Why choose Microsoft Teams over similar options

You might be wondering why you should choose Teams when there are so many other options out there.

In truth, Teams has a whole host of useful features, too many to list here. The best thing to do is to open it up and have a look around. Start a chat with someone you used to bump into in the staff room, or plan a virtual coffee break with your colleagues!

If you’ve been added to some teams already then head into the different channels and start some conversations.

Within the IS Team, we have a channel called Work-life balance. In here you can see colleagues sharing tips, supporting one another and generally staying in touch at a time when it would be all too easy to feel disconnected from those we usually see every day. Without Teams there wouldn’t be that forum.

The Desktop App offers more

We recommend downloading the desktop app to get full functionality like blurring your background and sharing your screen in virtual meetings (especially useful for presentations and technical support).

The whole package

If there was one key reason to choose Teams over other software when working from home then it’s the integrated approach that gives you a holistic way of working.

You may be using:

• Skype for instant messaging
• Zoom for virtual meetings
• Google docs for collaboration and co-writing
• DropBox for sharing files with colleagues
• Outlook for checking your calendar

Teams can do all of this, in one place, at once, in one window. It does so by working seamlessly with the rest of the Office 365 package, including OneDrive, Outlook, SharePoint online and all the other Office products most of us use every day. See our staff Teams Guide for how the tools work together.

Microsoft’s training page has short videos showcasing all of these features and explaining the basics of using them.

Secure and supported 

Office 365 provides all of the security and account governance that comes with a University IT Account. 

Save money on third-party licenses 

Departments can use the functionality within Office 365 to avoid incurring costs for many third-party software licences. Third-party tools may be less secure, and many of them (such as Zoom or Dropbox) offer similar features as Office 365, without the integration or collaboration benefits. 

The development of Teams and Office 365

Office 365 is regularly updated by Microsoft, with new features expected for Teams very soon (including the ability to ‘raise your hand’ in a large video chat, and see 9 participants at once). 

At Kent, we worked hard to bring you Microsoft Teams earlier than planned to help facilitate the sudden shift to home working. This means that new teams are still being set up and even if you aren’t in any teams at the moment, it’s likely you will be in the near future.

The creation of teams in each school and department is being led by directors or delegate colleagues. Speak to them or your IT rep if you have ideas for how you’d like to use Teams.

More features like Power Automate (workflows), Stream (video content) and SharePoint Online are also being worked on in the background and will bring even more potential to Teams when they’re rolled out.

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