Collaborating With Microsoft Teams

Users across the country and around the world are harnessing Microsoft Teams to connect with staff members, clients, and other business contacts. Are you looking for a better way to collaborate while working remotely?



At this point in the COVID-19 pandemic, you should have a collaboration solution you rely on in place for your business. But if you’re still looking for an effective way to meet with remote contacts, you should consider Microsoft Teams Microsoft is currently offering a free 6-month trial of Microsoft Office 365 E1, including Microsoft Teams, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.



Check out our latest webinar to learn about its collaboration capabilities:

How Does Microsoft Teams Help Users Collaborate?

Microsoft Teams is the hub for teamwork within Microsoft 365 (formally Office 365). Microsoft Teams allow coworkers to collaborate from anywhere across the country — shifting from chat to video conferencing seamlessly with the touch of a button.

Microsoft Teams’ mobile and web applications are as comprehensive as their desktop counterparts, too. Teams integrates with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, SharePoint, the new Planner Task Management App, Stream Video Portal, and even Power BI.



A key feature to take advantage of is how users can integrate their Teams and Outlook calendars. By doing so, all events scheduled through one app are added to the calendar on the other. Whether you’re setting meetings with coworkers through Teams, or arranging a meeting with an external contact through Outlook, your entire schedule is integrated for total consistency.



Teams also leverages the Microsoft cloud-based storage system, which allows anyone to access a document as long as they have adequate permissions in place. They can find a specific version, add feedback, and save a copy.



This preserves all versions of the document in a central location, maintaining the integrity of the most up-to-date version. Teams allow authorized users to share files, organize meetings from their calendar, and sync with other Office apps like OneNote, OneDrive, and Skype for Business.



Users need to understand the difference between Microsoft storage apps. OneDrive is like a cloud-based version of the “My Documents” folder that you’ve come to rely on with your PC for years and years. When you create a document or need to open up one from the past, it’ll likely be stored in “My Documents” (ideally, organized a few sub-folders down).



With OneDrive, it’s the same idea, but instead of being stored in “My Documents” on your local work server, it’s stored offsite in the cloud, which means you can access that same file from your home office, while you’re on your way to work, or even while you’re away traveling for business. It also offers an offline sync engine so that you can keep working when you’re disconnected from the Internet.



As the name implies, SharePoint is designed to allow you to share files, collaborate, edit, and more with anywhere from a single coworker to an entire team. Files in SharePoint aren’t owned or associated with one specific person – everyone on the team has read and write access.



Files that you store in a given Team Site can be accessed by all team members, allowing everyone to collaborate by creating lists and libraries in which to store content. SharePoint offers a range of other features as well to help enrich the experience, including metadata, workflows, custom views, and more.



The key to remember with SharePoint is that it’s where you keep the files that you want your team members to access, update, edit, etc. Try using SharePoint for your next team project and see how effective it is.



How does Teams integrate with these two apps? SharePoint is for sharing, OneDrive is for storing, and Teams is for collaborating. Anything you store in the former two can be accessed and collaborated upon with their integration with Teams.

Want To Learn More About Microsoft Apps?

TLC Tech will be holding webinars like this one every Wednesday, to further explore Teams and other solutions included in the Microsoft 365 suite. CLICK HERE to access our on-demand library of past webinars to learn more.

Like this article? Check out the following blogs to learn more:



OneDrive or SharePoint?



Zoom v. Microsoft Teams
What is the Right Video Chat Software?



Microsoft Teams: Everything You Need To Know To Connect Your Team While They Work From Home