We’ve been going in cycles of remote working for what seems like an eternity now. The Coronavirus pandemic has led to virtually everybody working from home at least some point, this year. Even as we approach the one-year-mark for this deadly outbreak, however, and some businesses are still struggling to properly adapt to remote working and the intricacies therein. Ensuring that your employees remain as connected as possible is undoubtedly one of the most important (and most difficult) elements of home working to get right.
Microsoft Teams has been a revelation for many over the past year, from facilitating international business meetings to keeping teaching going, this software has many benefits. With that in mind, the team here at Nutbourne, one of the leading managed service providers in London, wanted to look at the top five benefits of utilising Microsoft Teams, moving forward.
1. Improved Communications
Undoubtedly, the biggest benefit of Microsoft Teams as a software is that it enables levels of communication comparable with those offered in-person. Though nothing will ever replace the ability to pick up on body language and in-room social cues that being in the same physical location allows, Microsoft Teams comes pretty close. This high-quality is borne out in the number of users now using Microsoft Teams. According to Microsoft’s own data – shown here in a piece by Tom Talks – by October of last year there were 115 million Teams users. That’s an increase of almost 100 million users on the previous year.
2. Effective Beyond The Pandemic
Even when the majority of your workforce is back in the office, the chances are that there’ll be those who want to continue working from home, at least part of the time. A recent YouGov poll reflects this, with 57% of respondents stating they want to work from home entirely or some of the time, after the pandemic. Hybrid working is an increasingly attractive work-model to many employers and implementing Microsoft Teams is one of the easiest way in ensuring the smooth continuation of processes, even when employees are split between the office and remote working. As a managed service provider in London, our main remit is ensuring that your IT setup is optimal, whatever the working setup – that includes remote working.
3. High Video And Audio Quality
In comparison with some of the other leading industry competitors, another area in which Microsoft Teams truly excels is its video and audio quality. One of the main worries for employers when the pandemic first came about was how well their normal processes would continue to be able to be carried out. Poor audio and video quality had the potential to significantly hamper productivity, and thereby economic performance. Thankfully, however, with Teams’ consistently solid video and audio performance, issues such as these have been few and far between.
4. Seamless Integration With Office 365 (Great Functionality)
With businesses – whatever their size – looking to improve productivity wherever possible, software integration is amongst the most important tools in the toolkit. Microsoft Teams integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Office 365. This ability to serve as a truly end-to-end solution is ideal for the workplace, where employees need to access and incorporate documents and information from across the Microsoft suite.
5. Help Integrate New Employees More Easily
Starting a new job is daunting at the best of times, but starting a new job whilst remote working takes that anxiety to a whole new level. The water-cooler gossip, banter and social events that workplaces normally involve are admittedly hard, if not impossible, to replace under the current climate. Ensuring new employees don’t feel all at sea at their new ‘remote’ desk is mainly down to the HR department, but it’s much easier to stay more involved and connected when you’re using a platform like Teams, where instant messaging and quick meetings are the norm.
There’s a risk of a divide opening up between employees brought on pre-pandemic and those brought on during it, socially as much as anything else. Though it might not be able to remove that risk entirely, Microsoft Teams can certainly help mitigate it. Our London managed service provider can help with both in-house and remote IT training for any new employees you take on board, whether they’re working remotely or not.
Quantifiable Benefits
Anecdotal evidence is one thing, of course, however demonstrating, quantifiably, a return on your investment can be quite another. Fortunately, the economic benefits of using Microsoft Teams has also been previously documented. According to a report by Forrester, Teams users saved up to 8.0 hours per week using the software, downtime is reduced on average by almost 15% and IT compliance costs are cut by just over 13%. Uncertainty and a lack of clarity, in terms of communication, lead to poorer performance. These results show that Microsoft Teams helps guarantee that high level of communication, pandemic or otherwise.
Contact Nutbourne
So, if you’d like to find out more about our work as a managed services provider in London, then get in touch! Whether you’re looking how to securely implement remote working strategies or scratching your head as to how to improve your IT for when you’re back in the office, then get in touch! Contact Nutbourne today on +44 (0) 203 137 7273 or by filling out one of our online enquiry forms.