But how can Microsoft Teams make the most of your employees’ time and increase your organization’s productivity?

Attracting and Keeping Better Employees

A strong digital culture is paramount to attracting new employees. Having the freedom to work remotely without losing effectiveness makes your business an attractive workplace. Whether they are looking to work from home or on the go, Microsoft Teams allow for the kind of digital work environment that attracts the best of the best. A remote work solution that allows for instant, secure idea-sharing also makes location less of a hurdle for potential new employees. It also improves the morale of current employees as well as reduce turnover rates.

Keeping Everything in One Place

Microsoft Teams has everything your team needs for successful remote collaborations in one place. Meetings, chats, files, calls, and tools, all in one convenient package will revolutionize your company’s digital workplace. Keeping everything your team needs in one single and secure location, Microsoft Teams is simply an essential tool for productivity.

Bettering Day-to-day Productivity

Microsoft Teams makes it possible to keep conversations going in real-time regardless of where employees are located. Microsoft Teams can be accessed on mobile devices as well as PCs and laptops, making it possible to keep a conversation going while traveling and to continue without hitch in a new location.

It is easy for all team members to review drawings or emails, share files, and to use chat and video calls. Seamlessly integrated with Office 365, Microsoft Teams is a fully functional system for any workplace that wants to go digital.

Easier Collaborations

Giving your employees the tools to work together digitally automatically results in higher productivity, more mobility, and better communication between teams. It is also easier to keep all your team members up to date on your organization and industry.

Ready to increase your team’s productivity? Contact 6th Street Consulting for a free virtual consultation!

The post Transforming Organizational Productivity with Microsoft Teams appeared first on 6th Street Consulting.

Preview Meeting and Call Experiences on Desktops

Now when you join a Teams call or meeting by using the desktop app, it will open in a secondary window.  That way you can navigate around Teams without losing track of where your meetings or call is located on screen.

More Control Within Teams Meetings

Hosting a meeting, but need a few more moments to get ready?  Now you can have the option of making everyone wait in a meeting lobby when joining a meeting that you have organized.  To access this setting open the Meeting options and then select Only me in the Who can bypass the lobby? field.

(Updated 7/17/20)

Search within a chat or channel

Search makes our lives easier and not you can search within specific channels or even chats.  Just like with typical Microsoft applications Ctrl+F (of Cmd+f on Macs) will bring up a search bar to search for whatever you need.  Works great in any chat, one-on-one or group chat rooms.

Cortana Voice Assistance coming to Teams

While Cortana doesn’t have the most forward-facing role with Windows 10, the digital assistant is coming to Teams mobile app.  In the coming weeks, expect to see Cortana’s voice functionality helping users to schedule and join meetings, send chat requests, share files and more.

(Updated 6/28/20)

Improvements with Safari

No longer will you need to use the dial-in audio conferencing options when using the Safari browsers to operate Teams.  Your device’s built-in speakers and microphone will be available for speaking and listening to the other meeting attendees.

Apps in Chat

App and chatbot functionality has come to private and group chats within Teams.  You can now update apps to be used in the various chat types.

Microsoft Teams introduces some important updates for the Summer of 2020. As everyone works toward the new normal, there’s new territory to conquer in the world of virtual meetings. There are several updates to Microsoft Teams. Here, we will cover just a few of them.

A Larger Group Chat

Those chats are expanding! With the new update, you can include 250 people on the group chat.

Phone Privacy

This update hides the phone number for people dialing into the meeting. The phone number will still show for people who are within your organization.

This update provides important privacy protection for people who may be a guest or who is calling in from another organization.

Teams Now Have Meeting Options

There is a new button in Teams. It is labeled “Meeting Options.” This button appears after you have sent your meeting invite. Click on it to alter the settings for your meeting.

Use it to change things like who can present or the lobby bypass.

Bookings

You can now book online meetings and in-person appointments using Teams. Use Teams to stay organized and on-time for education appointments, doctor’s visits, and more.

