Unblocking Teamwork using Microsoft Teams

A new culture of work is emerging. For the first time in human history, there are five generations in the workforce, each with different approaches to getting things done. They are increasingly diverse and mobile, working across multiple locations —often spanning time zones—and multiple devices throughout the workday. Employees expect a workspace that’s open and inclusive of individual work styles, while businesses want to empower their creativity and harness their ingenuity.

But even with a rapidly evolving business landscape, many modern workplaces lack the tools to communicate and collaborate seamlessly and securely. Decision-makers are under pressure to find a solution that’s secure, reliable, scalable, and cost-effective—and that meets the unique work styles of every employee, anywhere they are.

The solution lies in strategically breaking down teamwork blockers so that teams can work together with ease. To accomplish that, enterprises are looking toward having one shared hub for teamwork that will allow employees to communicate and collaborate through a single platform.

To understand how teamwork tools can help you, let’s take a look at how to resolve the four most common teamwork blockers.

TEAMWORK BLOCKER 1

One team, too many disparate tools

Projects require ramp-up time both for teams and managers, who must quickly figure out how and where the team will communicate and share files, how they’ll plan and track progress, and who will grant and manage access to shared assets over the project’s life span. When one person holds the keys to a disparate set of tools that everyone needs to get work done, team members can get left out of the loop.

It can be especially frustrating when team members need a quick feedback to move a project forward. Waiting on stakeholder availability to schedule meetings, and then waiting some more for edits and input, can create productivity bottlenecks.

THE SOLUTION

A shared hub for teamwork

With Microsoft Teams, team members have access to a shared hub where they can find everything they need to be more productive—in one secure location. They can also connect with teammates inside and outside the organization for work on core projects. Microsoft Teams offers a collaboration and communication solution for today’s teams. They can locate files using intelligent, integrated search capabilities, and get access to built-in Office apps, including SharePoint, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Stream, from any location or device.

Because every document shared in Teams is saved to the cloud, team members always work off of the latest version. And chat history keeps track of team decisions, with no searching necessary. Group or private chat helps team members quickly connect with decision-makers, and they can set up an online meeting where they can coauthor and share files to secure immediate approval. In-document integrated notifications and side-by-side chat enable real-time collaboration, editing, and finalization of materials. And with IM, plus voice and video calling, team members are just a few clicks away.

TEAMWORK BLOCKER 2

Inefficient virtual meetings

Certain technology mishaps—such as struggling to participate in virtual meetings—should be a thing of the past. All too often, the call connection is poor, someone gets stuck trying to log in, or another team member can’t access a shared screen or see a key piece of content. Meetings are routinely interrupted and delayed by these disruptions.

Meeting inefficiencies not only discourage team members from working together but also presents an unacceptable barrier for a workforce that’s increasingly remote and on the go.

THE SOLUTION

Reliable online meetings with screen sharing on any device

Empower employees to have better meetings with a complete voice and online meeting solution designed for all their needs. Microsoft Teams offers an integrated collaboration and communication solution, so chat, calling, and meeting experiences are more connected and insightful—whether working from home, on the go, or in a meeting room.

With Teams in Microsoft 365, your employees can communicate via shared screens, messaging, voice calling, and video. They’re free to work from anywhere on their desktops or mobile devices. With everything on one platform, workers can worry less about technology complications and focus more on getting things done.

With Microsoft Teams, your employees can:

• Chat, meet virtually, and call across devices with VoIP and PSTN.
• Reduce travel using audio, HD video, and web conferencing.
• Engage your customers using Teams in your webpages and apps.

Meetings are more efficient with Microsoft 365. With Teams, employees can hold rich video calls, share content, collaborate in real time on files, and record meetings.

TEAMWORK BLOCKER 3

Lack of version control

You’ve captured your big idea in a draft presentation and you’re ready to get feedback from the rest of the team. The hard part—bringing the idea to life should be over, right? More often than not, it’s the feedback and revision process that proves the most painful. Using email to share files for the team to review is inefficient. It wastes time, and you end up with multiple edited versions of the same document that may have conflicting feedback and changes. And, after several revision rounds, it might not even be clear which document is the final version.

Without real-time file sharing, employees’ workflows are compromised.

• Sharing attachments via email wastes time.
• Multiple revision rounds lead to the endless versioning of a document.
• Files are easily misplaced, lost, or overwritten.

THE SOLUTION

Secure, cloud-based file collaboration

It’s time to take teamwork to the cloud. Cloud-based tools from Microsoft 365 empower workers to collaborate efficiently across mobile devices, the web, or desktops. Working with Word, PowerPoint, or Excel, you can easily coauthor in real-time with the rest of the team—all from a single version of the file saved to the cloud.

You can easily store and share your files in OneDrive for Business, included in Microsoft 365, so you and your team can always work from one central file that’s accessible to everyone and up to date. Team members can confidently add comments and revisions to a single file, since, if needed, you can always access or revert to earlier versions that are automatically saved in the cloud. Say goodbye to version control headaches and the need to compare and merge edits.

THE SOLUTION

A universal toolkit for teamwork

Microsoft 365 delivers a holistic collaboration solution that puts the right tools at team members’ fingertips, so they can collaborate in the different ways they choose throughout the day. Whether workers need an answer to a quick question over Microsoft Teams or to collaborate in real-time on document revisions, Microsoft 365 has the tools to meet the task at hand.

TEAMWORK BLOCKER 4

A disorganized, inconsistent set of apps

People are accustomed to downloading apps on their phones, and many take the same approach in the office—resulting in a hodgepodge of applications that all do different things, have different sign-ins, and may not deliver the security and compliance the organization requires.

With Microsoft 365, you and your employees can:

• Access documents anywhere, online or offline.
• Collaborate in a single document that’s always up to date.
• Seamlessly share large files.
• Use built-in chat functionality to discuss edits within a document.
• Control permissions of contacts inside and outside the company

With Microsoft 365, you and your colleagues can:

• Bring the team together for real-time collaboration with Microsoft Teams through chat, meetings, and calls.
• Create, share, and find content with SharePoint and OneDrive.
• Plug in your favorite enterprise apps and services. Microsoft Teams is customizable and extensible, enabling quick, seamless access to Trello, Hootsuite, and many more apps.
• Know your assets are backed by Microsoft 365 security and compliance standards (regardless of which application you use).
• Run applications with ease with the 99.9 percent uptime guarantee of Microsoft 365.
• Easily move across applications with a single sign-on approach. When it comes to collaboration, one size doesn’t fit all. Only Microsoft 365 delivers an integrated collaboration solution that includes the full range of applications—from email to files to chat to voice to social—all backed by Microsoft’s enterprise-grade security and reliability.

In today’s modern workplace, employees need to connect with teammates inside and outside the organization for work on core projects. Having one shared hub for teamwork can help them work better together, in turn, driving better business outcomes.

From chat, voice, and social tools to cloud-based coauthoring capabilities, Microsoft 365 with Teams delivers a powerful collaboration and communication solution designed to meet the diverse work styles and needs of every group. It’s an all-in-one, integrated toolkit for teamwork—and it’s backed by Microsoft’s enterprise-grade security and reliability.

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