With the “Teams” app, Microsoft bundles functions and modules from Office365 into a complete digital workplace for people who work together in groups – i.e. for teams. Created with just a few clicks, central e-mail mailboxes, document storage and editing both offline and online, chat functions, online meetings, team calendars and much more are available in a uniform user interface. The whole thing is particularly charming due to the availability of mobile apps for iPhone & Android as well as desktop apps for Windows and Apple. At the same time, full use via web browser is possible.
And the possibility of inviting external customers, suppliers or partners to teams without their own Office 365 license and providing them with almost all teamwork functions makes real teamwork possible, even beyond the boundaries of the company.
Microsoft Planner is an independent product for task management, but it is integrated reasonably well into the Microsoft Teams interface. And with Planner, task management like a digital Kanban board can be implemented very easily.
In practice, the hurdles to real use as a team platform lie more in the organization. After all, individual mail traffic, distribution lists, document storage on network drives, individual solutions for team calendars and other processes from task and project management have to be reorganized on a uniform technical platform.
However, Microsoft has done its homework here and with Teams offers a solution that sets the hurdles for a changeover and modernization of previous organizational processes very low. Last but not least, the financial hurdle is easy to overcome, since teams are already available to Office365 users with the Office365 license.
Also practical is the possibility to archive a complete team with all content, for example for a project team after the project has been completed. All documents, to-do lists, communications, chats and email conversations, and possibly recorded online meetings are then stored in an archive.
Nevertheless, before an unstructured introduction of teams, preliminary considerations should be made and the introduction should be carefully planned with the organizational challenges. Ultimately, with the introduction of teams, you integrate company processes that previously ran on separate channels, and orderly change management during the introduction is absolutely necessary.
Our core competence lies in this area. As part of a compact consulting and implementation project, we help you to use the potential of the new platform effectively for your organization. We would be happy to show you the possibilities and look forward to hearing from you!