Microsoft teams

Growing and ambitious organisations need the right digital tools to enhance communication and collaboration between team members. Optimising IT helps businesses take full advantage of Microsoft Teams, providing you with a digital workspace to chat, share files, host meetings and brainstorm with teams.

No matter where you are in your journey to the cloud, Optimising IT can help you speed up and simplify the process of migrating your corporate communications infrastructure to Microsoft Teams. Whether you’re using a PBX telephony system or use Skype for Business, we can provide the tools and resources to efficiently adopt Teams as your unified communications platform of choice at scale.

We understand the learning curve that comes with using new software. Our team of IT professionals are on hand with the training and support your employees need to maximise their use of Teams. With Optimising IT, your organisation’s departments and teams will be collaborating on Microsoft Teams in no time.

About our Microsoft Teams support

As a secure chat-based collaboration tool, remote or dispersed teams can now benefit from working together and sharing information. Microsoft Teams integrates with Microsoft Office 365, so your business can communicate one-to-one, join team chats and seamlessly access and share documents securely. From meeting notes, attachments, emails and calendars — you’ll significantly reduce email traffic blocking up inboxes and focus better on outcomes through greater collaboration.

What sets Teams apart from its competitors is the seamless integration of popular applications that business users rely on every day. Apps including messaging, Office 365, video meetings, collaborative editing, file sharing and team-based planning are all easily integrated.

The real beauty of Teams is its seamless integration with Microsoft 365. Channels are not confined to Teams and are integrated with:

Excel
Planner
Power BI
PowerPoint
SharePoint
Word

Team members can use the channels in Teams to create, edit and collaborate on various documents and tasks. This all works in real-time with users able to see changes to documents as they happen on screen.

These changes are synced to apps like OneDrive and SharePoint, ensuring the latest changes are available and accessible by everyone. Opening the wrong version of a presentation at a meeting is now a thing of the past.

Teams is continuously evolving as an application with over 400 updates currently in development on the Microsoft 365 Product Roadmap.

Key features of Microsoft Teams

Teams is one of the most popular collaborative and communication tools on the planet. Microsoft has done an excellent job designing it to meet the vital communication and collaboration needs of business teams worldwide and your business can benefit too.

INSTANT MESSAGING

Instant connection team members from any device, any location and at any time
Private 1-to-1 chats and group chats with privacy and access controls
Improved flexibility for team members to work
Easy-to-read and navigate conversations with complete chat history and search functionality
Instant voice calls, video conferencing and screen sharing
Customised alerts for all members
GIFs, stickers and emojis that make chats fun and improve morale

VOICE AND VIDEO CALLS

Instant high-quality voice calls and video calls to individuals or groups with the click of a button
Speak or meet with people anywhere in the world, from any device and at any time
Share your screen and collaborate with team members in real-time
Add a phone system and calling plan – turns Microsoft Teams into a full featured phone system that works across desktop and mobile

MEETINGS

Set up and host meetings, presentations or events with ease
High-quality video experience for up to 10,000 participants
Access documents and data stored within Office 365 with ease at any time during the meeting
Record your meetings and send them to people who missed out with the click of a button

ACCESSIBILITY

Access Teams from any device from anywhere in the world and at any time of the day
Switch between devices without any hassle or delay
View, edit and collaborate with chat-functionality on documents in real-time from any device

APPS AND INTEGRATIONS

Integration of all Office 365 capabilities in a single workspace
The ability to add applications such as Twitter, Teamwork, Google Analytics and much so teams can access the tools they need outside of Office 365 in one place
Build custom applications perfectly suited to your specific team’s needs

SECURITY AND COMPLIANCE

Leverage the built-in power of the Microsoft 365 Security platform, including Multi-factor authentication to ensure appropriate cybersecurity
Enable secure guest access to specific channels and collaborate with external organisations ‘Federate’ access with specific organisations for direct messaging and video calling
Advanced data protection capabilities (subject to license level)
Granular access and security controls

FAQ: Microsoft teams

What is Microsoft Teams?

If you are reading this, you have likely heard of Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Google Meet, Slack and other video conferencing and collaboration tools.

Microsoft Teams is now the most powerful, most secure and crucially, most integrated productivity application out there and comes with many Microsoft 365 subscriptions.

