To improve the efficiency of your team’s collaboration and better organize your own tasks, Information Technology Services suggests making Microsoft Teams part of your daily workflow.
Teams is a powerful, flexible and intuitive Office 365 tool that is free to all WVU employees. The Health Sciences Center has its own version, but people can be added as guests to either Teams environment. Learn more in this article.
Microsoft Teams provides a secure, chat-centered workspace where people can quickly communicate, meet with videoconferencing, and share files in real time.
Here are a few examples of how you can benefit:
Manage conversations. Create Teams for tracking projects, conversations and documents. Create separate channels within each Team to further segment by topic, or to restrict them to only certain Team members. Reduce email inbox clutter and easily organize messages by topic. Customize notifications so you can keep track of what’s important to you.
Calendar management. Schedule meetings that automatically align with existing Outlook calendars.
File sharing. Seamlessly store and share files from OneDrive, whether working from your desktop, laptop, tablet or phone. Researchers should be mindful to use only approved technologies for research data storage.
Document version control. Edit documents as a team with built-in SharePoint, simplifying the feedback process without creating multiple copies in email.
Live and recorded meetings. Host voice and video meetings with up to 300 attendees. Turn on transcription for accessibility, and record sessions to share with people who couldn’t attend.
Status updates. Signal your availability for interaction and collaboration with customizable messaging in a Status box. Synchronize your out-of-office notifications with Outlook.
Controlled notifications. Customize in-app and email notifications to determine how quickly you’ll be notified of Teams activity. Turn off notifications for things that are no longer relevant.
Expanded tool set. Connect Teams to other Microsoft apps, like OneNote or Forms. Planner, for example, keeps your tasks organized and sends reminders of upcoming deadlines to your email.
Watch this video to learn more or review this article in the IT Help Center to get started. If you are interested in Teams training for your administrative department or unit, email workshop@mail.wvu.edu.
Note that because students do not have automatic access, Microsoft Teams is not currently suited for academic instruction. However, as WVU continues to modernize, standardize and improve cost-efficiency, ITS is evaluating broader investment in and use of Microsoft products and platforms, including Teams Phone.