Every minute counts.
It’s critical to keep a finger on the pulse of your industry while getting the most out of the tools that large business software vendors offer us.
This is why we want to discuss the pros of Microsoft Teams and the benefits of its implementation in your business processes.
What is Microsoft Teams?
Microsoft Teams is a cloud service designed to create a streamlined workflow for collaborative teamwork. Released in 2017 as an alternative to Slack, it was intended to bring people, conversations, and collateral together while making the interaction between remote team members as productive as possible. This application is integrated into the Office 365 environment with standard office applications.
At the same time, the integration of MS Teams for MAC and iOS-based mobile devices deserves a special mention. This significantly expands the audience of users, since not all companies use exclusively Windows-based PCs.
How does Microsoft Teams Facilitate Collaboration?
Microsoft Teams is a cloud service that stores all data on remote servers and runs all updates in real time. Microsoft Teams features and benefits help to facilitate instant interaction between employees working at a distance from each other.
Why You Should be Using Microsoft Teams
So, why Microsoft Teams? Let’s look into the 10 main reasons why you should definitely get acquainted with this progressive and extremely useful business solution.
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Seamless integration with all software solutions from Microsoft Office 365
Our Microsoft Teams review starts with the ability to interact with other products (both by Microsoft and by other software providers).
Generally speaking, Microsoft Teams is just one of the components of the truly huge package of web services and applications that is Microsoft Office 365.
In fact, users of this software can easily turn to other services from this package without the need for exhausting transfer of data and settings. Just a few clicks and voila, your Microsoft Teams can now be tailored to any business needs.
Especially useful, in our opinion, is the integration with Yammer (business social network) and Skype (a great tool for video conferencing and content sharing). And, of course, it’s impossible not to mention the possibility of quick and simple interaction with services and applications that are familiar to all of us, such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint, OneNote, Planner, Power BI, Delve, as well as solutions based on Microsoft Graph technology.
Quick and easy access to internal corporate resources from anywhere in the world with an internet connection
Our list of benefits of Microsoft Teams continues with the cloud format of this service.
Only 10-15 years earlier, going on a business trip or just stepping outside the house was a hard task for people with intensive work schedules. Today, there is such a thing as cloud services, helping to receive or send important business data and communicate with employees and business partners from any place.
Whether you are at the airport waiting for a flight or on the bus on your way home from work, all contacts and corporate resources will be available to you just as easily as if you were in your office, in front of your PC.
Intuitive interface
The Microsoft team did a great job on the interface of their product. The structure of this service is basically a set of functional tabs, by clicking on which the user immediately gets access to corporate data and team group chat, as well as third-party applications and services.
Even novices who previously had no experience at all with the solutions of the Microsoft Office 365 package can successfully get into the loop within a literal half an hour.
Easy-to-use file sharing system
If you upload your files to the Office 365 platform, you will be able to easily share them with your colleagues. In just a few clicks, all the necessary data has been sent to a person who may be located tens of thousands of miles from you.
Generally speaking, as we have mentioned earlier, Microsoft Teams is considered a direct competitor to Slack. However, the former has one obvious advantage: if you are already a user of services from the Microsoft Office 365 package, integrating with Teams will be much easier.
Moreover, if you compare the functionality, then Slack asks for money for a much larger number of additional functions in comparison with Microsoft Teams (which provides similar functions without any additional cost besides the license).
If we are being completely objective, Slack and Teams are products for two different target audiences; the latter is more focused on medium and large business.
Excellent opportunities for collaboration
A wide range of options for collaboration at a distance is perhaps the main feature of Microsoft Teams. You can use a simple and clear interface with the function of grouping messages, which will help you keep track of all the conversations you are connected to.
Besides, you can create both group and private conversations with a limited number of participants. Would you like to expand the capabilities of the standard group chat for your team? Just use Skype to conduct voice and video conferences. The option to personalize the user profile using emoji, user avatars and other features deserve a special mention: this will allow your employees to gamify the business communication.
The cloud service to manage regular mobile devices
The developers of Microsoft Teams also provide their customers with the Intune cloud service, which automates and centralizes the management of corporate mobile devices such as iPhones, iPads, Android phones, and Windows phones.
You can ask your system administrator to introduce general security policies for all mobile devices in order to guarantee the maximum level of security for the corporate data.
Moreover, your administrator will also receive an extremely useful tool for reports and centralized access to the settings of each device, which will simplify the procedure of inventorizing system equipment, as well as make the software upgrades faster and more convenient.
Automated data backup
Microsoft Teams is a very reliable solution. In particular, this service minimizes the risk of data loss (or leakage) by backing up. It is worth mentioning that you can also use third-party solutions with advanced functionality for these purposes. However, the built-in toolkit is quite enough to schedule an automatic creation of backups.
Affordable pricing policy
Our list of top reasons for using Microsoft Teams ends with the reasonable cost of the license.
Microsoft Teams is available as a free version of the Freemium subscription, or as two paid license options: one costing $5 for 1 user per month, and the second (premium) costing $12.50 for 1 user per month. However, if you have already purchased a license for Microsoft Office 365, you will receive Microsoft Teams absolutely free of charge.
Closing Thoughts
Why use Microsoft Teams?
As you can see, MS Teams is an excellent solution both for those who already work with Office 365 products and for beginners who want to simplify the processes of remote interaction between employees of their company as much as possible.
As for software tools for working with clients, you should try Nimble. This CRM contains a lot of useful functions for processing orders and maintaining communication with customers and can be tailored to the needs of absolutely any business.