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Beginners Guide to Microsoft Teams A Practical Guide to Enhancing Enterprise Collaboration, Coordination and Communication Paul A. MaxwellCopyright 2020 by Paul A. Maxwell - All rightsreserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, and scanning without the prior permission in writing by the publisher or author. ContentsIntroduction As more of0us are forced to work from home due to the coronavirus outbreak, the need to find ways to do0our jobs virtually has never been greater. In the face of the isolation and social distancing0now required, we must find alternative ways to collaborate and communicate with other0people, both inside and outside our organizations. A variety of tools are accessible that allow0us to chat, run audio and video calls, and share files with others.

One tool that can help is0Microsoft Teams. Designed for businesses, schools, and other organizations, Microsoft0Teams provides most of the features required to work with other people remotely. You can form0virtual teams and then invite other people to join them. You can chat and exchange messages0with other members of your team, either as a group or individually. You can speak with others0individually or as a group via audio or video calls. You can even create individual channels for0a single team to better organize your chats, calls, and other content.

You can share files with0others and then edit and collaborate on those files collectively. Microsoft Teams works0smoothly with the Office 365 web apps, so you can view and edit Word documents, Excel0spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, and OneNote files. You can also integrate a range0of other Microsoft apps and third-party apps into Teams, which you can then use to incorporate0specific data into your chats or meetings. Microsoft Teams is0available for several different platforms, including the web, Windows, macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and0Android. There are some differences among the web app, the desktop apps, and the mobile0apps. The desktop apps support all the features built into Teams.

The web app fully supports0calls and meetings, but only through Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge. Neither the web app nor0the mobile apps fully support screen sharing. If you plan to use all or most of the features in0Teams, your best bet is to install the desktop app for your specific operating0system. You can tap into Microsoft Teams a few different ways. If0your organization has a Microsoft 365 (formerly Microsoft Office 365) business or educational0subscription, Teams is part of the package and freely accessible. In this case, you should contact0your IT staff or other party to find out how to access the service.

As of March02020, Microsoft is offering a free 6-month Office 365 E1 Trial that includes Microsoft Teams. The0company is providing this free trial due to the increase in the number of people forced to0work from home due to the coronavirus. If your0organization doesn't formally use Teams, you can still grab it for free by setting up access on your0own and then creating teams of people. The free version of Teams doesn't require a Microsoft0365 subscription. You can even use any third-party email address, such as a Gmail address, and0it will be set up as a required Microsoft Account. There are0differences between using Teams through a Microsoft 365 business or educational account and0using it on your own behalf with your own created team.

Going through0a Microsoft 365 account, you can add an unlimited number of users from your organization. Each0team can have up to 5,000 members with 1TB of file storage per organization and010GB per license. This type of account gives you access to such services as SharePoint and0OneDrive for cloud storage and synchronization and Exchange for email hosting and custom0email domains. You can also schedule and record meetings and conduct audio conferences. This0plan gives you dedicated administrative tools to manage users, apps, and features. Microsoft0Teams for Education serves up features aimed at teachers, such as integrated OneNote0class notebooks and assignment management tools.

The free version of Teams0that you'd set up on your own restricts you to 300 people per organization and limits file0storage to 10GB for the entire team and 2GB per person. You can't schedule or record0meetings. This version doesn't integrate with SharePoint, OneDrive for Business, or other0Microsoft 365 services. What is Microsoft Teams? Microsoft Teams0is a persistent chat-based collaboration platform complete with document sharing, online0meetings, and many more extremely useful features for business communications. 0 Having an excellent0team space is key to being able to make creative decisions and communicate with0one another. Shared workspace software makes this much easier to achieve, especially if a0particular team is based in a very large company, has many remote employees, or is0made up of a significant amount of team members.

Microsoft Teams has0many core components that make it stand out from other collaboration software: 0 Teams0and channels. Teams are made up of channels, which are conversation boards between0teammates. Conversations within channels andteams. All0team members can view and add to different conversations in the General channel and0can use an @ function to invite other members to different conversations, not unlike0Slack. A chat function. The basic chat function is commonly0found within most collaboration apps and can take place between teams, groups, and0individuals. Document0storage in SharePoint. Every team who uses Microsoft Teams will have a site in SharePoint0Online, which will contain a default document library folder. All files shared across all0conversations will automatically save to this folder. Online0video calling and screensharing. Enjoy seamless and fast video calls to employees0within your business or clients outside your business. Online0video calling and screensharing. Enjoy seamless and fast video calls to employees0within your business or clients outside your business.

A good video call feature is great0to have on a collaboration platform. One can also enjoy simple and fast desktop sharing0for technical assistance and multi-user real-time collaboration. Online0meetings. This feature can help enhance your communications, company-wide meetings, and0even training with an online meetings function that can host up to 10,000 users. Online0meetings can include anyone outside or inside a business. This feature also includes a0scheduling aid, a note-taking app, file uploading, and in-meeting chat messaging. Audio0conferencing. This is a feature you wont find in many collaboration platforms.

With audio0conferencing, anyone can join an online meeting via phone. With a dial-in number that0spans hundreds of cities, even users that are on the go can participate with no internet0required. Note this requires additional licensing. Full0telephony. Thats right! The days of seeking VoIP vendors and overspending on a phone0system are finally over. Microsoft Teams can completely replace your business existing0phone system. Note this requires additional licensing.

To put it0simply, Microsoft Teams is similar in concept to the popular collaboration software Slack with0a lot more bells and whistles. Plus, Microsoft Teams is included in Office 365 for free. 0 What separates Microsoft Teams from otherplatforms? Microsoft0Teams is one of several team collaboration tools. Its biggest competitor is Slack, and0we pit the two against each other, both have their strengths and weaknesses, but if you need a0tool that works alongside Microsoft 365, Teams is your best bet. Workplace from0Facebook is a similar business-oriented collaboration tool. One of the major differences is0that direct messaging takes place within Microsoft Teams while Facebooks alternative relies0on a separate Workplace Chat app.