Increase productivity while improving collaboration with Microsoft Teams

productivity with Microsoft Teams

 

Business and work dynamics have shifted rapidly and remarkably over the last couple of years. While remote teams are struggling to adapt to a newly formed reality of remote work, virtual workplaces are evolving and so are technologies and best practices to provide unified communication, productivity and collaboration solutions with humongous business benefits.

Some of the key business challenges that organizations are facing today with all the globalized remote/virtual teams needs are the following:

  • Need of collaboration ensuring everyone has equal participation
  • Enabling all attendees to share content
  • Effective and efficient 1:1 or group video calls
  • Inviting internal and external participants
  • Providing video and interactive discussions for groups and video conferences
  • Few-to-many broadcasts
  • Event hosting
  • Moderated QA and open dialogue

The Total Economic Impact™ Of Microsoft Teams by Forrester & Microsoft

Forrester consulting provides an independent and objective study highlighting the benefits of having all solutions in one place. According to the data collected and analyzed, improved collaboration and information sharing resulted in more efficient meetings by saving users’ time by 1.1 to 8 hours per user per week.

According to their research findings, Teams meetings are more reliable providing a high audio video quality experience, therefore, saving the time addressing set up and call quality issues by $6.9 million. Savings up to $648,727 were reported by reducing web conferencing, minimizing long distance and mobile phone calls and on-premises telephony solutions after switching to MS Teams.

To read more about the findings, click here

Microsoft Teams key benefits

Microsoft Teams benefits

From devices to third party integration, Microsoft Teams can provide and extend valuable capabilities for meetings and calling within organizations.

Chat & Meetings

Microsoft Teams brings a single intelligent communications and collaboration experience for remote and virtual teams by introducing features like chat, calling, meetings, file sharing, external and guest access and intelligent back end.

Audio Conferencing

Using audio conferencing, users are able to dial in an out from and to phones.

Organizations can add toll free numbers to use with audio conference meetings, dial out from any audioconference meeting and add someone else from anywhere in the world. Other options are to dial out in pay-per minute using communication credits once the organization has exhausted the monthly minute allotment.

Calling Solution

By providing reliable, high quality integrated calling solution, Microsoft Teams enables customers to make and receive phone calls from anywhere on their desk phones, mobile phones or computers.

Host Live Events

Live events enable users to broadcast video and meeting content to a large online audience. This one-to-many communication model is used where the host of the event is leading the interaction and audience participation is primarily to view the content shared by the host.

Benefits of Calling Plans:

  • PSTN connectivity provided directly by Microsoft
  • No on-premises equipment required
  • Domestic and international Calling Plans
  • Meets legal requirements

Benefits of Direct Routing:

  • Interoperability with third party systems
  • Leverage existing contracts with service providers
  • Can be used wish Calling Plans are not available
  • Can be combined with Calling Plans
  • Single DID for every user
  • Less hardware footprint as compared to Skype for business

Microsoft Usage Analytics

In order to make meetings more efficient and effective Microsoft Teams delivers adaptive and immersive experience by providing transparent access to information While enabling users do draw insights using analytics and usage patterns.

Teams and callings overview/VNEXT framework

As certified Microsoft gold partner with extensive experience in unified communications and collaboration space, VNEXT IQ provides Microsoft Teams adoption approach based on Microsoft Teams governance best practices and formal adoption and change management initiatives to ensure systematic rollout. Our Microsoft Teams experts can provide assistance with:

1. Existing telephony infrastructure and define options for connectivity to PSTN and coexist with existing solutions
2. Enable audio conferencing
3. Leverage teams to integrate with other Office 365 workloads like Shifts , planner, flow and power apps
4. Customized meetings permissions, for example:
  • Disable anonymous meeting join
  • Disable recording and transcription services for certain users
  • Provide compliance to company policy for all meeting participants to be identifiable
  • Users do have access to sensitive information
  • Users do not have ability to perform screen sharing
  • All feature and functionality in meetings available to all users
  • Content sharing settings based on organizations policy
5. Scheduling and hosting live events:
  • Familiar form that you are used to with meetings
  • Full exchange and AAD integration
  • Granular controls over permissions and policies
  • Easily select audience engagement hooks
  • Flexibility in how to publicize the event
  • Rich Producer UI wait queue and video carousel
  • Split screen layout with content and video
  • Granular metrics to monitor
  • Comprehensive resiliency and fall back support
  • Comprehensive usage report for admin
  • Watch from anywhere mobile web desktop
  • Bring in non-tenant attendees
  • Ability to go back and view missed content
  • Sibling for recording to watch after the event
  • Moderated Q&A functionality
6. Using Teams as your phone with call queues and auto attendant functionalities to:
  • Enable companies to automatically route calls to specific Departments, Teams, or people in a company​
  • Attendant & Serial Distribution​
  • Setting Time Availability​
  • Music on hold​
  • Custom Messaging​
7. Multiple options for PSTN connectivity​
  • Calling Plans offer telephony service from Microsoft
  • Direct Routing allows using existing PSTN infrastructure​
  • Calling Plans and Direct Routing can be combined​
8. Calling Plans as
  • First party offer from Microsoft available in specific countries as regulated utility​
  • Completely cloud-based with no required infrastructure on-premises​
  • Tightly integrated with Office 365 and Phone System​
  • New phone numbers from Microsoft or port existing numbers​

Want to learn more?

  • Follow our Ask Me Anything webinar series: To learn more about Microsoft Teams, features, best practices and capabilities, and register for the upcoming session on October 24th at 2 PM ET. Click here to register. Do not worry if you believe you will not be able to make it! We got you! You can watch the on-demand sessions here anytime.
  • Take advantage of VNEXT Pre-packaged solutions: If you are interested in getting an evaluation of your current meetings and meeting rooms capabilities followed with an immersion experience to showcase Microsoft Teams as your meetings and room solution? Our team of experts can provide you direction on how to transform meetings with audio conferencing and customize report with actionable recommendations. Click here to see our pre-packaged solutions.

Contact us today and connect with other specialists to get started with the Teams meetings workshop assessment here.