More than 145 million people are now using Microsoft Teams daily. This platform lets you improve teamwork in the organization like nothing else. With Microsoft Teams you’re able to collaborate and communicate with different teams at the same time.
We’re seeing many different Microsoft Teams collaboration scenarios from our customers and partners that we decided to showcase in this blog post. Since it’s our mission is to improve collaborative processes efficiency at scale in organizations, we would like to share with you different Microsoft Teams use cases to help you improve collaboration in your company.
Microsoft Teams provides its users with a variety of tools for efficient communication and collaboration. Channels, chats, file management, meetings, native and 3rd party app integrations – it has everything you need for successful teamwork. With Microsoft Teams, your employees can stay in touch with teams through channel posts, private and group chats, as well as collaborate and share knowledge and documents.
So, it makes this app useful for an incredible number of scenarios in organizations! As long as a task or a process involves several people Microsoft Teams will have a role to play in.
From what we’ve seen, there are two categories of scenarios regarding the collaboration processes. The first type of team is more related to the organizational structure (Company-wide team, Department level, People Manager, etc). Another type would concern more all the repetitive Collaborative Processes (Project Management, Crisis Management, Deals, etc.)
Today, we would like to share with you a list of Microsoft Teams use cases in these two categories. You’ll find a list of over 30 scenarios. This list has been made from what we’re seeing with customers and partners. We gathered all of this information so that you could implement it or gather inspiration from it. If you’d like to know more about how to define Microsoft Teams use cases, check out this article.
Organizational Structure Level
Repetitive Collaborative Processes
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4 steps to effective use of Microsoft Teams
Let’s imagine that you work in an organization where all of your worker uses Microsoft Teams. Then how can you manage your communication on different levels of the organization? From company-wide teams to department-level or People Manager teams you’ll find below different scenarios regarding Teams usage according to the Organization Structure.
In a small-size company, you need to improve collaboration at the company level. You don’t have that many departments or managers. Do you still think that they don’t need a structured organization? We’re seeing many small size companies implementing a Team dedicated to collaboration at the company level. Below is one example with specific channels in your team:
In this example, there’s a channel dedicated to each department or subject that concerns the organization. You can separate all the content depending on relevant topics and customize your workspace with Tabs, Apps, Planning and much more. Additionally, if you have one intranet, you could add different intranet pages to each channel. So that there’s just one stop shop for every employee in your organization.
In bigger organizations from mid-size to large enterprises, you have different departments according to specific functions. With Microsoft Teams you can create dozens of teams relevant to your departments. Create the following teams:
In this scenario, you can create teams for any department in your organization, add members, and create relevant channels for focused discussions. This way, your employees can plan a long line of production processes in the Production Department team or perform interviews with candidates through Meeting channel in the HR team. Let’s look in detail which channels you can create in different departments.
In the same way, you can create teams related to the Business Units in your organization. In general, a strategic business unit division helps you run all processes as a completely separated business. Follow the example below:
What if you are a store sales manager who is responsible for sales in all shops in the US? How do you create a structure for all sales reps in different regions? In addition, you should compare results and develop branches in the country you work in. Well, you could build a team for each one of them in Microsoft Teams: create teams depending on the region, city, or district:
Next, you can add the Reports Channel in each team for weekly reports sharing. Thus, you can manage your sales, compare results from different regions and structure your sales process.
What if your company works all over the world? Furthermore, maybe you have hundreds of employees who speak different languages? You can also solve this problem with structured teams. For example, add the name of the country to your newly opened warehouses and manage distribution between different countries:
With Microsoft Teams the location of your workers doesn’t play a big role. They can still manage the supply chain and goods logistics through Microsoft Teams in collaboration with your internal tools.
