We are all using Teams now for chats and video calls in house, although I still notice that some firms are using Teams internally and Zoom externally mainly because clients seem to have Zoom setup already however there are significant benefits to using Team properly in house.
Here are our top six tips based on the latest update to Teams;
1. Share to Outlook from Teams
If you are in Teams and have a useful chat with a colleague, client or our Chat bot for example you can now share that detail with someone via Outlook to trigger an action. Just like this billing report here.
2. Assign Tags to Names
If you like me are trying to cut down on email and focus internal communications in Teams, then using tags is a great way of setting up groups of users who you would like to message at the same time. Think @Partners, @Managers, @TaxTeam, @Office etc. Rather than cut and paste to each person you can send one message to an @tag you can use any common attribute to such as role, location, projects and so on.
3. Create Teams that are linked to your Active Directory groups
Small firms normally only have one firm wide group for all Teams chat. But as your practice increases in size or if you want to have more targeted communication within your firm then you can create groups based on your active directory. In that way when someone leaves or joins the practice they are automatically added or removed from the group. Just use create team from scratch option then use Org-Wide to select the group you want.
4. Sync files to your Desktop on PC or Mac using OneDrive
If you are sharing files in Teams, and if you are not you should be you can now sync the files down to your Pc or Mac to use offline. Useful if you are planning on being disconnected for any length of time or perhaps onsite doing an audit and not want to use the Client Wi-Fi for security reasons. From the files options select sync and it will connect with your OneDrive and download the files.
5. Record Team meetings and group calls
Using Microsoft Stream all users can now record meetings and calls to play back later. This can seem a bit big brother in some instances, but it is clear to all participants that a recording is happening. It should be properly used for team training or announcements. A lot of knowledge can be shared and stored for future use.
6. Chatbots
This is an early preview of just how using Teams can really make you much more efficient. Anshin Vision includes a Chatbot that will allow you to ask meaningful questions to your data. That data could be a view in a database, your website, or a set of documents. This is particularly useful when onboarding new staff, or when you only undertake an action very infrequently.
If you would like to know how Anshin Vision can help you get the most out of your Microsoft 365 Installation please contact us.