Now that I have Microsoft Teams for free, how do I upload my business and human teams to the cloud? Is it safe?

Much has already been said about the litmus test that the COVID-19 crisis is posing for companies, especially in terms of levels of digitalization.

This unexpected viral blow has highlighted the lack of preparation and adaptation to move business from physical offices to the cloud and the online universe immediately: many companies were not prepared to address this new need for remote work. A litmus test that has thrown many into the arms of teleworking and that at the same time is the golden opportunity to integrate a model, that of the home office, which many voices have been defending for some time and towards which we were already walking pushed by the new generations, first, and now by the coronavirus.

Even for a company like ours, in which face-to-face and teleworking modalities have coexisted for a few months, a situation like the current one presents a challenge. But fortunately we had an advantage. As Microsoft specialists, we are not only suppliers but users of Office 365, a suite of corporate applications that we use extensively in our day to day. We know its potential first-hand and from our own experience and that has allowed us some peace of mind, as well as a great advantage, when it comes to sending l@s apasionad@s home and maintaining the company, productivity and our workflow from the cloud. But we keep learning, of course.

Within all this opportunity posed by the COVID-19 crisis, there have been many voices of solidarity at a social, personal, health level… who, understanding the current problems and the one that lies ahead, have decided to lend their shoulders to keep the ship afloat. At the corporate level, Microsoft has launched a series of initiatives as a result of the coronavirus crisis, so that companies, as far as possible, can guarantee their activity and ability to adapt remotely. One of the initiatives that is giving more to talk these days has been to facilitate access to Office 365 E1 and Teams for free for a period of 6 months to companies and institutions in the education sector.

Teams has gained prominence these days as Microsoft’s star tool for remote work. For us, it represents the application that, as a company in the IT sector, allowed us at the time to make the leap to Flexiworking and a lifeline with which many companies and educational institutions will be able to continue their activity in this new scenario. Meetings, time control, shared content, integration of organizational tools, 100% online events and even virtual coffee time. The main needs of remote work are covered thanks to Teams, which is capable of transforming a business into digital in the blink of an eye. A great news and a challenge in terms of technical and safety configuration of work environments, in first steps in the tool and in trainings and extensions to get the most out of it.

One of the keys to being able to adopt a productive and collaborative teleworking model is to have a good digital tool, and with Teams it is achieved. Workers can work remotely without feeling alienated from each other. Teams lets you keep teams connected while working separately. It is based on work teams, shared document repositories, integration of other applications and chat tools, video calls and live broadcasts to reproduce in a virtual way everything that happens in the day to day of the office.

How do I turn my business and my human teams into digital?

• Programming. Teams has a connection to the mail and calendar manager. In this way you can visualize the availability of colleagues, and thus request virtual meetings that allow you to work with the normality of being in the office, exactly like in Outlook, in addition to being able to convert each request into a meeting with virtual room.
• Real-time collaboration. Teams integrates the most common Office suite tools to be able to work collaboratively and in real time. All documents are shared in the archive of each computer, centrally, avoiding the circulation of incorrect or outdated versions of these documents and without possible losses.
• Each work team, individual or group chat incorporates the option to start a conversation instantly in both text and voice and video call. Take advantage of this functionality for daily meetings, to start a conversation with all team members, both from your organization and external (guests) to discuss different points of the day, pending issues, new needs or, for example, the editing of collaborative documents.
• Each team offers a basic structure of chat, files and wiki, and a very useful option to integrate other applications such as Planner, surveys, any Office document (PPT, Word), Notes, etc … Configure your team to suit the team’s needs and work routines.

Microsoft is aware of what it means today to work from home, and therefore allows us to connect to the cloud and work for free. It’s time to empower the team through cooperation, agility and flexibility.

Already using Teams? Do you already know how to take advantage of it? And most importantly… do you know your security and cloud configuration needs to ensure a secure environment? Contact us in case of need or doubt and leave it in the hands of our specialists.