When Microsoft Teams was introduced in 2017, no-one could have guessed how it would take over our lives. The pandemic gave Microsoft’s unified communications (UC) platform the perfect opportunity to grow into an indispensable business tool. That hasn’t just meant between departments, but for cooperation and collaboration between customer and supplier. But the basic setup is just that – basic. A little configuration, coupled perhaps with some hardware and software add-ons, can help you make the best of Teams.
◼ How big is Teams anyway?
Most metrics place Teams as one of the top four UC platforms, alongside Zoom, Cisco WebEx and Google Workspace. In mid-2021 it was estimated to have 145 million users. Although Teams is part of Microsoft 365, it’s not always the best choice of communications platform; the basic app comes with Windows 11, but the full setup is pretty hefty compared to the likes of Zoom, and your machine will be signed up to a whole lot of purely Teams-related updates. Indeed, the way Teams takes a grip of your hardware means it may not coexist neatly with other UC systems.
“A little configuration, coupled with some hardware and software add-ons, can help you make the best of Teams”
This awkwardness might have been a big discouragement from using Teams when the platform first appeared