People Managers are key for a proper organization structure. They manage teams at all levels of the company while ensuring effective collaboration between different teams. People managers can easily organize their collaboration with directs in a team, add people in their team or close collaborators. Similarly, they can add all the content needed for the team, share relevant information, and align the team. Thus, employees will be able to report to their manager right in the channels while sharing relevant information for their colleagues. Here is one example:
Now we’ve seen different types of teams related to the organization structure. Of course, there are plenty of other Microsoft Teams use cases around repetitive processes like Project Management, Crisis Management, etc. Here is the list!
In your company you have to work on various project tasks, collaborate with other peers to launch a new product or to resolve a crisis. Building a team in Microsoft Teams is a perfect space for that! Each time needed, create a team, add the relevant people, tabs, files, apps, and you can collaborate easily. You’ll find below a significant list of scenarios where teams are used to collaborate across the organization for collaborative processes that are being repeated each time!
As a Project Manager, your main challenges are miscommunication in your team, meeting deadlines and collaboration frictions. With Microsoft Teams you can easily solve those issues. For example, by creating a list of relevant channels, you can set up the right communication system. Make sure everyone is aligned so that collaboration on your project becomes much easier.
Look at this example of possible channels:
You can analyze your results in the Business Case channel or set up a brainstorming session in Team Meeting channel. Use a Planner tab to share different tasks with assignments, etc. As a result, your team members will know exactly where to share documentation or follow daily activities.
Learn more about Project Management with Microsoft Teams.
In Crisis Management it’s extremely important to act fast and not to loose time on manual repetitive tasks. In Microsoft Teams you can quickly build a team to handle any crisis in your organization. Create channels for fast and clear communication:
In addition, you can add a Planner to define and prioritize tasks. The written plan should include tasks and deadlines according to your crisis management strategy.
We understand that during the merger and acquisition process you need to ensure your private information protection while collaborating with all the stakeholders. With Microsoft Teams, you can easily create channels, share documentation in a private team, and even use private channels and communicate with external partners through video calls (even if they don’t use Microsoft Teams). For instance:
In a sales process, sales reps as well as employees from other departments need to collaborate on the proposal implementation/ RFP response for a potential client. During the creation process Sales Manager, Compliance, Finances, and Experts collaborate to demonstrate all that they have to offer. While collaborating in Microsoft Teams they can:
Generally, there are many stakeholders involved in construction site operations. In this case, you can provide your team with a clear and structured space for sharing information. In order to do so, build a team for each of your new sites with these channels as an example:
Meeting deadlines and commissioning in time is your crucial goal, which can be achieved thorough planning. Manage the planning process with Planner tab in Microsoft Teams.
A new store opening always involves many stakeholders. You collaborate on everything from choosing the location and budget planning to sales management and advertising. You can create many teams in Microsoft Team and simplify the collaboration process with all the team members involved:
In addition, build reviews with Microsoft BI or take up the design ideas through relevant topics in channels
Manage and simplify the procurement process for your team. With Microsoft Teams, the procurement team can communicate with other departments regarding new purchase management. It can also make quick reports with supporting documentation. Check the possibilities:
Let your retailers and suppliers work together on business contracts, metrics measurement, and reduction of manual labor. With Microsoft Teams it’s possible to:
Follow the example of channels:
Factory management is a huge system that should work perfectly in terms of uninterrupted production and cost reduction. Create relevant channels according to business units and manage in collaboration with:
With Microsoft Teams you can review, forecast, and adjust manufacturing and production with no resources wasted.
As a result, with Microsoft Teams you can easily communicate in real-time between the necessary personnel and coordinate resources to manage operations.
You can create a team to collaborate around audit with people in the finance department, compliance, and other stakeholders with relevant channels to aggregate and report on data. Manage conversations and meetings safely and securely in a single place. Upload team files to the channels such as:
In addition, with relevant apps, you can pin critical files, intranet portals or websites.
When doing Key Account Management, not only sales have interactions with a customer. Many people in an organization interact with key accounts – from customer support to marketing or engineering. With a Key account Management team, you can gather all this information and align anyone in the organization that has interaction with your key accounts. Set up the ideal collaboration for key account management with the following channels:
In addition, create daily tasks to control processing and closed deals.
