After the launch of Microsoft Teams in 2017, Microsoft announced plans that the platform would eventually replace Skype for Business. On 30 July 2019, Microsoft officially announced that Skype for Business online would be retired on July 31, 2021, in favour of its enhanced ‘successor’, Microsoft Teams. But what exactly is Microsoft Teams?
In 2016, Microsoft announced Teams to the public as a direct competitor to Slack, an instant messaging and workflow management platform. With 28 of the Fortune 100 companies as clients, Slack seems to have established itself pretty well, but as Microsoft Teams forms part of the Office 365 suite, companies with subscriptions to the suite may start to reconsider the additional expense of platforms like Slack if they have access to a ‘free’ alternative.
So, what exactly can Microsoft Teams do for your company?
Seen as the ‘natural evolution’ of Skype for Business, Microsoft Teams is a comprehensive, unified communication and collaboration platform promoting teamwork and streamlining workflow. It combines persistent workplace chat, video meetings, file storage and application integration, and more.
As part of the Office 365 collaboration suite, Microsoft Teams has features that integrate with other suite offerings, and can also integrate with certain non-Microsoft products – very handy if you’re managing projects or collaborating with clients or partners using other systems, for example Zoom and Cisco.
In a nutshell, Microsoft Teams is a hub for teamwork. It brings together the best parts of Office 365 in a single tool, and offers your company the ability to communicate and share content in private, chat-based conversations, create Office Online documents, integrate internal and external content and tools, use bots to facilitate your daily tasks and activities, enhance and streamline business workflows, host meetings, have video calls, easily distribute information, seamlessly keep teams and members updated on the progress of projects, and much more.
Have you made the move to Microsoft Teams? Make your Office 365 subscription work for your business today.