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Microsoft Teams is one of the most popular communication and collaboration tool available in the market today. As a business, your priority hinges on three things: protecting your data while making it easy for users and ensuring they are productive.
MS Teams fits all those essential criteria and offers a whole lot more.
That’s why SMS messages and fragmented communication isn’t the solution to remote working. Sure, it might work for you in the short-run, but after 3 months, you’ll find yourself struggling to search for important conversations and files.
AvePoint shared a 5-step process to get started with Microsoft Teams. Here’s a quick overview:
If you’re looking to get started with MS Teams, just follow these 5 simple steps to get your account running.
1. Basic setup
Head on over to the Microsoft Teams website and create an account, or sign in if you already have a Microsoft account.
If you’re starting out, you’ll be asked to enter a couple of details like your name, photo, and the option to invite other users.
Add people a few people on your team to get started.
Microsoft Teams can be accessed online via your browser or through its apps —which are available on desktop and mobile versions. Regardless of which platform you use, the user interface will look similar.
2. Create a team
The next thing you’d want to do is to create a team inside Teams.
Don’t get confused with the nomenclatures. Watch this video to find out what teams and channels are.
If you get confused, don’t worry. You can edit the names and teams you created later. The important part is you get started with this first.
Just input the basic information and you’re good to go.
3. Create a channel
Once you created a team (in the previous point), it’s now time to create a channel.
Depending on how big or small your organisation is, your structure will differ. For example, a big organisation might use teams as various departments, then the individual projects they work on as channels inside that team. But a smaller organisation might just have one team, then every department is a specific team.
And if after some time, it gets a little bit messy, you can always hide certain teams so only relevant ones show up.
4. Utilise Team’s built-in user resources
Training your users on how to use MS Teams properly is crucial. After all, you’re using this tool to improve your productivity and collaboration. If you are not using how it’s intended, then you’re at a disadvantage.
Head on over to MS Teams’ video training resources to get started.
Once you have a basic idea of how MS Teams work, you can use its other features such as using it for video conferencing, managing team schedules, and integrating with other tools you might already be using.
5. Keep using Teams
As with many things, the more frequently you use or do something, the better you get at it.
As you continue to use MS Teams, you’ll notice some ways you can improve the way you do work. For example, one of the best features of Teams is the ability to work on the same file without leaving the app.
Let’s say you have a weekly spreadsheet that you need to fill out. You then have to email that to Sarah so she can put it her part. But then, you noticed you made a mistake so you messaged Sarah and told her to add the stuff you missed.
But what if this was a presentation that you emailed to 7 colleagues, asking for their feedback? What if they already started doing their part then you go on and forgot to add something?
All these will result to multiple file versions and cluttered desktops.
MS Teams can help you with this. You simply add a tab inside a particular channel and everyone on the team can edit the file there directly, in real-time.
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