When the pandemic forced the BTS team to quickly transition to working from home, we knew that we needed a communication process that would allow us to keep our in-office efficiencies and productivity. We had been using Microsoft Teams for a while and found that in a work-from-home environment, it allowed us to make that transition seamlessly.
Microsoft Teams is a business communication platform that integrates with every aspect of Office (Word, Excel, Outlook, SharePoint, and more). Part of the Microsoft 365 family of products, it allows you to stay connected and organized with team members within your organization or business and beyond. If you use Microsoft office, it’s likely you already have access to it.
Here’s a quick summary of what Microsoft Teams can do:
Chat
Quickly communicate with other Teams users efficiently using the Chat feature. This might be a co-worker within your business, or it might be a business partner at another organization. When everyone using Teams, communication is effortless and seamless.
Group Chat
Besides the one-on-one chat, Microsoft Teams users can use the group chat feature to involve more than one team member in the conversation.
File Sharing
Sharing files/pictures/videos with others is easily performed within the chat feature.
Channels
Within Teams, employees can create Channels, or conversations, that allow users to communicate about a wide array of business topics while keeping those conversations organized by topic.
At BTS, we’ve used Channels to create a knowledgebase that allows our team members to refer back to important information whenever they need it. Need to keep a conversation private between only certain team members? Channels do that, too.
Virtual Meetings
Use Teams to schedule all of your virtual meetings within seconds and with just a few clicks, unlike other virtual meeting platforms in use today. Using the Teams Meeting and Microsoft Outlook integration, when a meeting is created, and an invitee added, Teams populates the virtual links automatically.
Invitations can be sent to anyone, both internally to team members and even those outside of your organization/business. Invitees do not need Teams on their computers to accept your invite or join the meeting.
Phones
Make and receive internal and external phone calls directly from Teams. Setup voicemail and receive call-to-text emails when a caller leaves you a voicemail. The ability to quickly chat, no matter where one might be, while keeping conversations organized and beneficial, creates new efficiencies.
Status
Set your status and let other Teams users know if you are available, in a call, or away from your desk. You can set a status message, such as “out for an errand” or “be back in 15 minutes”. Changing your status will send calls directly to voicemail – or to another Teams user if you configure it that way. If you have your Out of Office turned on in Outlook, it automatically sets it in Teams!
Microsoft Teams is the perfect tool to elevate business collaboration. An added bonus is the ability for our team, and yours, to quickly locate and refer to important information. Gone are the days of scrolling through massive amounts of data and emails. Now, we can focus on providing our clients with the highest level of customer service available.
At a time when so many are relying on our IT services for their virtual business operations, it helps us do just that, without skipping a beat. What might Microsoft Teams do for you?
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