Microsoft Teams: the value solution you need for true digital transformation

Geographical distribution remains a problem, despite the fact that mobile phones, email, videoconferencing and instant messaging significantly cut distances. In addition, when it comes to adding talent and skills within the teams, there is another barrier to overcome: the generational barrier. Millennials and subsequent generations have unique customs and preferences, heterogeneous training and different expectations when it comes to approaching our jobs.

The challenge of information silos and disconnected applications

The modern workplace calls for email and calendars to work in tandem, chat services, the ability to create content collaboratively, voice based meetings, videoconferencing or shared desktops, corporate social networks, integration with business applications, as well as efficient content management, among others.

Microsoft Teams is able to compile it all. Not only for what it provides as a novel solution within Office 365's business services, but also for what it is capable of integrating. And it does it regardless of the device, time or place. The experience of using Teams on a computer, on a Smartphone or on a tablet is completely consistent because, in the end, Microsoft cloud is behind it all.

Integrated and completely secure experiences

All Office 365 services offer the security, regulatory compliance and ease of administration required by modern workplaces. And as another member of the family, all this—as well as features such as multifactor authentication—is inherited by Teams.

For its part, Teams not only offers a secure chat, but it is also persistent. Here is a brief look at some features and services:

• Simple transition from one working group to another.
• Voice and video calls from smartphone (both Android and iOS).
• Integration with email.
• Integration with videoconference rooms such as Polycom and Lifesize.
• Meeting calendar management.
• Integrated file management, with Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote embedded (additional Apps not required), as well as opening files in PDF format.
• Monitoring of communication channels (with notifications on new activity).

This is compounded by its development capacity and integration with third-party applications, including SAP and Trello.

In which environments is Teams suitable?

Whenever effective collaboration can bring value to a business, Teams can be the solution to push it even further. Let's take a look at some examples:

• In sales departments: it can be used to get quick answers from product managers or share the latest developments on the organisation, product or competition.
• In marketing departments: it can be the basis for coordinating campaigns and events, sharing the drafts of materials for review, accessing analytical reports or preparing marketing launches among different participants.
• In project management: allows synchronisation of progress among all team members, sharing status and collecting feedback; allows users to share files and update new team members quickly.
• In engineering departments: facilitates discussion between different groups; it also enables users to store documentation linked to each client or project.
• In customer service: using Teams can bring greater visibility to service, incident escalation or solution searching processes based on chat history or files linked to groups.

The following must be taken into consideration when introducing Teams into organisations:

• Involvement in the initial phases of the project of all the organisation's key users (HR, Operations, IT, Sales, Purchasing, Marketing, etc.).
• Definition of use cases based on the different groups in the organisation.
• The governance model, considering the technologies underlying Teams.
• Change adoption and management.
• The management and service model following implementation of the project.

Already familiar with Microsoft Teams?

At SEIDOR, we are specialists in Microsoft's collaboration solutions, and Teams has been a part of our natural way of working since its launch. If you are already an Office 365 tool user, you are well on your way. At SEIDOR, we can help you to adopt this magnificent way of working.