You can book only meetings with Microsoft Teams as far as virtual meetings.

This new feature allows designated schedulers to manage the schedules for entire departments as well as their staff.

A New Way to Manage

As remote work becomes more commonplace and people use more video in their workplace, it is important to try to centralize communication.

These updates make a central calendar that includes all virtual communication, in-person appointments, and chats. Keeping things together has just become more manageable.

Larger Groups

There are several updates relating to meeting and group size. The inclusion of up to 250 people per chat is a big game-changer for large companies.

In the past, people using chats had to keep several chats going at once to manage large discussions. As people try to clarify details between groups, the chats could easily multiply. Multiple sub-chats emerged. The larger number of people per chat will help with this sprawl.

250 is easily the largest chat group size manageable for most people. With more people than that, threads become too much to keep track of.

Intuition and Ease of Use

These updates are small yet powerful additions to the capability of Microsoft Teams. Like the updates that usually come from Microsoft, everything is easy to work with and does not require too much thought.

This intuitive design and framework combined with the adjustments in numbers of participants should make it easier for larger companies to adopt Microsoft Teams.

Larger teams are a largely untapped market for this software, which started out with capabilities for smaller offices. There are potentially more updates to come regarding large businesses.

A More Powerful Software

These updates are helping Microsoft Teams pack a lot of power. This software does an amazing amount with a relatively simple dashboard. The question is really how complex people’s meeting schedules are.

There is a lot going on with meetings that take place online. Be sure to check back for more updates as this software develops more features.

The post What’s New with Microsoft Teams (Summer 2020) appeared first on 6th Street Consulting.

Teams came after Slack, but it has a strong competitive edge via integration. This software allows for full integration of Microsoft Office. It also integrates with other apps, and new app capability is being added all the time.

People can easily receive notifications from Microsoft Teams even if it’s not their software of choice. This makes it a strong candidate for large and diverse virtual teams with many different personalities.

Microsoft Teams is a large program. It keeps all of the interfaces from Microsoft, including Office, in one spot. If you are ready to combat the piecemeal nature of working virtually, Microsoft Teams should be on your purchase list.

Master Notifications and the Activity Feed

The first thing you need to do is realize that people get tons of notifications every day. You’ll realize just how many you get once they’re all in one place. Don’t get overwhelmed!

Learn to use the notifications and the activity feed.

Set good boundaries with your notifications settings. Just like with any notification feed, you shouldn’t try to follow every last detail of your contacts’ behavior. Work with what you can work with.

Use the different notification settings, and turn off different teams you don’t need to hear from right then.

As with most Microsoft products, there is a lot of user-friendly capability with these features.

Learn Teams Commands

There is a good-sized list of commands that will make your day go faster. They are intuitive and easy to learn. Use them just like you would any shortcut command for programming or accessing a computer.

The commands are the fastest way to set your status (such as Do Not Disturb or Be Right Back) and call people.

Focus Mentions

Mentions are a great tool for communicating with lots of people. As with all interfaces, it takes some discipline not to overuse personal mentions and channels.

The mentions are intuitive. Use the @ sign followed by someone’s name to mention them directly.

Use tags to mention people in a group by their tag name. For example, if you are managing a team of writers, you can get everyone a notification by categorizing various names under the team “writers” and then using “@writers” to send them a notification.

Make Great Video Calls

Video calls are a whole different idea than in-person meetings. It’s too easy to have a clamoring meeting of voices. People have to practice good video etiquette, but what really helps is appointing a chairperson for the meeting.

The chairperson should give clear direction. They can utilize non-distracting background effects and direct people to use the mute button where appropriate.

It will take some practice to form strong teams that listen to each other on video calls. Start off on the right foot by clearly outlining rules for everyone. Appoint a chairperson right off the bat.

It is easy to share meetings with people who couldn’t attend on Stream.

