Microsoft Teams brings conversations, meetings and shared work into one application. It can help employees work consistently across office, home and client locations, but only when the structure is easy to understand and the access is managed.
What Teams is designed to bring together
A business can use Teams for:
- one-to-one and group chat;
- online meetings and calls;
- team and project conversations;
- shared files and co-authoring; and
- access to agreed Microsoft 365 applications and workflows.
Start with a clear structure
Creating a new Team for every short conversation quickly becomes confusing. Decide which departments, clients or projects genuinely need a lasting shared workspace and who owns each one.
Use channel names that employees recognise and give important information a clear home. The structure should reflect how the business works, not the full list of features available.
Understand where files are stored
Files shared in Teams are stored through Microsoft 365 services behind the application. Permissions, ownership and retention still need to be managed. Employees should know where final business records belong and when a chat attachment is not the right place for them.
Manage guests and external collaboration
Teams makes it easy to work with clients and suppliers. That access should be deliberate. Confirm who can invite external people, which spaces allow guests and how access will be removed when the work ends.
Support meetings without losing the decision
Meetings, recordings, transcripts and chat can make work easier, but the agreed action still needs an owner. A consistent way to record decisions and follow-up work prevents useful information becoming buried in meeting history.
Keep Teams part of the managed Microsoft 365 environment
Teams relies on employee accounts, licences, permissions and security settings. It should form part of the same joiner, mover and leaver process as the rest of Microsoft 365.
baseMSP’s Microsoft 365 Support includes practical help with Teams, Microsoft applications, accounts and access for supported users.
Further reading
Microsoft maintains current Teams help and learning guidance for meetings, chat, files and collaboration.
