5 tips for Microsoft Teams you need to know

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Here at Virtuoso we’ve been singing the praises of Microsoft Teams for some time now. We’re users of Teams ourselves and firmly believe that it has the potential to transform the way teams within any organisation work. It’s beauty lies in bringing together different elements of team-working (such as workspace, chat and note-taking) and integrating them seamlessly within the Office 365 platform. So if you’re already using Teams and want some handy tips, or need a few more reasons to get Teams for your business now, then read on! 

Teams is a true game changer in the way workplaces operate and it’s exponential growth is the evidence of this – check out our recent article on How Microsoft Teams has Broken Records within the IT sector for more insights here. Teams has made it possible for teams to work together and liaise in real time, develop projects more efficiently by sharing files, notes and attachments, and also enables an organisation to integrate other technologies such as Planner Power and GitHub into the workspace, so team working methods can develop and evolve over time.

Here’s some of our favourite Teams tips:

1. Avoid Team duplication

This seems obvious but can prove to be a real lifesaver. Before you set up a new Microsoft Team, check to see whether another team already exists to do the same thing. This is particularly important if you allow for the self-service creation of Teams and Office 365 Groups as the Microsoft Teams software doesn’t check for duplicate team names, and could result in confusion. A way around this potential problem is to set up a review of all new Groups or Teams one day after they are created to catch the issue early. Trust us, it’s worth it in the long run. 

2. Naming conventions

This is another habit to learn as soon as possible. Having a strong naming convention for Teams and Groups is a good idea, but it can be tough to enforce if you allow for self-service Team creation. Enforcing naming conventions across your organisation will still rely on good communication but you can automate it to an extent through the Office 365 Admin Centre by blocking certain words from being used or specifying certain suffixes and prefixes to apply to all Group or Team names.

3. Remember a Team is also a Group

It’s easy to overlook, but be aware that every Team is also a Group. When you create a new Team you will also automatically create a new Group. If you are already the owner of a Group and you need to add a new Team, remember to connect it to your Group otherwise it will automatically create another Group with the same name as an existing Group but a different ID number. You have been told!

4. Give each project its own Team

It’s likely you will have some of the same people working on different projects, but it is important to ensure that each project has its own Team. This makes it easier for your Teams to stay focused as well as to find and organise documents, and it will become even more important when Microsoft Teams is updated to allow external users to join a Team.

5. Don’t overdo the planning

A little upfront planning to establish initial channels is a good idea, but don’t overdo it. Each channel has its own Files tab in the Team’s documents library. Setting up a channel which then remains empty adds to the number of tabs that people have to search through to find documents. Better to start with a few channels and add new channels as the project evolves.

Want to know more about Microsoft Teams?
We hope these top tips will help you think about how Microsoft Teams will benefit your business. If you would like to speak with a Office 365 expert that understands how it could work for your business then please get in touch via the button below, contact jamie[email protected] or call our switchboard on 020 3326 3900