All in One Spot

Microsoft Teams is the software for people who need to take control of their desktop. It does take a little bit to learn, but the truth is that you are probably spending that amount of energy jumping from app to app anyway.  Dive right in and experience the difference when you manage everything from one interface.

The post Become An Effective Microsoft Teams User appeared first on 6th Street Consulting.

In the past, Zoom has been an incredibly popular product for holding these meetings. Microsoft Teams has long offered a viable alternative to Zoom, with significantly better security measures that result in a Tier-D security compliance rating. This compliance rating makes Microsoft Teams usable for even the strictest government sector meetings. Meanwhile, Zoom has come under fire during the Coronavirus outbreak for weak security measures. Some of these Zoom breaches have come to be referred to as “Zoombombing”, but they are no laughing matter.

Microsoft Teams Features Compared to Zoom

Microsoft Teams offers several important security features that Zoom does not. Besides having a greater emphasis on the security features of its products, Microsoft has greater bandwidth to deal with providing quality service.

Microsoft is a more mature company and deletes user data after accounts are removed. The company works hard on creating transparency reports, which Zoom is still working on creating for its users.

It’s important to note that several government agencies have banned using Zoom for their business, given the recent security breaches and the lack of cooperation with law enforcement on the part of the company.

Microsoft offers a detailed report on the security measures they take, including how their protocols for data transfer are stored and what they do with data. As an added benefit, Microsoft Teams does not utilize ads in their product.

Microsoft Teams For Government Agencies and Defense Contractors

We are sure that government agencies like defense contractors and schools are getting a better product with Microsoft Teams. Given the recent choice of other government contractors to stop using Zoom, we offer Microsoft Teams as a superior option.

You have a lot more control over how you manage security in Microsoft Teams, and we are happy to offer demos at our company. Microsoft is a much older company and has a stronger culture in security than other newer products, like Zoom, can offer.

We encourage you to try it for yourself, but we also encourage you to review Microsoft’s detailed outline of the transfer protocols for Teams. This report offers insight into how the security ratings are achieved and why Microsoft Teams is HIPPA-compliant.

The post Microsoft Teams vs. Zoom Meetings in the Era of Coronavirus appeared first on 6th Street Consulting.

Integrated Outlook Experience

Teams are where work gets done.  And today, a lot of work and time goes into email communication.  Teams set out to make your email work harder and improve the way that employees communicate and collaborate with each other.  By integrating Outlook and Teams, you can now move a Teams conversation from Teams to Outlook with just a few simple clicks.  Additionally, you can take an email conversation and move it to Teams (including images, tables, and attachments).  Learn more about this new feature.

Targeted Communication

Teams is smart.  When it comes to communication, Teams can help you to define the audience that you need to message automatically.  By using an @tag, Teams allows a user to message an entire audience associated with that @tag with just one click.  Need to message the entire marketing department about a new product, use their @tag (for example @marketing), and in one-click, your message is ready to send to the whole group.

Files Powered by SharePoint

Never lose track of a file again.  With the new Teams file experience powered by SharePoint, the File tab of a channel includes the ability to sync files directly from your PC.  Now you can see previews of file types including images, videos, Microsoft 365 files like Word & Excel, and much more directly within Teams.

Stay tuned to the 6th Street Consulting blog for more updates on the latest functionality coming to Microsoft Teams, and contact us if your company or organization is looking to customize or optimize their Teams experience.

The post What’s New with Microsoft Teams Functionality appeared first on 6th Street Consulting.

There are numerous benefits of Microsoft Teams and how they can help your business.  From boosted efficiency to improved collaboration and communication, Microsoft Teams empowers businesses to thrive.

Talking with staff around our office, we compiled a list of our favorite aspects of Microsoft Teams to provide you with no-nonsense benefits and ways it can help you too:

Agility

Teams is a tool with purpose and incorporate conversations from both email and chat and improve the quality of these conversations to cut down on the number of emails and chats necessary.  Additionally, logging all the communication in one place being able to circle back and view conversations and files cuts down on wasted time and eliminates unnecessary conversations.

