MS Teams is still very popular and its usage keeps growing. Some organisations had to start using MS Teams quick as they were not prepared for home working when the COVID pandemic started. Other organisations were already using MS Teams and just had to adjust its usage. Whatever the circumstances using MS Teams is a wise choice. MS Teams is a wonderful tool to collaborate (remotely) with colleagues, customers or relations. It is also a very user-friendly tool, which some users quickly adopt. Yet there are dangers and pitfalls lurking when you as an organisation get started with the implementation of Teams. At Tech-Wales we are happy to share these with you.
Make sure to organise training for your staff
Giving your employees an account with login details for MS Teams is not enough. You can’t assume that everyone knows how to use MS Teams on their own. Microsoft Teams is really a different way of working and communicating. That is why user training is needed to explain to colleagues how MS Teams is intended, which functionalities it has and how to use them. Also make sure that you organise different training for different levels of users. Also some staff need more guidance than others.
Ask yourself security questions
How do you deal with sharing company information via the MS Teams platform? Both inside and outside the organisation? Do you use multi-factor authentication? Do you want to work on projects together with suppliers and relations? And how do you deal with roles and rights when a project has come to an end? These are just a few questions that you need to answer for your organisation when setting up Teams.
Involve staff and colleagues in the implementation
Is everyone in your organisation going to use MS Teams or just people in a certain position? What functionality will you and what will you not enable in Teams? You will no doubt have your own ideas about this. However, it is important to involve your colleagues and staff in this decision making. If you don’t, you run the risk that the implementation and acceptance of MS Teams will not go smoothly. People will then have a tendency to hardly ever use MS Teams. Choose a good IT partner who will monitor the implementation with you. In addition, start with a group of ‘key users’ who drive the implementation of MS Teams within the organisation. These ‘key users’ prefer to be in different departments and expertise within the organisation, in order to create support. You will also retrieve useful information because different departments work differently.
Prevent a proliferation of teams and channels
The MS Teams environment should be a reflection of your organisational structure and business processes. How do you communicate within the organisation? Is this happening at department level, at project level or both? The design of your MS Teams environment is based on this. So take a good look at which teams and channels you create and be aware of a proliferation of channels. You can make agreements about the number of owners per team and who has the right to change things. Our tip to prevent a proliferation of teams and channels: work together with a strategic ICT partner. This partner asks the right questions and thinks along about how best to structure your MS Teams environment.
Tech-Wales – Implementing MS Teams
At Tech-Wales we are experts in MS Office 365 consultancy. We can provide you with you with essential support and advice when you want to set up MS Teams for your business or want to streamline MS Teams. combined with our excellent business IT support we can provide your organisation with the complete package. Feel free to contact us to discuss.