What can I do with Microsoft Teams?

It might be easier to list what you can’t do! Here are some examples of the things you can do with Microsoft Teams:

Collaborate with colleagues via instant messaging, team calls and video calls.
Store and share documents with colleagues, teams and (if enabled) with other organisations that use Teams.
Add traditional telephone capability! We are moving ever more organisations to voice in Teams to add capability, security and flexibility to business telephony.
Add task lists.
Carry out web conferencing for thousands of attendees.
Meet via Teams with people from inside and outside of your organisation.
Use apps to connect to popular applications like Microsoft Dynamics 365, Salesforce, Jira, Trello, PowerBI — the list goes on, with more apps always being added for a unified working experience.
Use bots to share information between apps.
Make announcements, share updates and even build your own business hub for information.
Provide closed caption and translation services.

Have something you want to do with Microsoft Teams, but not sure if you can or how? Get in touch with our power platform team, and we can work with you to develop your Microsoft Teams environment!

How does Microsoft Teams work?

By creating dedicated spaces for project teams to collaborate, Teams can improve the efficiency and productivity of your workforce. Each ‘Team’ is assigned users and organisations can establish private networks called ‘Channels’, where people can plan, manage and deliver work.

Multiple channels can exist and users can be part of more than one channel. Channels are typically focused on one topic, a particular project or client. Channels are also useful for social events, staff training, process improvement, or general topics that employees may find interesting.

The channels are easy to use and offer an inclusive experience for staff working in the office, from home or any other location around the world. A global team can soon start to feel like they work in the same place with Teams. Conversations are organised in threads, which you can pin to the group or save for later. If you ever need something from a previous discussion, but you didn’t save it, the search function can find what you’re looking for in seconds.

Users will receive notifications when new messages are received or when they’ve been tagged in a message. Need to chat? One-click of a button and you can instantly start a video chat with your team to discuss.

How do I get Microsoft Teams?

To get the benefits of using Microsoft Teams, you’ll need to get an appropriate subscription for Microsoft 365. Good news – the most popular plans come with Microsoft Teams in the subscription. Plans that include Microsoft Teams start from £3.80 per user per month for the online or browser-based version. Want the app for desktop and mobile? Plans that include the desktop and mobile app for Teams start from £9.40 per user per month. Get in touch today for a quote!

Are phone calls included in Microsoft Teams?

Teams-to-Teams calls, meetings and webinars are included in subscriptions that feature Microsoft Teams. If you want to add traditional phone system capability, an additional Microsoft Business Voice or Enterprise Voice subscription is required. As with all things Microsoft 365, the subscription is on a per-user, per-month basis. Prices start from £7.50 per user per month, excluding calls. Call packages for domestic UK calls and international calls, as well as calling bundles and credits, are available. The best bit? You can install the Microsoft Teams app on your mobile, desktop, laptop and tablet and take landline calls from your business telephone system wherever you are.

What can I do if I move my telephone systems to Business Voice in Teams?

Both Business and Enterprise Voice for Microsoft Teams gives you a fully featured corporate telephone platform. Here are some of the features available:

Voicemail
Auto attendants and IVR
Call transfers
Dedicated calling groups
Utility lines for sales, finance, reception, etc
Carry your landline with you wherever you go
Audio conferencing (requires an additional subscription)
Call delegation
Call park
Call hold
Call blocking
Voicemail to email
Caller ID
Dial by name or number
Integration with Outlook and corporate directories.

Do I need to use the Microsoft Teams app, or can I get a traditional desktop or conference phone?

One of the best things about using Microsoft Teams as your corporate phone system is that you make it part of a fully integrated communication and collaboration platform:

Physical Microsoft Teams handsets are available.
Keep your meeting room conference phone capability with Microsoft Teams conference phones.
Build Teams collaboration rooms with video conferencing and dedicated Teams room devices.
Keep phones in public spaces such as reception or on the factory floor.
Add voice conference capabilities for up to 250 participants.

Can I keep my existing telephone number if I move to Microsoft Teams?

Yes! Our project team can work with you to migrate from your current telephone system to Microsoft Teams and transfer your existing landline numbers!