MICROSOFT TEAMS TURNS 1

What is Microsoft Teams?

Teams provide a chat-based collaboration space for business; where users can run meetings, conduct calls, store processes and share documents. Teams is integrated with Microsoft's online office suite Office 365, which means it is tied to other Microsoft Office services, like Word and Excel, as well as its cloud storage and sharing services such as SharePoint. PowerPoint, OneNote, Planner, Power BI and Delve are also integrated with Teams. Additional features include: rich AI capabilities, enterprise-grade security and compliance standards, which have enabled this service to fully function on a global scale.

Who uses Teams?

Microsoft Teams has been adopted by over 200,000 organisations, it is present in 181 markets, it’s translated into 39 languages and has over 120 million users. Big names such as NASCAR, Macy’s and General Motors proudly use the service.

What's Next for Teams?

To celebrate the success of the first year, Microsoft announced additional features that will be launched later this year:

• Cloud recording—Will provide one-click meeting recordings with automatic transcription and timecoding, enabling all team members the ability to read captions, search within the conversation, and playback all or part of the meeting. In the future, it will also include facial recognition, so remarks can be attributed to specific meeting attendees.
• Inline message translation—People who speak different languages will be able to fluidly communicate with one another by translating posts in channels and chat.
• Cortana voice interactions for Teams-enabled devices—Will enable you to easily make a call, join a meeting, or add other people to a meeting in Teams using spoken, natural language. This functionality will extend to IP phones and conference room devices.
• Background blur on video—The ability to blur your background during video calls will allow other meeting attendees to focus on you, not what’s behind you.
• Proximity detection for Teams Meetings—This feature will make it easy for you to discover and add a nearby and available Skype Room System to any meeting.
• Mobile sharing in meetings—Meeting attendees will be able to share a live video stream, photos, or the screen from their mobile device.

Microsoft Teams Team - 2018

They didn’t stop there! Microsoft also announced that Teams is now integrated with many hardware devices:

• Microsoft collaboration devices—Microsoft Surface Hub is a powerful all-in-one large-screen team collaboration device. Microsoft Teams will be natively supported on Surface Hub, enhancing the capabilities of Teams in huddle spaces and meeting rooms equipped with Surface Hub.
• Meeting room systems—Lenovo and HP join existing partners Logitech, Crestron, and Polycom to transform the conference room experience with rich audio, HD video, center-of-room control, and one-touch join. All Skype Room Systems will support Teams meetings.
• Connections to existing equipment—Teams will certify new solutions from BlueJeans, Pexip, and Polycom to support interoperability for meetings in Teams with existing hardware investments.
• Desk and conference phones—New desk phones from AudioCodes and Yealink—and new conference room phones from Crestron, Polycom, and Yealink—run a native Teams application for consistent and streamlined calling experiences.
• Mobile phone stations—New mobile phone stations from Plantronics combine the Teams experience with desk phone capabilities for the mobile user.

Microsoft Teams Team - 2018

Microsoft has been labelled the ultimate hub for teamwork, and as customers, we have to agree! It creates a central space for all of us at Digital First to communicate, share and evolve.