top of page

Microsoft (MS) Teams

Overview

​

When you have a team that is responsible for the planning and implementation of a project, there are many things involved such as:

  • Team members

  • Documents, pictures, videos, websites, etc: storage, access rights, sharing, simultaneous editing, easy search, ..

  • Tasks to be done: description of each task

  • Project planning

    • When tasks are to be done

    • Time estimates for tasks​

    • Assigning people to tasks

    • People get those assigned tasks automatically in their personal calendar

  • Project status​

    • Actual time spend on tasks​

  • Team member communication that is scheduled or instant, and is online​

All the above requirements are fulfilled by MS Teams.

 

Microsoft offers now Microsoft 365 which consists of Microsoft Office 365, Windows 10 and Enterprise Mobility and Security. 

Microsoft Office 365 consists of Microsoft Exchange for online email, MS Sharepoint Online for portals and collaboration and MS Teams for interactive communications, document sharing and so many other things as seen below,

 

MS Teams is a private portal where you can not only share documents, list of items and wiki pages but also chat, voice call and video call with other MS Office 365 members and external users.

​

To add external users to a MS Teams site, you have to do the following:

  1. If the external user has  a MS Office 365 account, just add his/her MS Office 365 email id.

  2. Else, the external user needs to get a Microsoft personal account  (outlook.com , hotmail.com , live.com , ..) account'

When a valid email id is added, an email will be sent to that email id. See here. 

​

The video (33 mins) below will give you an overview.

Features of MS Teams

​

MS Teams has the following features:

  • Create a team and channels (topics)

    • A team can be public or private or classified

    • Within a team you can do the following:'

      • Add documents, Word, PPT, OneNote, ... and share them

      • Add Wiki pages

      • Link to a website

      • Link to a Sharepoint portal

      • Start a conversation with all the team members, voice calling, and video calling. For PSTN calling with MS Teams, click here.

  • Create a calendar and set up a meeting using MS Teams Calling. Click here to learn more.

  • Chat one to one, or one to many.

  • Add MS applications and 3rd party applications.

    • One is Yammer that can be used to a certain extent as a discussion forum.

      • Combining MS Teams and Yammer: click here for a video (25 mins, Oct 2017)

    • MS Planner

      • MS Planner is quite powerful, and can be integrated with MS Teams.​

      • A possible usage of this is when your team members have to plan, implement and manage a project,  attend workshops, meetings and need to get workshop/training material. Click here to see this possible usage. 

    • Link/Connect to Twitter, ​ and so many other 3rd party applications.

​

If a MS Teams site is public, outside parties (external users) can join the MS Teams site, and share documents, be part of conversations, video calls and chat. Those outside parties can be your customers, suppliers, subcontractors, distributors, dealers, etc. 

​

Remember that our company enables your company to link or embed a MS Teams site from any form/screen of the Acumatica Cloud ERP. This way issues with eg. a sales order can be immediately resolved via a MS Teams conversation, or chat  or video call. 

 

For more usage information on MS Teams, click here.

 

New Features in Feb. 2020

​

Emails will be shared  between MS Outlook and MS Teams. For details click here. 

​

Resources

​

MS Teams resources consist of Tech Community websites, Social Media sites (Twitter, LinkedIn,..) and blog sites. You can learn a lot from them. Please do your research and you will realize how rich MS Teams as an interactive communications tool in the cloud. 

A list of resources is given below.

MS Teams is Free

​

Click here to learn more.

MS Windows 10 Whiteboard

​

MS WIndows 10 Whiteboard enables you to just write and draw on your screen (desktop, tablet or mobile phone). If your screen is not a touch screen, you can use your mouse. This is very useful in meetings when you want explain something. Meetings include MS Team meetings where you use video calling or video conferencing. Whatever you write and draw can be stored in a file, and shared via OneDrive, Sharepoint, email or chat with somebody else. 

whiteboard.jpg

Click here to learn more about its features, and here to download the Whiteboard application from the Microsoft Store.

​

The video below illustrates the use of Whiteboard application.

Contact Us

​

Let us know what you think about MS Teams. Would you like to use it? For what would you use it? Do you need some help in setting it up and using it? Please, fill in the form below with your comments and needs, and submit it. 

Thanks! Message sent.

bottom of page