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Microsoft Teams: can you afford to not be part of the team?

Author: Sonia Older  |   Date published: April 17, 2020, UK  |   Read est: 5 min read

Introduction to Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams has reportedly reached in excess of 44 million daily active users (DAUs) this week just gone thanks, in part, to the Coronavirus global pandemic. Figures have spiked dramatically from 20 million DAUs in November 2019 – that’s a 60-110 per cent jump in just four months. It is now said to be Microsoft’s fastest-growing business app ever!

Launched back in 2017, Microsoft Teams has really come into its own the last few weeks as businesses across the world take up remote working for the foreseeable future. Teams is Office 365’s chat-based collaboration tool that facilitates team ‘togetherness’ across chat, video and file sharing collaboration.

Perfect for any working environment from sales to education, Teams is helping employees stay productive currently in their new ‘isolated’ office environment, promoting communication in all its forms. It can be accessed anywhere via the desktop or mobile application and is supported on Windows, Mac, as well as iOS and Android – all you need is a connection to the internet.

Microsoft teams logo on a phone

The benefits of Microsoft Teams:

  • Integration – One of the major benefits of Microsoft Teams is fully integrated to Microsoft Office 365, combining chat, meetings, notes and attachments, allowing businesses to interact seamlessly wherever they are. Users can share calendars, files and emails, too.
  • Office tools – Teams syncs with your calendar to better schedule, or suggest, appointments or meetings. Users can choose if meetings are private or open to anyone – great for training or brainstorming!
  • You can also schedule meetings using Skype for Business with HD video, VoIP and other audio options.
  • Bot helpers! – Teams has programmed 20 Bots to act as virtual chat agents using AI to answer FAQs, arrange travel plans and generate reports, for example.
  • Voice and video – high quality voice calls and video conferencing, with screen sharing options.
  • Real-time document collaboration – write and edit documents as a team.
  • Security – Teams delivers the advanced security and compliance expected of Microsoft Office 365 tools.

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New features joining Microsoft Teams

Microsoft has also revealed that there will be new features joining Microsoft Teams later this year, including real-time noise suppression designed to remove distracting noise (such as rustling crisp packets!) when on a call. Also, of massive benefit to larger meetings will be the new hand-raising icon, which will send a visual signal to all when remote participants wish to chime in – sometimes over video this can be difficult to achieve.

Customers put their faith in retail businesses to protect their data and use it positively to improve the overall customer experience and engagement process – this builds customer loyalty. Retailers need to have reliable and robust cyber security strategies that empower business, drive innovation and build customer trust.

Other features include offline and low-bandwidth support and the ability to pop chats out into a separate window.

Do you need Teams in your life? We can help…

Office 365, which plays host to Teams, is also spiralling in popularity as employees around the globe move to remote working. It’s a complete, integrated, cloud-based email system designed for all businesses of sizes or sectors.

Users have access to an online mailbox with 50MB of storage for a fixed monthly cost, per user. But that’s not all, its range of apps and services are designed to enrich communication – and never before has that been more important than right now! From Word and Excel to Powerpoint and its file-sharing and calendaring capabilities, O365 facilitates teamwork and meaningful communication – safely and securely.

Call our specialist Office 365 team NOW on 0330 024 2004 to get you and your employees set up quickly and efficiently.

Sonia Older photo

Sonia Older
Brand & Campaign Manager

Sonia Older is the Campaign Manager at Focus Group and a highly experienced copywriter. She boasts over 20 years of experience in content marketing and PR across multiple industries, and is the key driver of content and PR for Focus Group across all UK offices. Away from work, Sonia usually swaps keyboard strokes for ski slopes in the Alps with her family.

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