Microsoft Teams in easy steps

Master MS Teams and don't get left behind!

Nick Vandome

• Publisher: In Easy Steps Limited
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781840789416
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business Skills
• Index: Business

Evolving digital communication, and the way workers use it to interact with each other, is a constant feature of the workplace. However, the Covid-19 pandemic has dramatically altered the way that millions of people around the world work, and this has led to a considerable rise in the number of people using remote working options such as collaborative software and video communication.

Microsoft (MS) Teams has emerged as one of the most powerful and flexible tools for linking workers in an organization, whether they are in an office environment or working remotely. Teams can also be used in a school or higher education setting if students have to access classes remotely. Teams can be used to create dedicated groups of people (teams), who can then interact with each other on specific subjects. This interaction can include text chats, video calls, document sharing and even knowledge Wikis.

MS Teams is a comprehensive work tool and at first sight it can seem somewhat daunting. However, Microsoft Teams in easy steps is the perfect guide to understanding Teams and becoming a fully-integrated team player. The book looks at all of areas of using Teams, including:

• Obtaining Teams
• Learning the Teams interface
• Getting started with creating and joining teams
• Expanding the functionality of Teams with the use of Channels
• Using Chat to communicate with colleagues
• Joining and scheduling meetings
• Using video to communicate with individuals and groups
• Sharing documents for a fully collaborative experience with Teams
• Increasing the options within Teams through the use of apps
• Expanding the knowledge base of your organization with customized Wikis

Microsoft Teams in easy steps is the book to help you keep up with the constantly evolving workplace, and ensure that you are not left behind in any aspect of a team-working environment.

Table of Contents

• The Workplace Revolution
• Setting Up Teams
• Getting Started with Teams
• Creating Teams
• Channels and Tabs
• Text Chatting
• Organizing Meetings
• Video Meetings

1

The Workplace Revolution

Millions of people spend their working lives in offices, and this chapter shows how this has evolved.

The Changing Face of the Workplace

Working From Home

Getting Set Up

Teams Comes of Age

Security Issues

The Changing Face of the Workplace

The concept of an office workplace, where a group of people are located together to perform a range of productivity tasks, can be traced back to the Romans, who had government establishments in their towns to manage and run the towns’ affairs. These were known by the name “officium”, from where the modern word used today comes.

Office work – and its environment – has evolved significantly over the centuries, largely as a result of political, social, and technological changes and advances. Three of the main areas that have driven these changes are communication, productivity and collaboration, and each of them can be linked to technological developments that have changed the way in which office work is performed. All of these factors have also helped to shape the modern office workspace, which relies heavily on digital technology and, increasingly, tools such as Microsoft Teams.

New technology in the workplace is only as good as the people who use it, so it is important for organizations to invest in comprehensive training for employees whenever any new technology is introduced.

Communication

Communication is one of the most important aspects of office work, and the telephone was one of the most significant breakthroughs in this area. Being able to communicate with someone in another town, city, country or continent transformed the speed at which business could be done: one telephone call potentially replacing the need to send a letter to another part of the world. Once telephony communication was established, it made the concept of global business much more attainable.

Productivity

As with most workplaces, the office environment is largely concerned with producing output. One way in which this was increased considerably was with the invention of the humble typewriter. This led to documents being produced in a fraction of the time than previously, resulting in this skill becoming one of the main features of the office workplace.

Collaboration

Being able to quickly share documents electronically around different locations is another landmark in making the modern office more efficient and productive. One of the first ways of doing this was achieved by a device that is now frequently viewed with amusement and gentle ridicule: the fax machine. Despite its slightly archaic nature to workers brought up with the internet, email and social media, the fax machine was revolutionary in its time, with its ability to send copies of documents to locations around the world, using existing telephone infrastructure.

The modern office workplace

While the modern office workplace may seem a long way from the days of typewriters and fax machines (although they are still used in some instances) there has been a natural evolution in terms of communication, productivity and collaboration tools. Computing technology has been the main driving force behind this – in some cases, consolidating all of these functions into a single device.

The natural development of the modern workplace is now being seen in collaboration apps that combine all of the main functions in the workplace. Microsoft Teams (Teams) epitomizes this, with its ability to connect groups of office workers – or those in other environments such as education – so that they can communicate, share documents and even collaborate on creating new documents. The functions of Teams can be traced back through the history of the workplace, but it is definitely a very modern tool that can provide invaluable assistance to office workers.

Teams is free to download and use, and there is also an upgraded version that can be purchased as part of the Microsoft 365 suite of apps or from within the free version of Teams. The upgraded version includes unlimited users (the free version allows up to 300), an increased amount of storage for documents (1TB per user for the paid-for version; 1GB per user for the free version). There are also additional administrative functions in the paid-for version.

Working From Home

In terms of working from home, the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated a process that was already taking a firm hold in the digital workplace. For people who work primarily with computers, there are few arguments to prevent them working from home for at least part of their time at work.

As with any major shift in working practices, there are numerous areas to consider when working from home, for both the employer and the employee. If these issues are addressed constructively, practically and progressively, then working from home can bring enormous benefits for all concerned and transform the way in which we look at our working lives.

Just because employees have more free time as a result of working from home, this does not mean that they should feel they have to use it in an outwardly constructive way, such as starting a new hobby. The important thing is that the time available should be appreciated and it can be used in any way that people see fit, even if that is to do nothing in particular.

Benefits

Although there are some concerns that should be addressed when employees are working from home, there are many benefits:

•Work/life balance. The concept of striking the right balance between your working life and your home life is something that is widely talked about in modern society. With the traditional 9-5 model of office work, this can be hard to achieve effectively. However, working from home offers a genuine option for workers to adapt their time at work so that they can maximize the benefits of their free time.

•Financial. For workers who have to commute to work, the option of working from home can result in considerable financial savings. If people have to commute large distances then the savings can be dramatic, particularly when calculated over a year. Even if a daily commute is relatively short, savings can soon mount up over time. Added to this are savings that can accrue from miscellaneous expenditure during the working day, and it soon becomes clear that the financial benefits to the employee are one of the most attractive features of working from home.

•Corporate savings. Employers can also benefit from their employees working from home. Maintaining office space for workers is a considerable expense for businesses, and if they have hundreds – or thousands – of employees, ...