Using Microsoft Teams to Improve Collaboration and Communication
Whether or not employees perform well as a team is crucial to the success of any business. With the rising prevalence of satellite offices, remote workers and flexible work hours, the ability of people and teams to productively communicate and collaborate has become increasingly important, and increasingly challenging. Business owners need to find and implement the necessary tools to connect their employees and ensure that they are working together as effectively as possible.
Luckily, technology that facilitates digital collaboration and communication has become commonplace, with numerous online tools and platforms available to businesses. One such platform that we’ve had great success implementing for our clients—and that is already included in many Office 365 subscriptions—is Microsoft Teams. If you are looking for a digital tool to improve collaboration among your employees, you may want to consider it.
Microsoft Teams for improved collaboration and productivity
Microsoft Teams, which launched in March 2017, is a communications platform that allows employees from any location to access people, files and applications within one digital team workspace. Used by over 500,000 organizations worldwide, Microsoft Teams has recently announced several new tools and services—including Microsoft Whiteboard, Data Loss Prevention, live events, live captions, information barriers, and secure private channels—designed to help individuals and organizations achieve greater productivity.
Collaborate and share
The platform makes it easy to share information and collaborate on ideas and content across your organization, regardless of where team members are located. Users can quickly search for files, content and people, track project files, plan tasks, co-ordinate and host meetings and communicate with each other directly. Microsoft Teams is also integrated with familiar tools such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint, OneNote and Planner, allowing team members to co-author files in real time.
Messaging and communication
Microsoft Teams allows you to create and organize multiple threaded conversations and search for and resume conversations as needed. Skype has also been integrated into the platform, allowing discussion and work that may have otherwise required an in-person meeting, to instead occur online as a voice or video conference. These features help ensure key stakeholders stay informed and can save valuable time and resources.
Online meetings
Microsoft Teams also offers high definition audio, web and video conferencing. Teams have the ability to move seamlessly between phone and computer devices and present live mobile video or photos during online meetings. Microsoft Teams meetings can also be cloud recorded, with transcripts and translation provided as needed.
S+C Partners has in-house IT expertise
Contact the IT professionals at S+C Partners to further explore the features and benefits of Microsoft Teams and other IT solutions and how best to implement them to improve communication and collaboration within your organization.
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S+C Partners is a full-service firm of Chartered Professional Accountants, tax specialists, and business advisors with in-house expertise that extends well beyond traditional CPA services. In addition to audit, accounting, and Canadian tax services, we also offer business advisory services, comprehensive IT solutions, Human Resource consulting, and in-house expertise within highly focused areas such as US taxation, business valuations, and estate planning. We provide all the technical expertise of a large CPA firm, but with the personal touch and partner-level attention of a boutique accounting and advisory firm.