With the boom in working from home, Microsoft Teams has seen its user base hit an incredible 145 million daily active users. That’s more than the population of France and Germany combined!
What makes Microsoft Teams the go-to choice for business owners? How can it help a contractor or a team of employees with task management?
Let’s dive in and find the answers.
1. Microsoft Makes Task Management a Breeze
Perhaps the key issue that confronted business owners as the world shifted to working from home was keeping everyone on track.
With people scattered around the country (or the world!), it’s easy to lose track of tasks. It’s also not uncommon for employees to feel like they lack guidance and structure.
Luckily, Microsoft Teams’ suite of organizational features makes keeping on top of things a cinch. Whether you have one employee or one thousand, Teams lets you divide your business up into channels that make sure everyone is on track.
That’s not all, either. Got a super-important project file that everyone in a channel needs access to? Just pin it to the top of the relevant channel.
Say goodbye to the days of rummaging through email inboxes and chat histories looking for the one thread that has the attachment you need. Microsoft Teams lets you put the important stuff front and center: accessible, updatable, and intuitive.
2. Keeping Everyone in the Same Room, Even a Thousand Miles Apart
Of course, even once everyone’s on the same page, they still need to have meetings. That’s why Teams has a massive range of meeting features baked into every aspect of its design.
Using these tools, employees and contractors can work together as if they were in the same room even when they’re sat on different continents.
Scheduling meetings is easier than ever. Teams lets you pick a time slot that suits everyone and will remind you when the time comes. You can even organize meetings with people outside your business or who don’t even have Microsoft Teams accounts.
It’s not just organizing meetings that becomes easier. Take, for example, the whiteboard feature. Employees can brainstorm ideas in a shared workspace, while owners can use it to communicate project goals in an easily digestible format.
As if that’s not enough, features like Microsoft’s ‘Together Mode’ let you arrange meetings however you want. Office a little messy today? Just slot in a custom background and no one will be any the wiser.
Teams is powerful enough to capture all the advantages of in-person meetings while eliminating the downsides. With these tools, those meetings will feel like they haven’t skipped a beat since businesses had to vacate their conference rooms.
And if you want to go that extra mile, check out our list of tweaks to improve your video calls in 2021!
3. Next-Level Collaboration
Users of the Microsoft 365 Office Suite generated more than 38 billion collaboration minutes in a single day in 2021. It’s no surprise that Microsoft has gone to great lengths to integrate Office 365 as much as possible into their Teams offering.
Both employees and owners can take advantage of this integration to generate Word, Excel, and Powerpoint documents directly within Teams. Users can then work on these documents at the exact same time, with changes and comments appearing instantly.
If you’ve ever dealt with the irritation of tracking down the right version of the right file amid a thousand other copies, you’ll know just how useful that can be.
Businesses can bid farewell to the days of the ‘Do I have the right file version?’ merry-go-round by taking advantage of all these seamless integrations.
4. Constant Communication
One of the casualties of the work-from-home boom has been the decline in face-to-face contact in the workplace. Because business teams are no longer in such tight proximity, employees communicate less.
That’s not a problem anymore with Microsoft Teams. The handy chat features ensure that your employees and contractors are in touch with each other (and you) 24/7, never missing a beat.
Microsoft hasn’t limited you to text-based communication, either. Thanks to innovative features like its ‘walkie-talkie’ component, entire departments can stay in constant phone communication.
Whether one-on-one or in a huge group, workers can get the support they need the second they need it.
5. Unbeatable Security
All these features are backed up by Microsoft’s world-renowned security expertise. Businesses around the world trust Microsoft to handle their most sensitive info daily, and there’s a good reason for it.
Consider the unparalleled security of Microsoft Teams’ telephony systems. Plenty of businesses already use Teams in place of their own PBX systems, and it’s because they can get all the advantages of an internal phone system and none of the headaches. Their data’s encrypted both in transit and when it’s on Microsoft’s servers.
Teams also allows business owners to customize security and permissions settings to a granular level.
Got a revolutionary new invention or an exciting new project? Set it so only those you trust can see it. Planning a surprise birthday party? Set that dial to ‘maximum security’ and breathe easy.
Your super-secret projects are safe from prying eyes; only you get to decide who can see them. That way, whatever it is your business handles, you’re the one in control.
A Powerful and Innovative Service
Whether you need best-in-class security or a powerful collaborative toolset, Teams has something to offer you. And what’s more, it does it in style.
That’s why it’s no surprise that Microsoft Teams is all the rage these days. From sprawling multinationals to tiny mom-and-pops, its powerful features have something for everyone.
Click here to find out what Microsoft Teams and other types of cloud technology can do for your business! We’re always available to answer any questions you may have.