In airline companies, it’s extremely important to build a strong collaboration process around Aircraft. We’ve seen some very interesting scenarios where an aircraft team has to facilitate collaboration. Here is one example:
Use Microsoft Teams to perform Maintenance Repair and Overhaul with minimum impact to customers. Create different channels and work together to find the best possible solution for the company and impacted passengers. Here is an example:
The work with customers is always a crucial point in the service sector. And of course, during the aircraft collaboration, the company has to deal with irregular incidents. For example, overbooked flights, delays due to de-icing, and many more. In order to decrease the negative impact on your customers, you must find the right solution quickly. With Microsoft Teams you can:
Learn more about how to empower Customer Support with Microsoft Teams
Launching a new product involves many people in an organization: engineering, sales, marketing, legal communication, etc. Teams is the perfect home to collaborate on a product launch so that everyone is aligned. He is an example:
You can build a new business partnership and grow brand loyalty in close relationships with partners and customers. You may rely on your partner collaboration in teams both with employees from your organization and with the ones from the partner’s guest members. Here is an example of a team to collaborate building a new partnership:
You can monitor your social media presence and coordinate with the social media management team. In case you need to handle a new crisis with a team in place, you would be able to build an immediate plan in Microsoft Teams. In addition, you can quickly connect to analyze customer and public responses. Here is an example of a Social Media Management team:
Easily coordinate and solidify your marketing and distribution strategy. Rest assured, with Microsoft Teams you will be able to cater to a growing online customer base. Follow the examples below:
Create a team for your marketing group to create, collaborate, and show results while working with people from outside and inside the company. Thus, with Microsoft Teams you are able to manage marketing campaigns and social events, collaborate on content creation and plan events. Create the following channels:
Connect relevant third-party services for each channel to improve collaboration.
Microsoft Teams can help your HR team to manage recruitment, as well as to share resumes and interview notes, to keep track of candidate information and to communicate on hiring decisions.
Add channels and share all needed documentation through relevant channels:
Upload team files to the channels, such as HR policies, candidate information, HR portals, feedback forms, and surveys.
You can automate your onboarding process with a created planner and daily tasks. Create the following boards and manage the onboarding process:
Allow your new employee to learn everything about your company in a structured way. In addition, attach files, learning videos, and articles.
Make compliance training a positive and fun experience for your employees. Thereover, ensure the training stays relevant for each job title. You can work step by step with:
Microsoft Teams is integrated with developer tools, enabling continuous discussion across a distributed team. Add Channels to organize and discuss topics:
In addition, schedule and hold regular meetings in Teams with key stakeholders.
Learn more about Microsoft Teams for Engineering.
Enforce your communication efficiency, keeping multiple work processes in Teams. For example, work together on the design and create prototypes for a new line of products. In this case you should:
Bring the academic world to your students and normalize it as a part of their everyday life.
Look at the examples for different Teams:
Learn more about Microsoft Teams for Education.
SalesTim is a collaboration process management app that allows you to achieve operational excellence at scale.
With Collaboration Templates you can build your own Template Catalog for your key business processes: project management, sales deal rooms, crisis management, recruitment process, and others. In this way, users will get collaboration spaces replicated from the company template, with everything needed for an efficient collaboration: structure, templates, files, folders, set of tasks, content, etc.
Leverage advanced Governance Policies associated to collaboration templates to create hundreds and thousands of teams with confidence. Your IT will love it: naming rules, team creation approval, permanent members, define who can use your templates by targeting audience, sensitivity label and much more.
Finally, get connected to apps that manage processes: get teams created for Salesforce records, Asana projects, Trello boards, and so on.
Contact our team to learn how to improve your collaboration efficiency. Rest assured, we will find an ideal solution for your specific business needs.
