A Guide to Microsoft Teams for SMBs

In 2017, Microsoft added a new tool to its Microsoft 365 suite of services – Microsoft Teams. This collaborative communications platform allows businesses to share, meet, and work on files together in real-time. Designed in mind of today’s diverse workforce, Microsoft Teams offers a solution that fits every kind of collaborative group. By adapting to growing remote working styles, Teams is a platform geared towards all business types and sizes. So, as most businesses begin migrating to Microsoft Teams, we provide a guide to help you leverage its features for maximum productivity.

In the wake of the pandemic, Teams offered a way for families, friends, students and colleagues to stay connected. But, throughout this uncertainty for individuals, schools, businesses, this transformative platform helped drive creativity and collaboration. With features such as file collaboration, webinar hosting, real-time messaging and app integration, its potential is not limited to the needs of one sector. All in all, Teams’ centralised approach makes it the stand out choice for remote communication.

A Guide to Microsoft Teams

This comprehensive guide covers the basics of what you need to know about this chat-based communication and collaboration app. So whether you’re new to Microsoft Teams, or you simply want to get the most out of its features, our quick start guide will ease platform navigation. Using our expertise, we explore key features like document collaboration, one-on-one chat, team chat, audio calls, video calls to aid collaboration.

Key actions

Here we guide you through the first key actions you should take in Microsoft Teams to support your productivity:

 1. Sign In

To get started with Microsoft Teams, you’ll first need to install the app onto your desktop or mobile. Launching the app will depend on which device you’re using:

• Windows: Click Start > Microsoft Teams.
• Mac: Open the Applications folder and click on Microsoft Teams. To save the app on your desktop right click on Teams, hover on Options and choose ‘Keep in Dock’.
• Mobile: Tap on the Teams app icon, or search ‘Teams’.

Sign in using your Microsoft 365 username and password. This will have been set up by your administrator when you onboarded, or the licence was issued. For Teams free users, sign in with the username and password you created.

2. Pick a Team and Channel

Microsoft Teams is comprised of teams and channels. Teams are the groups of people set up by a user, with collections of conversations, files and tools. Channels are dedicated spaces within a team, for filtering specific subgroups, projects or topics. Each team comes with a default channel called General.

To find a channel, select the Teams section on the left-hand side. Here you will have listed all your teams; choose a team then pick a channel to explore Posts, Files, and other tabs.

3. Start a Conversation

Teams makes communication quick and easy through its real-time messaging feature. To message your whole team, select Teams, pick a team and channel, write your message, and click Send. If you want to chat to a specific person or private group, click New Chat, type the name, write your message, and click Send.

4. Start an Impromptu Meeting

For efficient updating and urgent notices, a message may not always be the way to communicate them clearly. Instead, meet virtually and minimise the time spent on coordinating and scheduling a face-to-face meeting. In fact, being able to quickly meet and discuss with colleagues can be a productive way to stay informed on short notice.

To start an impromptu meeting, click the Meet Now icon. This will appear where you type a message in a channel. If you click Reply then Meet Now, the meeting will be based on that conversation. Once you’ve started your meeting, enter a name for the meeting – perhaps on your agenda – and start inviting people.

5. Make Video and Audio Calls

You can also use Teams for direct video and audio communication with individual colleagues.

For a video call, click the video call icon in the chat to call someone specific. For an audio call, click the Audio call icon, located to the right of the video call icon. If you want to dial a specific number, click Calls and enter the phone number.

6. @mention Someone

Oftentimes it’s hard to know what messages are relevant to you in larger teams channels. With the @mention feature, you can get someone’s attention and notify them by typing @ followed by their name. This will ensure employees or colleagues will see your messages and can be swiftly called to action.

You may also want to keep everyone in the loop about something, but don’t want to CC in everyone in an email. This is where you can use @team to message everyone in a team or @channel to notify everyone who favourited that channel. This can be helpful for business updates, key notices and meeting reminders.

7. Reply to a Post

In Teams chats you can reply to messages and engage in threaded conversations. This makes conversations clearer by contextualising and centring responses therefore decluttering excess information. Threads also help maintain a conversation without interrupting a different topic in the same channel.

To reply to a specific message in your chat, find the thread you want to reply to, click Reply, write your message, and hit Send.

8. Add an Emoji, Meme, or GIF

Make your messages more expressive with built in emojis, memes or GIFs. This can be a fun and informal way to share your opinions on a project or offer to contribute work.

To send an emoji, meme or GIF, click Sticker under the message box. From here you can choose or search for a meme or sticker, or add an emoji or GIF.

9. Search for Stuff

With traditional messaging platforms or storage solutions it can be difficult to immediately locate contacts or documents. In Teams, this process is simplified with the command box as you can easily find messages, people, or files to get the information you need.

In the right-hand corner type a phrase or name in the command box and press Enter. Use the tabs to refine whether you’re searching for Messages, People, or Files.

10. Get Help in Teams

To access help and resources, click Help on the left-hand side, choose from the following:

• Topics will give you more information on Microsoft Teams features and how to utilise them. These include how-to guides, FAQs and best practices in different scenarios.
• Training offers educational resources to help you implement more advanced features. Here you can join webinars, watch tutorials, try demos and take certification courses.
• What’s new keeps you informed about recent updates and improvements in Teams.

11. Add Apps

Teams enhances and centralises collaboration by allowing you and your teams to integrate apps. For design teams, you can integrate Adobe Creative Cloud apps ensuring seamless group editing and clear feedback. Other popular workplace tools often integrated into Teams include Power BI for visualising analytics, GitHub for coding and Asana for managing tasks and deadlines.

It’s very easy to add and remove apps, simply Click Apps on the left-hand side. From here select the app you want, configure settings, and add it to your Teams.

The below Microsoft Teams page shows just a few ways you can organise, share, chat edit and enhance collaboration:

Speak to a trusted Microsoft partner

As a leading London-based IT support company and a trusted Microsoft partner, we’re more than capable of implementing and managing the latest Microsoft tools. We also specialise in consultancy services, so if you’re looking to migrate your workspace to Microsoft 365, please reach out for a free no-obligation chat about your requirements.

If you have any questions about the benefits of using Microsoft Teams that aren’t answered in this guide, feel free to contact our team at totality services for help.