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Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams brings powerful customisation to modern collaboration

I’m pleased to announce the launch of Microsoft Teams, an exciting new tool that developers can build on, experiment with and use as a channel for their existing applications.   

Many of you will have heard about Microsoft Teams when it launched in preview mode in November 2016. Since then, we’ve been thrilled to see more than 50,000 organisations start using it and more than 150 developers and partners commit to building and integrating applications into the platform. This rapid growth is testament to the market’s need for a highly customisable platform for teamwork.

For those not familiar with the latest addition to the Office 365 suite, Microsoft Teams is a chat‑based workspace for the modern workforce. It is designed to suit the way teams collaborate today, bringing people, conversations, content and services into one central online ‘hub’ that team members can access from anywhere via any device.

Teams each have their own channel in which communications occur in one threaded chat. This ensures all work and updates are visible and easy to find. Its built-in voice and video calling capabilities, accessed via Skype, allow speedy collaboration. Expressing yourself becomes easier – and more fun – with emojis, stickers, GIFs and custom memes. You can also organise meetings from the channel and privately message team members.

Importantly, Microsoft Teams can be trusted by IT teams and developers as Microsoft understands the security and compliancy challenges all businesses face. Microsoft Teams ensures organisations can meet the most stringent requirements.

Especially exciting for developers is Microsoft Teams’ powerful customisation capabilities. They not only improve what developers can create and offer customers but also enhance how developer teams themselves collaborate.

Microsoft Teams enables you to pin Office 365 applications into the team channel, from Planner, Word, Excel, Power BI and OneNote to collaboration apps such as SharePoint, Exchange and Yammer. You can also easily integrate third‑party services, such as project management or data analytics tools, social media platforms or news sites. These services can be selected and used inside the channel by clicking on tabs.

Connectors are another great tool that bring content and updates from external services directly into the channel’s newsfeed. For example, tweets can be automatically pulled into a channel if they mention a specific product or phrase, or you can draw relevant updates into the conversation stream from RSS feeds, GitHub projects or Bing News.

Bots can also be integrated into a team channel. You can select a bot or design your own to automate tasks such as prompting team members who haven’t replied to a post, issuing status updates and reminders, responding to queries, or scheduling a meeting that suits everyone’s availability.

 

I have no doubt that Microsoft Teams will revolutionise how teams collaborate. Workers will no longer need to toggle between apps or windows to access the tools they need to get work done or to communicate with their team. Their channel becomes a one-stop workspace, empowering team members to work more productively and effectively.

Two businesses already benefitting from Microsoft Teams are Readify and Objective Corporation

Readify, an applications development and software consulting business, has employees across Australia. Microsoft Teams has proved a valuable tool in connecting its marketing team, and is also being used to create one digital workspace where executives can pull Power BI dashboards and securely discuss and share reports quickly and efficiently from wherever they are.

ASX-listed software developer Objective Corporation is using Microsoft Teams as a secure collaboration platform for one of its design teams. The team comprises business analysts and usability experts who map out innovations for the company’s enterprise content management system. Microsoft Teams has streamlined the team’s design process, focusing discussion and enhancing communication and innovative idea-sharing.

Microsoft Teams currently has connectors from over 70 partners, including Asana, Hootsuite, Intercom, Meekan, Polly, Workato and Zendesk, and more than 40 bot developers integrating intelligent applications. Other developers on board include bitHound, Cronitor, DNSimple, Zapier and Zeplin.

Our platform for developers allows you to build apps, bots and connectors then test and distribute them to your organisation. I’d encourage you to join these partners and developers experimenting with the platform to realise the possibilities Microsoft Teams could open up for your organisation.

You can access the unique Microsoft Teams developer platform at https://dev.office.com/microsoft-teams.

To learn more about Microsoft Teams go to https://products.office.com/en-AU/microsoft-teams/group-chat-software.