Modern Workplace Series: The Benefits of Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams: The Foundation of Modern Collaboration
The workplace is changing, and while we could parade dozens of statistics to prove this point, let’s take a look instead at some real-life situations that you can observe in any office setting:
- Employees are more globally distributed – The pandemic sent many employees home, and as long as employers see this as a way to maintain productivity, attract quality people, and lower their costs, this isn’t going to change. Remote work creates a need for secure, instantaneous communication, something more immediate than email.
- Collaboration spans organizational boundaries – Modern work tasks aren’t linear, and companies divide employees into teams of individuals that can do identical, similar, or complementary jobs. Modern communication tools need to allow these teams to work together to accomplish projects or serve customers.
- Teams with an identity and a culture are highly motivated – Just as teams need to communicate and collaborate with each other, modern communication tools also must allow them to communicate internally. Officially, this is to discuss work, but another important function is to grow and encourage culture and camaraderie.
- Businesses serve customers better when communication is immediate and straightforward – Modern collaboration tools are a way to directly communicate with clients and customers. Conversation simplifies collaboration, making your company more agile when an issue arises, and you need to execute immediate damage control.
- Workplaces are increasingly diverse – Business teams need different ways to connect across locations and time zones, but unified communications also bridge gaps between generations, cultures, and other demographics.
- Worker expectations have changed – Immediate connectivity used to be a dream, but now it’s an expectation. While email digitized communication, modern communications tools make video calls the norm—it’s no longer an exception.
Microsoft Teams Is SBT’s Solution
Microsoft Teams is how we bring it all together. When we modernize a system, Teams is the application that employees embrace first. It performs normal functions, it makes everything easier, and when a user knows its tricks and secrets, it’s a lot of fun to use. You can:
Hold Instant Meetings
Users can easily see who is active, who is busy, and who is away, so if a team needs to hold a meeting, all they need to do is call the necessary members. During a meeting, groups can chat, share content, and use audio conferencing and video. Once the meeting is over, shared content and conversations are available for reference and follow-up.
Customize Your Workspace
Users can customize tabs, connectors, and bots to create different user experiences. Team channels create multiple chats to support individual projects.
Fully Integrate With Other Applications
Microsoft Teams interfaces seamlessly with popular apps such as Word, Excel, Outlook, OneNote, SharePoint, PowerPoint, and Planner. Any application an employee would need or want integrates seamlessly with Teams. More importantly, document management and storage are simple and secure.
How Microsoft Teams Is an Important Element of the Modern Workplace
Teamwork is essential to the modern workplace and a crucial part of any business transformation. What makes Microsoft Teams so unique is it unifies all of Microsoft’s business products. While SharePoint is a central hub that contains files, sites, and content, Teams is how employees talk to each other and share files. Since modern workplaces communicate and collaborate, Teams is the dashboard that drives business.
How Modern Is Your Workplace?
As a business, your goals may be to lower costs, optimize procedures, provide flexibility, be secure, or ensure satisfied customers. A modern workplace enables all of this and more. A modern workplace is a simplified one, and when your employees aren’t bogged down with downtime and minor annoyances, they work better. More importantly, your customers and vendors notice how efficient, accurate, and friendly your business is. When you bolster your processes and people through reliable, efficient, secure technology, your level of customer service organically improves.
We do this every day for each of our clients. Our modern workplace assessments evaluate how well your processes are working, how you use technology, and how you approach cybersecurity. The second part is where SBT fits into the equation. As Microsoft Gold Members, we have access to elite tools and a wealth of knowledge about how to streamline technology and processes and lay the groundwork to support and grow your business. Reach out to us today for a consultation, and let us take your business to a whole new level.
