Item: Microsoft Teams
Rating: 9
Author: Stephanie Majeran

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I use Microsoft Teams as part of my contractor role with another company. It has been SUPER helpful for keeping me in the loop about what is going on since I'm only in the office with the team members sporadically. The different channels are great for posting things that are relevant for the whole team, the chat function has been helpful as well. I have also used it to conference call in and share screens for training purposes. I like how all of that is housed in one spot, instead of having a separate place for chat and another place for video etc.

Pros and Cons

Great combination of communication avenues
Notification of relevant posts to email, in case you're not logged in

It is not overly intuitive. When I first jumped in, with no training, it took some time for me to get the hang of where everything lived.
Opening other Microsoft apps FROM Teams is ugly

Return on Investment

Streamlined communication for a global team
Perhaps an additional distraction, depending on frequency of posts

Alternatives Considered

Slack

I've used Slack briefly, I found it to be more of a chat tool, rather than a spot to post topics and have different channels, although, I do think it can do that. I do not believe Slack can be used for video chatting, but I may be wrong about that. I didn't feel like Slack was as secure as Teams and the notifications were lacking.

Support Rating

I honestly haven't had to deal with the customer support for Microsoft Teams. I'm just a participant, not an "owner" of it so just use it because that's what they are using! From what I gather, they have been mostly satisfied with it, but with some issues arising since implementation last year.

Key Insights

Do you think Microsoft Teams delivers good value for the price?

Not sure

Are you happy with Microsoft Teams's feature set?

Yes

Did Microsoft Teams live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Microsoft Teams go as expected?

I wasn't involved with the implementation phase

Would you buy Microsoft Teams again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Gusto, Avast Business Antivirus, TeamViewer

Likelihood to Recommend

Microsoft Teams has worked great for this small-ish consulting agency, particularly because they have consultants all over the world. It is a great way to keep us all connected without flooding email boxes and gives one spot to house things to be communicated and referred back to. I like that there aren't multiple tools that are needed to chat, video, and make general posts. Larger firms I think may find it a little less ideal, work would need to be done to come up with relevant channels so that people wouldn't be too overwhelmed with irrelevant information. Likely some policies about what is appropriate to post to a public channel and what isn't would be helpful.

Microsoft Teams works well for smaller, globally based teams

Overall Satisfaction with Microsoft Teams