If you have been following this blog, you’ve definitely heard about Microsoft Teams!
I mean, what’s there not good to hear about it – Teams is an incredible platform that offers innovative and collaborative business software and is used widely for remote work. And as some employees begin to return to (and others stay home from) the office, there are some exciting features in Teams that will support your organizational goals both in and outside of the office!
But first, what is Microsoft Teams?
Microsoft Teams is a next-generation calling and meeting experience, built on Office 365's hyper-scale, enterprise-grade cloud. The platform combines workplace chat, meetings, notes, and attachments for an intuitive collaborative experience.
In fact, many organizations already use Microsoft Teams – it has become a vital asset to businesses as remote work became the norm over the pandemic. But even as the pandemic gradually dies down, the push for remote capacity has not slowed down, even as the business world has begun to transition out of the pandemic. In Microsoft’s 2022 Work Trends Index Survey, remote jobs on LinkedIn were attracting nearly 3 times more applicants compared to on-site roles. As companies grow their workforces in 2023, they’re investing in the hybrid tools to support a better virtual experience – with 57% investing in hybrid-friendly meeting rooms.
The Latest Teams Features for SMBs and Enterprises
And Microsoft is keeping up with this trend or work arrangement preference employees now have, and is rolling out new features in Teams all the time. Some updates have included:
Together mode: Uses AI to virtually display participants in a shared background, making it feel like everyone's sitting in the same room during meetings
LinkedIn integration: Allows participants to connect with each other and view information on LinkedIn without leaving the Teams app
Whiteboard: Lets participants write together on a shared virtual canvas
Microsoft Teams Rooms: Connects participants to hybrid meetings more seamlessly than ever before
New features for government accounts like bots and webinar capabilities
New features for educator accounts like attendee video management and music play notifications
The Evolution of Microsoft Teams
Microsoft is indeed constantly building visionary features into Teams that will assist businesses adapting to the exciting new ways people are working with technology. With hybrid meetings, connections between on-premises employees and remote employees are smoother than ever thanks to Rooms, which provides an immersive and inclusive experience for all with face-to-face video layout and positional audio.
Teams meetings can also be enhanced by Microsoft’s large offering of streaming equipment. New innovations in Teams makes it easy to:
Collaborate on the agenda prior to the meeting so each meeting is effective
Collaborate simultaneously on notes and assign tasks in Teams or OneNote during the meeting
Brainstorm and collaborate on the same digital canvas with the new Microsoft Whiteboard in Teams
Recap to help meeting participants and those who were unable to attend stay on track
Microsoft is also making meetings more engaging by adding various modes to match the content and style of different meeting types.
For example, Together Mode allows teams to enter a virtual conference room where team members are visually organized together with a shared background.
Or presenter mode is available, which allows a user to share presentations easily in a virtual meeting.
Along with these features, employees can stay better engaged before, during, and after the actual meeting thanks to tools like loop components, whiteboard, and meeting recap. Those are the big features, but there are many more exciting tools to explore in Teams.