Customization

Microsoft Teams is extremely flexible and can be customized to meet the needs of any user.  The software promotes connectedness among staff and can be displayed using the branding of a business for unique personalization.

Collaboration

Collaboration is more than a buzzword; it is the new way of doing business.  Rarely are decisions made solely by one individual, so having the ability to quickly come together and collaborate increases the likelihood of decisions being made together and more quickly than ever before.

If your company is still deciding on whether to adopt Microsoft Teams, take it from us and get started.  Not only will it provide improvements in communication, but it quickly will become your go-to business tool providing sleek and easy communication and transparency of information.

Download our free Microsoft Teams Whitepaper to better understand the platform and how 6^th Street Consulting’s talented group of developers and architects can help you maximize the resources of your first-line staff.

The post Real World Advice for Incorporating Microsoft Teams into Your Business appeared first on 6th Street Consulting.

According to Forrester Research, the amount of time Microsoft Teams saves businesses has a direct correlation to how much money Microsoft Teams saves businesses.

First, let’s look at time.

• Workers save 4 hours/week because of Microsoft Teams’ improved collaboration and information sharing platform.
• Employees sit in meetings 18.9 percent less of the time because of Microsoft Teams.
• Microsoft teams replaced 150 trips with just-as-successful online meetings.
• Decision makers made choices 17.7 percent more quickly with the help of Microsoft Teams.

Here’s how that translates into money saved

Based on a study of businesses over three years – Forrester found a $30.3 million impact.

Companies saved:

• $6.9 million being more effective in meetings.
• $451,300 making faster decisions
• $4.8 million not having to consistently switch and cater to different applications with remote workers

“Teams is a cohesive environment where a user has access to everything in one place,” GM, telecoms.

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Stress doesn’t always need a negative connotation. Think about it – if we were never stressed about anything… we’d never get anything done. But it’s all about leverage the right stress to maximize the quality of work out of your employees. It’s important that balance is struck, though, because while good stress can scientifically boost creativity – bad stress can reduce both creativity and engagement.

Here are some ways employers can find that middle ground.

• Dole out sizeable, yet challenging workloads
• Give employees a variety of responsibility (helps with engagement levels and nixing monotony)
• Make sure each role/person has a clean job description at the start of every project
• Make sure your teams have the tools to share information in real-time

2: Bridge the introvert-extrovert gap

You’re bound to have a spectrum of these personality types in any workplace. They both respond differently, proactively act differently and think differently. And what sparks their workflow differs greatly, too – right on down to aesthetics.

So how do you uniformly address everyone from side to the other?

• Introverts like their own space. While it’s not realistic to cater to every introvert with a private, corner office – you can provide them with digital autonomy they need to foster an environment that makes them comfortable
• If your introvert employees truly get overwhelmed in large in-person meetings – perhaps some of them can attend via video or phone conference. According to psychologists, that barrier does just enough to make them feel comfortable, while still getting the most out of them on the creative end.
• On the other side, extroverts love the buzz. They feed off crowds and high energy – so let them fly. Give them the digital tools to collaborate in real time, and let them work places other than their desks.

3: Adjusting feedback

Feedback is imperative for growth. But the templated annual-review format is stale, and doesn’t foster true improvement. Increasing the frequency in which employers offer feedback is huge, whether it’s positive or critical.

And not every piece of feedback has to be face-to-face or extremely formal. Today’s more lax social media area allows for a synonymous way of offering critique. With so many chat platforms available within Microsoft, if a piece of feedback does not need to be done face-to-face, it’s easy to reach out with praise or criticism through an online platform. And any feedback – good or bad – lets employees know their employer takes a care and interest in them.

4: Let your employees’ minds roam

“The best things happen when you least expect them,” … or something like that. But it can really ring true in the workplace!

