Microsoft Teams

Level up your business communications and teamwork with Microsoft Teams. Dial A Geek offers migration services for seamlessly transferring your files, messages, groups, and integrations from your previous platforms like Slack or Skype for Business. We also offer consultancy support for keeping your Teams structure lean and optimised.

What is Microsoft Teams?

Microsoft Teams is a platform for communication and collaboration. It’s an all-in-one hub that brings together chat, video calls, real-time editing, file sharing, and task management through integrations with Microsoft 365 and third-party apps.

What are the Benefits of using Teams?

Streamline Communication and File Sharing

Email, VoIP tools, chat apps–the explosion of communication apps for work has simultaneously made our lives easier, and messier. Many of us deal with little inefficiencies every day. For instance, using one app for a conference call, and then email for sending over files for the meeting. Microsoft Teams serves as a hub for all your communication needs, from video conferencing to file sharing.

Enables Faster Collaboration

Email has its uses, but for real-time collaboration, it’s not ideal. It only takes one teammate forgetting to hit “Reply to All” before an email thread descends into multiple conversations around a single project or issue. Microsoft Teams puts team members on the same page, in real-time. Users can directly work together on a document. All comments and changes are logged and recorded. Everyone involved in the project can simply backtrack through conversations to stay in the loop. No more endless back-and-forths through email.

Remote Work made Simpler

Microsoft Teams is possibly one of the most powerful, flexible communication and collaboration platforms for work. Choose between hundreds of pre-existing app integrations for building your workflow, or code your own. You can even bake automated support chatbots into it. The app virtually consolidates communication, tracking, collaboration, and support in one place, allowing you to access files and manage work from anywhere.

Reduces Clutter and brings Everyone Together

Corporate-wide and team communications used to be separate silos. Often you’d get your company news cascaded through email, while using another program to collaborate with teammates. Teams ties the whole organisation together, while allowing for the creation of customised workplaces for each department.

What devices can run Teams?

Microsoft Teams works on nearly any platform, including Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS. Microsoft supports up to the last four versions of Android, while it only goes back up two for iOS. The quality of certain features, like video calls, may be affected by your hardware. Microsoft recommends using at least a computer with a dual-core processor and 8GB of RAM or higher for stable video meetings.

The app can also run on Virtualised Desktop Infrastructures (VDI). Installation differs whether you’re running persistent or non-persistent setups. Proper configuration and available bandwidth is crucial for avoiding disruption.

There are also Team Rooms that can be setup, where the meeting host signs into a device and everyone shares the same connection, this can save on bandwidth and give a more professional experience (social distancing must be considered in this).

Which Integrations are built into Teams?

Microsoft Teams positions itself as a digital workplace for any and every role and department, from finance to HR. But it doesn’t fulfill all the work by itself. Rather, the app stitches together functionalities from different programs so you can access your files, hop on a call, or open a support ticket without opening a hundred tabs. 

Microsoft Teams achieves that by using integrations with existing applications. For instance, file-sharing and storage are supported by SharePoint, while every time you set a meeting, Calendar and Planner are working in the background.

But of course, Teams wouldn’t be able to attract the millions of users they have now on the promise of seamless integrations with Microsoft 365 programs alone. The app is also compatible with a deep well of third-party applications, from Trello to Twitter. HR personnel can look up employee details or schedule time off through Workday, while your salespeople can leverage Woobot to process leads. And if you can’t find the functionality you need, you can always build one from scratch with the Developer Toolkit.