Regardless of your level of fandom, everyone knows your favorite team has been sidelined due to COVID-19 regardless of the sport of your choice. That’s where Microsoft comes in, believe it or not.
Microsoft has an offering called “Teams” as part of Office 365. Although it is not related to sports, it is an application you probably already have as part of your email suite, and even if your email is hosted elsewhere, Microsoft is offering Teams for free for at least another few months.
So what is Teams. At its most basic it is a collaboration tool. Want to chat with another Teams user, just hit chat and put in the contact name and type. Want to have an audio call with a Teams user, hit the Phone icon, select the person and call. You can have video calls as well. Scheduling calls is easy – pop open the calendar icon and schedule the meeting. If you are integrated to Outlook your calendar will be shared.
But the real value of Teams is to collaborate with other team members, including using Channels for different conversations you may be holding with team members. Establishing teams and assigning members is intuitive and quick, and in addition to chatting you can share files also.
Teams integrates with other Microsoft tools including OneDrive for personal file syncing and Sharepoint for sharing files across an organization and/or with vendors and clients.
With the Work From Home situation these tools can provide added flexibility and increased collaboration, extending your reach far beyond the office network. If you haven’t begun to experiment with Teams please call the office for a demo.
