Are your team members as productive as they could be? If they’re spending their time sending and sorting through emails, searching for documents, or switching from one platform to another, then the answer is most certainly “no.”
The average American worker spends 24 of their 40 hours per week in their email inbox, gathering information, and communicating or collaborating internally. That’s over 60 percent of their week not spent on serving clients and driving results for your company.
How can you help your employees work more effectively and efficiently? Microsoft Teams was designed specifically to help companies of all sizes break down information silos, collaborate better, and communicate easily.
In this article, we will lay out why you should use Microsoft Teams for your team. It’s not simply a list of features, but a look at the real impact Teams’ features can have on your employees.
5 Answers to “Why Use Microsoft Teams?”
Microsoft Teams is a chat-based workspace that uses the power of Microsoft to work collaboratively. The many features offered by Microsoft Teams help team members communicate and work together efficiently. This software enables teams to easily video chat, call, instant message, share files, and make decisions as a unit.
Compared to other software on the market, such as Zoom and Slack, Microsoft has many more robust features and integrations available. Microsoft Teams is a stand-alone software solution, but the benefits multiply when paired with your Microsoft 365 products like Word and Outlook.
Here are five more ways Microsoft Teams enhances your employees’ work.
1. Optimize time spent on communication
Communication with Microsoft Teams could not be easier. The user-friendly interface helps you spend less time sorting through your email inbox and more time communicating effectively with your team.
Whether you’re working 1-to-1 or in groups, you can quickly organize your conversations with threads and channels. Threads link conversations together by topic to keep topic information together. On the contrary, if you would like to separate your threads into different channels, you can create a channel for a conversation topic.
For example, let’s say you have five different client projects going on at once, and you have a colleague you talk to every day about these projects. You can use threads and channels to create threaded conversations and separate all your conversations into different channels. Many companies also use the threading and channel functionality to store brainstorming sessions and conference calls to follow up on tasks.
Other popular features include the mention function and the voice calling features. When a teammate needs to be brought into a conversation, you can utilize the mention function. Mentioning or tagging colleagues in topics is done simply with the “@” symbol within the software.
For voice calls, Microsoft Teams lets you make internal and external calls from your Teams interface. This enables you to access all the software’s functionalities, including the calling feature, from any device such as a tablet, smartphone, laptop, or desktop.
Microsoft Teams’ integration with Microsoft 365 changes the game. If you have Microsoft 365 products such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, or OneNote, you’re able to quickly and easily pull files into your conversations.
If a colleague is asking about the status of a project, you can link a live doc within a couple of seconds. This helps your team effectively communicate and deliver instant results. Using Microsoft’s cloud-based storage gives you universal access to all your documents, no matter which device you’re using.
Since Microsoft Teams is a UCaaS platform, you receive all the benefits of quick and effective communication with the reliability of UCaaS. Your team can set their communication preferences, indicate when they’re available, and start meetings on the spot. As a cloud-based unified communication solution, Microsoft Teams replaces multiple software with one dashboard.
3. Customize your Teams workspace with the Microsoft App store
Utilizing the Microsoft App store, you can customize which integrations you would like for your Microsoft Teams workspace. Helpful Microsoft apps are available such as document-signing workflows from Adobe Sign, automation workflow solutions from Flow, and project management from Planner. You’re able to add other popular apps like Evernote or add custom apps into your workspace. Customizing your workspace through the app store is just one more way to tailor the software to your organization’s needs.
4. Transform your business phone into a super softphone
Microsoft Teams takes business calling to the next level. A softphone is a software program that enables you to make internet phone calls. With the Teams software, you can get all the benefits of a softphone on any of your devices. Using the Microsoft Teams app, you’re able to communicate with your clients and your teams on your desktop, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.
Once your app is set up, your business phone number will be natively integrated with Microsoft Teams account and ready to make calls. The Microsoft Teams app also allows you to embed business contacts and phone extensions, so your data is accessible from any of your devices.
Traditionally business calling has been facilitated by a Private Branch Exchange (PBX) phone system, usually located within on-site office buildings. Microsoft Teams replaces this antiquated system with a cloud-based system. This switch delivers cost savings to your company with the elimination of expensive hardware and maintenance, in addition to full PBX voice calling capabilities.
5. Integrate Teams with Microsoft 365
Microsoft Teams combined with Microsoft 365 is the ultimate matchup. Traditionally, companies using multiple software solutions work with a third-party automation platform like Zapier to integrate all the solutions. By centralizing your cloud storage, communications, and business apps, you can seamlessly complete projects without unnecessary friction.
For your management needs, your Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams are fully connected for administrative purposes. You and your IT administrators can manage both platforms within a central admin center with the right permissions. Everything works cohesively, which enables you to manage user information quickly.
So...Why Use Microsoft Teams?
Cloud-based UCaaS solutions like Microsoft Teams allow you to work where you’re most productive while staying connected to your business. Microsoft Teams provides greater flexibility for your business calling while improving your communications company-wide. By implementing a seamless communication system and working on projects collaboratively, your company and your clients reap the benefits.
Companies that use Microsoft Teams see improvements in their communication and info-sharing silos and reduce their dependency on multiple software solutions. If your team is spending less time switching between software and trying to integrate foreign systems, they can focus on what matters: delivering excellent results and helping your business reach more clients. And, we here at Atlantech Online believe in it so much... we use it ourselves!
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