How to Use Microsoft Teams: A Beginner’s Guide
Microsoft Teams has rapidly become one of the most popular applications of its kind, but some of us are only just discovering its true value – so, let’s explore Teams in detail and find out what it can do for your business.
What does Teams do?
Teams makes it possible to use many of the key Office 365 apps – but, uniquely, they are all accessible from one place, allowing your staff to be more effective with their time at work and thereby ensuring productivity.
The Key benefits of Teams
- One centralized hub
- Office 365 integration
- Enterprise level security & compliance
- Azure Active Directory integration
- No extra cost to Office 365 users – it can be used as part of your existing subscription.
Using Teams
It is worth familiarizing yourself with Teams before diving in headfirst, as creating Teams within Teams can have wider implications that need to be considered. When creating a Team, a matching plan will automatically be created for it in SharePoint, with lots of benefits, such as easily shared documents and a centralized hub for all of your team’s information.
Teams and Channels
Setting up Teams is easy and can be completed in a few simple clicks. You will need a Team name and a description of that Team’s duties; you can then add your team members. Creating a new Team will simultaneously create a matching SharePoint site for the Team.
Every Team has a subcategory called Channels. It is up to you how many Channels you have within a Team – for example, you could have a Team dedicated to your Marketing Team titled ‘Marketing’ and then Channels associated with it called ‘Social Media’, ‘Product Launch,’ ‘Blogs.’ Or you could approach this in a different way – the Company name could be the Team name, and the internal Channels could be titled according to the departments you have. It is completely up to you and the way you like to work.
Channel Tabs
Each Channel has its own tabs (shown along the top of your screen). They are Conversation, Files, and Notes – these are just the ones that are automatically created, but you can add your own tabs too.
Files
You can perform a variety of tasks directly within the Teams window or browser. This is great for organization, because there is no longer a need to flick between different applications.
These tasks include the ability to delete, download, move files, open, copy, edit or retrieve a link to share with others – it gives you all of the key features that you would get from the native apps.
Notes
Within Teams you can view and edit your Notes (directly within the Teams window), or you can click to edit in the OneNote app.
Adding Tabs
As we mentioned earlier, as well as the three automatic tabs you can also add your own. Currently those included are Planner, Excel, Word, Power BI Dashboards, and many more.
There are many future integrations coming up for Teams. We all know how important integration between systems is for boosting teamwork, but over the coming months – and potentially years – we can expect to see many more partnerships that will only better the application.
Conclusion
Microsoft Teams offers a place to undertake all of your daily business tasks. It continues to offer new features and integrations that serve to improve it further. One of the main reasons that Teams has grown in popularity at such a rate is due to the way Microsoft processes customer feedback; they actively act upon it in an attempt to improve their products. They are showing real commitment to making a product which is aimed at the needs of the user.
If you’re new to Teams, or haven’t had the time to setup and train your team, contact mPowered IT. We offer full setup, integration and support for Microsoft 365.