Our Tips

Microsoft Teams is relatively new to the work group chat scene but has taken the industry by storm. Teams has become a powerful corporate chat application that has a special advantage over its competitors like Slack and Convo. In short, any Business Essentials, Business Premium or Enterprise Office 365 subscription, comes with Microsoft Teams. Therefore, companies don’t have to outlay any more money or learn a completely new system. Everything is fully integrated with a familiar interface.

 
Similar to other chat tools, Microsoft Teams lets you set up multiple channels for your team, share and store files and conduct live voice and video meetings. As part of the Microsoft Office suite, Teams integrates with other Microsoft apps like Word, OneNote, Planner and SharePoint. Microsoft has announced that it’s on the agenda that Microsoft Teams will eventually replace Skype for business so if you haven’t already it’s the perfect time to start learning Teams. Check out our tips below to get more out of Teams.

Name your chat exchanges

Channels typically contain numerous conversations and it’s very easy to lose important information and get lost behind in group conversations. To help a particular chat stand out and make it more searchable, give it a name. For example, if you’re setting up a new portal on your website and working with a group of developers all around the world, call the chat “Website Portal,”. Those keywords will pop up when you do a search later on. So, to name a chat, just click the pencil on the top next to the member names and type the title you want.

Make use of SharePoint to keep important files close

Many companies rely on SharePoint as a secure file storage and collaboration platform. The good news is it’s highly integrated into Teams. In every channel, you can click the Files tab to share files with team members. This can be done via SharePoint or access SharePoint files already shared to the channel. Team members can collaborate on files shared to a channel using Office Online or an Office desktop app.

Forward emails into a channel

Although some small start-ups have a new age approach to communication (mostly relying on Facebook messenger). But, Microsoft is well aware corporates prefer the security and scalability of email. Fortunately, you can forward any email message to a channel from Outlook.

Just click the ellipsis next to any channel name and select “Get email address”. That generates an email address for the channel. Copy it, and you can use that address to forward Word docs, messages, or just about anything you want to add to the channel. It’s a nifty workaround.

Learn more about how to maximise your use of Teams at one of our highly-reviewed courses.