Here’s some info about Microsoft Teams and why you should use it for your organization’s productivity, network security and to reduce your need for tons of software.

  1. Microsoft Teams is the collaboration component of Office 365, and also offers a free tier, which supports up to 300 users, unlimited chat and search, 10 GB of file sharing, collaboration on Office documents, and over 250 integrated apps and services including web versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
  2. Microsoft says that it’s seen a huge uptick in usage; it will be releasing more numbers later this week, but in a recent blog post, Microsoft indicated that since Jan. 31, its seen a 500 percent increase in Teams meetings, calling, and conferences there, and a 200 percent increase in Teams usage on mobile devices.
  3. To further assist remote workers, Teams has set up a community space, Enabling Remote Work, where customers and experts can interact and share tips. And for companies needing to effectively share information with staff, it has released a Power Platform template for crisis communications that includes push notifications and has compiled useful information on responding to COVID-19 on a single portal.
  4. Microsoft Teams is a collection of online services that you can access through a web browser (at https://teams.microsoft.com) or through the Teams app, which is available for Windows, MacOS, iOS, and Android. (There’s also a new Linux client; details on how to get it are here). That combo of apps and services gives you the ability to invite people to join your organization and create teams for different groups; everyone in your organization can chat, with Slack-like channels within each team for group conversations; and private chat capabilities allow 1:1 and group conversations, with the option to add audio and video and share screens.
  5. Teams do online meetings well, with features that rival those of as Zoom, WebEx, and other popular video conferencing platforms. Video meetings can include up to 250 participants, and live events scale up to 10,000 attendees.
  6. Your organization has a shared mailbox and calendar and a shared OneNote notebook, as well as a SharePoint Online site and a document library where team members and guests can collaborate on shared documents. You can set up “rooms” via teams and integrate “Planner” as well.

In short, Microsoft Teams is amazing and you should give it serious consideration whether your team should be using it.