Of all years, this is the year we need World Smile Day. 2020 has been a tricky trot, a rough ride, a heck of a journey. But we’re doing well. Australians have banded together and we can’t help but feel proud of how we’ve navigated the murky waters of a global pandemic.
And now, this Friday 2nd of October, for one single day, we get to put it all behind us and embrace the awesomeness that is World Smile Day. The motto this year is ‘Do an act of kindness. Help one person SMILE!” Which we feel is particularly appropriate. 2020 split us apart and sent us scurrying into our home offices, but it also united us. It made us realise how important friends and family are. It made us come together and help each other.
World Smile Day kind of got us talking here at Smile IT about how we got through lockdown. From an IT perspective, what did we lean on everyday to help us with our workload, our isolation, our need to communicate and collaborate? Not just with our clients, but with our work buddies, our colleagues, our friends and our family. We kept coming back to the same program… Microsoft Teams.
What is Microsoft Teams you ask? Well it’s the communication hub of the Microsoft 365 stack. A place to be a team, even when you’re separated. A platform that allows you to chat in text, audio and video, collaborate on projects in real time and have face to face video conferences no matter the size of your team. It’s been invaluable to Smile IT and many of our clients in solving the communication problems COVID-19 handed us.
So today we want to look at Microsoft Teams a bit deeper. We want to let you know how this special software not only helped us get through lockdown, but put a smile on our dials in the process.
10 Ways Microsoft Teams Makes us Smile
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Video Conferencing
Yes, video conferencing has taken on a new importance in 2020. And yes, we believe Microsoft Teams is the best videoconferencing platform out there. No matter the situation, whether you’re meeting one-on-one, pitching a new product to a boardroom of execs or doing a nationwide broadcast to up to 10,000 people.
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Collaboration
Work together on a project with your colleagues, in real time. It’s no secret that most businesses lean heavily on Microsoft 365 programs like Word, Office and PowerPoint. With Teams, you can jointly collaborate on a document simultaneously. From anywhere in the world.
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Screen Sharing
Keep everyone on the same page and share your screen with call participants in Microsoft Teams. Everyone in on the chat will be able to see the same content, no matter where they are. It’s a massive boost to productivity and collaboration.
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Chat
On a video call with a group of team mates but need to send one of them a private message? The chat feature allows you to send typed messages before, during and after a meeting. These mobile conversations are faster than emails, and can include gifs, stickers and emojis.
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Customised backgrounds
When you’re on a video call or conference, you can choose what you’d like your background to be in Teams. There are professional backgrounds and personal backgrounds, or you could just blur it out to remove distractions. It can help safeguard your privacy, or just add a bit of fun to proceedings, like when you put in the background from your favourite FOX TV show.
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File Sharing and Storage
When you are chatting with a team member or group of team members, you can share files with the chat and they’re saved in a Sharepoint Folder. There’s a ‘files’ tab in the top of the chat where you can access them, and they’re only shared with people in that conversation.
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Digital Whiteboard
The Microsoft Whiteboard is a digital canvas that team members can use as an outlet for their ideas, content and creativity. It’s the ultimate collaboration tool, allowing you to draw and write, sketch and share.
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Control Your Meetings
You host a meeting, you’re in charge. You can mute and unmute people, remove attendees and allow people to present. There’s even a virtual lobby where you can have people wait before entering the meeting.
Microsoft Teams is part of the Microsoft Office 365 service, so as you’d expect it’s developed in accordance with leading security policy and procedure. Data in transit and at rest is encrypted, two-factor authentication is enforced and there is single sign-on through active directory. Teams utilises the same principles as the Microsoft Trust Centre.
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Access from Anywhere
Teams works across multiple devices. Just download the app or program and use it from a desktop, laptop, tablet or phone. It handles poor internet connections well too, which increases the mobility of team members.
Well there you have it. If you’re looking for a reason to smile this year on World Smile Day, why not talk to us about how Microsoft Teams can really boost collaboration and communications within your business? Whether you’re based in Brisbane like us or located anywhere within Australia, this is a tool that will put smiles on your team members faces. Get in touch and ask us how.
When he’s not writing tech articles or turning IT startups into established and consistent managed service providers, Peter Drummond can be found kitesurfing on the Gold Coast or hanging out with his family!