So, we implemented Microsoft Teams – what should we do now?

#user #chat #team #files #meetings

Last week I published a link to this blog in a Swedish network called Teknikkvinnor and it was nice to see that more people than me saw the need for a blog like this 😊. I have a long list of topics I want to share with you but from what I could see from the comments I got in Teknikkvinnor, there is a need for a quick guide on how to get started.

Microsoft Teams is now the primary client for meetings and calling in Office 365 which means that your timing to start using Microsoft Teams is perfect! My favorite thing is that Microsoft Teams is a hub for collaboration, and you could basically never leave the app and still get everything done where Skype for Business mainly is a chat/meeting app.

Let’s look at some of the functionalities and what we can use them for.

Step 1 – Talk with your colleagues!

The first thing I would do is of course to start chatting! The core function of Microsoft Teams is to be able to communicate with you colleagues and lower the amount of emails sent.

In chat’s you can format your text, attach files, send links and add giphys/stickers to enhance your message.

What I love with Microsoft Teams compared with Skype for Business is the fact that the chat is persistent, which means you can write (and the message won’t disappear somewhere in a weird Outlook folder) to people even if they are offline. And you see all the history in an easy way!

The only thing I miss from Skype for Business is how much smoother it was working with external users, but that is a whole new topic that I will talk about another time.

Step 2 – Start the collaboration

Once you’ve started to manage your daily one-to-one conversations its time to get your collaboration in a larger group started! In Microsoft Teams you do it easily either by a group chat or a team.

Look at my previous post Should I use a Team or a group chat? to see what best fits your need.

How to create a new group chat

1. Open Chat tab in left side navigation

2. Click the “pen icon”

3. By clicking the arrow icon in the right corner, you can choose to create a group

4. Add the members you would like to add, at this moment it isn’t possible to add external people into groups if they aren’t ready a guest in the tenant

How to create a new Team

1. Open Teams tab in left side navigation

2. Decide if you should join a team or create a new one (you must be added to private teams but can join public teams)

3. To create a new team, follow the wizard. You will have the option to decide on template (I would start with creating a team from scratch if nothing else have been communicated in your organization), privacy level and team name

Step 3 – See all your files

If you’re lazy like me and don’t want to leave Microsoft Teams, you can reach your OneDrive through the Files tab in the left side navigation.

You can add new files, open files and work on them. Of course, you can decide to open them in the native apps (by clicking ... next to the file) as well if you prefer the full experience.

Only thing I’ve noticed is that searching for files in Microsoft Teams isn’t really smooth.

Step 4 – Enhance your collaboration and start having the meetings in Microsoft Teams

In the Meeting tab in the left side navigation you will find all your meetings (even the ones that aren’t held in Microsoft Teams).

When you schedule a new meeting, you get the option to either add person by person or you can decide to add the meeting in a team channel.

As with Skype for Business you can also schedule Microsoft Teams meetings straight from Outlook.

When I deep dive in meetings in Microsoft Teams I will tell you more about the subject.

This was the basics of Microsoft Teams – not that hard, right 😊? Now that you are an experienced beginner it’s time for some more advanced things such as tabs but that will be in an another blog post.

I know for a fact that once somebody start to use Microsoft Teams more people will follow!

Note! Settings may differ dependent on your organization’s tenant settings, I’m using standard out of the box settings in mine.

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//Jag kommer att hålla översättningarna korta framöver.

När jag började arbeta med SharePoint för några år sedan tyckte jag att det var krångligt då de svenska översättningarna var så annorlunda från de engelska. Från början var tanken att hela den här bloggen skulle vara på svenska men efter påtryckningar från flera håll fick det bli engelska och jag måste erkänna att översättningar inte är lika krångliga längre.

I detta inlägg ger jag en snabb genomgång av hur du kan komma igång med Microsoft Teams, detta genom 4 enkla steg.

Steg 1 – Prata med dina kollegor

Steg 2 – Påbörja samarbetet

Steg 3 – Hitta dina filer

Steg 4 – Öka samarbetet och börja ha dina möten i Microsoft Teams

Det är bara att börja använda Microsoft Teams, jag vet att så fort någon början använda plattformen så kommer fler att följa efter!