The coming weeks will be a challenge for all of us. It is essential that we are aware of the options we already have. If you have already set up Microsoft Teams, this article will help you get up to speed quickly and start working with your team.
However, if your company is not yet set up for home office, please contact us! Due to the current situation, we can advise you free of charge and can also provide our customers with (temporary) free licenses for access to specialist applications (such as ERPs, SAP, Salesforce & other CRMs etc.) and Microsoft Teams from home.
As I said, this article is exactly what you are looking for if you are new to the application. The topics at a glance (click to go directly to the chapter):
Another new tool? - Why Microsoft Teams is more
"Another new tool?" one or two people may ask themselves when the company announces that Microsoft Teams is to be introduced.
However, Microsoft Teams is not just a new tool designed to facilitate collaboration within the company. Rather, it combines many applications that we use every day and brings them together with the new ways of working (any time - any place - any device).
This may sound daunting at first, but it doesn't have to be. In this article, I will show you the most important functions of Teams and how you can easily use them.
The new way of working with Microsoft Teams
1. fast and flexible communication via chat
Do you have a quick question for a colleague? But they are in a different building or at a different location (e.g. home office) than you?
No problem - instead of writing him an e-mail or calling him, you can start a chat directly in Microsoft Teams. Your colleague will be informed of the chat message and can reply to it.
Your colleague doesn't know the answer either and would like to ask another colleague first? That's no problem either - add them to the chat as well.
In this video we explain how new members can be added to a personal chat and we take a look at the message history.
You can also start an online audio call or a video call directly from a chat or share your screen (similar to TeamViewer) so that your chat partner can see your entire desktop or individual open applications. These functions are available at the top right of the chat window.
Tip: The person you want to call / chat with is currently unavailable or in a meeting? - Simply let them notify you as soon as they are available again.
2. efficient meetings regardless of time and place
It is not uncommon for not all participants to be present at on-site meetings, e.g. because they are working from home or at a different location.
In order to integrate these employees into meetings, Microsoft Teams offers the option of holding online meetings.
Such meetings can be easily created in Outlook, just like normal calendar entries. The only difference is that the invitation also contains a link that participants can use to join online (or by telephone, depending on the license).
You can hold online meetings via audio or video.
During the meeting, you also have the option of chatting with participants, sharing your screen, taking meeting notes or visualizing ideas together on a whiteboard.
Tip: Are you having difficulties with the speakers on your laptop so that the meeting participants can't hear you or you can't hear the others? - Alternatively, you can join the meeting via the Microsoft Teams app on your smartphone.
3. teamwork with a focus on collaboration
The new ways of working in the digital workplace are no longer about standing out as an individual and specializing in one area. Rather, it is about sharing information, insights, questions and problems as a team in order to achieve a goal more quickly and successfully.
Microsoft Teams supports this type of teamwork by creating an area for each team where exchanges can take place, documents can be shared and other important information / applications can be directly integrated.
This area is the so-called teams. Teams can be further subdivided according to the topics of the project or department. These levels are called channels.
All members of a team have access to the elements in this team, such as posts and documents. Owners of a team can edit who should be a member of the team directly in Teams.
Further information on teams and channels
The team can be managed and adjustments made via the context menu (symbol with three dots) to the right of a team name.
Tip: Use the @ sign in posts to mention your work colleagues and send them a notification. This ensures that important information reaches the right people. (to the video)
4. document management made easy
It has never been easier to work together on documents.
Okay, I admit that this statement is perhaps a little over the top. But Microsoft Teams does provide you with some helpful functions for collaborating on Office documents.
For example, you can work on documents simultaneously and see your colleagues' changes in real time. (to the video)
Everyone works on the current version of the document and there is no need to send and manually merge copies internally.
Automatic, regular saving also eliminates the worry of whether the current version of a document is still available after a sudden laptop failure. In addition, versions of a document are automatically created in the background so that they can be accessed again at a later date.
To collect feedback on a document from your teammates, instead of writing an email and attaching the document, you can simply start a conversation directly from Teams and have the document and feedback in one place. The advantage here: Your colleagues can also always keep track of the latest status and a new team member can also understand thought processes and changes retrospectively.
Further helpful information and answers to frequently asked questions can be found here.
Tip: Add documents that are frequently needed by several people in your team as a tab in the appropriate channel. This makes the document quickly and easily accessible for everyone. (to the video)
5. always & everywhere accessible thanks to mobile app
Microsoft Teams can be perfectly adapted to your needs and enables modern, digital working regardless of location or the device available.
You can use Microsoft Teams as a desktop application on your business laptop, as a mobile app(iOS / Android) or in your browser.
The desktop application is available for Windows, Mac and Linux.
6. flexibly adaptable to your needs
Microsoft Teams not only already offers many helpful tools for day-to-day work, but can also be flexibly expanded.
Do you use Asana as a project management tool, for example? Simply add this app to your project team so that you have all the helpful information you need in one place.
Tip: To get an overview of all apps, either look directly in the Teams client under Apps or here .
Finally: Info, tutorials & links
You are probably already familiar with the functions mentioned here from one tool or another, but it is rare to find applications that include all of these functions. And that is the great advantage of Microsoft Teams.
Of course, it takes some time and energy to adjust to Microsoft Teams and this new way of working. But stay tuned and curious to keep discovering new functions.
There are many different ways for you to get to know the Microsoft Teams functions.
Here are just a few possibilities:
- Short explanations online or directly in Microsoft Teams (Help > Training)
- Short videos in German
- Detailed Microsoft Teams training videos
- Free online training courses
- Did you know? These 5 features in Microsoft Teams make your life easier
- General tips for working from home (with Microsoft Teams and other applications)
You don't have Microsoft Teams or other home office applications yet? Talk to us!
