft 365 to setting up your network infrastructure, simply contact us.
