While many companies have struggled in the wake of the global pandemic, most that have been able to keep operating have done so through a combination of remote working and video meeting tools.  Although the name ‘zoom’ has become as synonymous to video meetings as ‘google’ is to searching Microsoft’s offering of Teams has really been the tool to help companies increase productivity as a de-centralised workforce (That’s as everyone is working from their kitchen table to you and me).  Microsoft Teams has seen a huge increase of users during the pandemic with Microsoft announcing 115million Average Daily Users in October 2020 up from 44 million in March 2020, It seems companies came for the video meetings but they stayed for the impressive productivity boost that comes from Microsoft Teams’ native integration into Microsoft’s 365 hosted services.

Microsoft Teams allows you to make and receive video calls to other people using the Teams app or even to contacts who don’t use Teams, you can screen share and grant control and put on big online events just like other systems.  However people don’t just use Microsoft Teams for video meetings, they also use it to collaborate.  They use the app to chat with internal colleagues and external partners, replacing instant messaging systems and in some cases even e-mail.  They also use it to easily access, create and share files that are then stored in Microsoft SharePoint, allowing easy access to files from their PC, permitted remote laptops and even tablets and phones.  Not only are these files easier to access but they can be opened by multiple staff members at the same time, you’ll never again have to see the dreaded Excel message ‘This file is locked for editing by Keith’ only to find that Keith has gone out for the afternoon leaving the file locked for the rest of the day!

Many things will change after the pandemic including how we work.  We won’t all be at home forever, but it’s widely accepted that most companies will adapt to create a hybrid working environment allowing greater flexibility and productivity.  Be it to deal with future pandemics,  to allow staff to achieve a better work/home life balance or even to increase your talent pool by hiring remote workers so far away you would’ve never dreamed of employing them back in 2019.  Teams as part of Microsoft 365 will allow companies to achieve this goal and more as it continues to evolve along with the post-pandemic workplace

To Learn more about Microsoft Teams and how it can help your business contact us today.