If it’s constantly go-go-go, the brain can’t enter the “default network,” which is defined as a wakeful processing that happens when the mind is engaged – yet not focused on a specific task. When the brain is in this state, complex cognitive activities are supported and a person can tap into imagining the future, strongly recalling memories, taking in information better and developing a stronger level of empathy.

So how can employers allow for this time? Building in unstructured time. Wait, oxymoron? Almost. It’s not a break. It’s not free time. It’s a time slot dedicated to getting your team together in a chill way to look at ways to solve certain problems, or create things.

The post Microsoft’s 4 secrets to employee motivation appeared first on 6th Street Consulting.

Now, we’re not going to go ahead and tell you any one of these products will suddenly sooth clashing personalities – BUT, with features in Teams an SharePoint, we’ll open up all lines of communication and get the ball rolling – so you can focus on any personal fouls.

Interface problems that can inhibit teamwork are:

• using too many contrasting tools,
• inefficient meetings
• inconsistent apps

To the first and third points, uniformity is key. If team members are using different interfaces for email, phone calls, file-sharing, calendar setups… anything, you’ll easily hit a road block. SharePoint’s biggest key is creating a hub that ensures everyone is using the same app or model to do something. And when it upgrades – it upgrades company-wide. So you don’t have someone working on model 4, while someone else is plugging away on 6.5.

How can you work as a team if you’re not even in the same game?

Now combine Microsoft Teams on top of that. You already have a uniform workflow, and now with Teams, you can reach a bigger audience, and bring in that interpersonal and interactive side of things.

Now, to meetings. Don’t make them something for people to groan about.

Managers – if you’re in a meeting and find yourself otherwise occupied on your phone or laptop with other things – re-evaluate the purpose of that meeting, and the purpose of you being there. The same could be said for all other employees, if you’re questioning how essential your presence is, maybe it’s time to regroup the meeting set-up. A great tool to help you track meeting productivity is the SharePoint Analytics tool.

The post Teamwork hitting a snag? We can help appeared first on 6th Street Consulting.

Take your intranet with you to stay connected and informed about important content, news, sites and people while on the go – for those in-between moments. You can easily get back to what’s relevant to you, alongside powerful search capabilities to find what you need, plus provide feedback via comments and likes – all to keep work moving forward.

Microsoft released their latest round of mobile innovations – all driven by customer use and feedback. This is the most significant update they’ve ever done to SharePoint mobile apps. They’ve simplified the apps to help people focus on the tasks they’ve told us they engage daily. This improved information architecture to make it fast and easy to find and work with the people and content you are looking for.

• A new Find tab – What was three is now one, and it’s a super powerful, personal tab infused with AI. The new Find tab makes it the easiest way ever to connect with expertise and knowledge across your organization. It brings a best-in-class mobile search experience, with an intelligent understanding of what you work on, how you work, and how your colleagues’ work relates to you. The new Find tab collapses Sites, Links, People and Search into one, streamlined experience. It, too, is where you will find quick answers, notifications, sites, people and more – in an efficient, tailored flow of what you’re looking for, even before you go looking.

The Find tab, coming to the SharePoint mobile app, uses AI to help you find people, content, and answers to your questions while on the go.

• Direct document library access – as you tap into a SharePoint document library, you will stay within the SharePoint mobile app experience (for viewing and navigating) more before taken through the integrated connection to the OneDrive app – where you can perform richer actions on files and folders.
• @mentions in comments – the same as mentioned above applies to @mentions in comments via the SharePoint mobile app; like Outlook, it is now possible to @mention someone within the comments of a SharePoint news article and that person will be notified and brought into the discussion.
• Notifications for page likes – you’ll receive a notification when someone clicks the Like button on a news article you published. How do you like that? If you do like it, you’ll be notified ?.

6th Street Consulting is a Microsoft technology firm specializing in user productivity and collaboration on SharePoint and Office365.  Our biggest differentiator is we put business before technology in creating solutions tailored fit to your organization.

For additional information please contact:

Michelle Hollis

michelle.hollis@CulverG.com

(310) 694-3844

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