Since March 2020 it’s no surprise that the use of online collaborations platforms has increased dramatically.
This most recent ‘lockdown’ serves to highlight further how working from home has become and will remain for months to come an essential support tool for the UK economy.
Using Microsoft Teams with SharePoint
Whilst the use of the Office 365 app – Teams has increased massively, conversations with our customers highlight how often businesses continue to underuse it and to a certain extent are ‘missing the point’ of its essence.
We have previously explored the virtues of Teams and this Microsoft article summarises concisely the 5 key benefits of using Teams to its full potential.
Microsoft Teams is a really handy online chat tool but that is only the tip of the iceburg.
Qi believes, the key to successfully using Teams lies with the ability to collaborate with your team and in many instances your customers and suppliers, comprehensively, real time completely online.
Microsoft states:
‘Thanks to the tight integration with Office 365*, you don’t need to switch apps when you need to collaborate on a document. You can create the Word, Excel or PowerPoint document in Teams, immediately share it with your coworkers and then co-author within a blink of an eye.
No more sending out different versions through email and the resulting version confusion. You can add comments and to-dos, and chat with your coworkers to discuss the document right there.’
What does this mean in relation to Microsoft Teams?
*Office 365 provides you with SharePoint
You can use SharePoint as a secure place to store, organize, share, and access information from any device. All you need is a web browser, such as Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer, Chrome, or Firefox. Want to learn more? Get started with SharePoint.
Once your files are stored in a modern (not classic) SharePoint library you can collaborate with colleagues on the same file at the same time using Teams. Real time, real productivity.
Teams and SharePoint must go hand in hand.
To make the most effective online collaboration hub to support your current working practices consider the following:
If an organization is deploying Teams, we would encourage your users to use Teams as the main entry point into the rest of Office 365. This provides a consistent single point of entry to your working world.
Teams is the single pane of glass that shows you SharePoint online, Word, Excel, PowerPoint etc
Try to think of Teams as a window on to your working world and your work colleagues. It can provide you with access to everything—not just SharePoint Online, but all of the Office 365 apps—in a single pane of glass.
Advice
Achieving the single pane of glass with the right ‘back end’ made up of correctly configured Teams and SharePoint sites may require some assistance.
Failing at Microsoft Teams (and SharePoint)
Consider these common error ‘hotspots’ when businesses deploy Microsoft Teams without support and advice:
- Creating Teams instead of Channels
- Creating Private Channels instead of Teams
- Creating too many Channels
- Creating too many private Channels
- Incorrect identification of Teams files to local drive
- Correct organization of data for appropriate Teams synchronization
- Not allowing users to create Teams
- Blocking External Sharing
- Blocking GIFs and Memes
- Not installing Teams mobile app
- Not installing Planner and Tasks
- Just focusing on Teams – not on SharePoint
- Continuing with traditional File Shares and Mapped Drives
- Blocking all add-ins and connectors
- Not enabling Channel email IDs
- Not implementing banned word list
- Not implementing automatic governance policy for managing unused Teams
- Using SharePoint in places where Teams is more suited
- Using Yammer in places Teams is more suited
- Not focusing on Information Protection and focusing too much on Private Channels
Thought for the Day
You can spend hours of your life you won’t get back trying to deploy Teams & SharePoint effectively or you can use one of the Qi fixed price Teams deployment packages which is determined by your current data structure, includes training and will provide you with the right Teams/SharePoint foundation to build on moving forward. Get in contact with the Qi hardware team and start making the most of what you already have.