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Microsoft Teams Channels: A New Way to Work Together


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To understand how Microsoft Teams and channels help groups and organizations work together, let’s first have a brief introduction on what Microsoft Teams and channels are:

What Are Microsoft Teams and Channels? 

 

Microsoft Teams


A Microsoft team comprises people who utilize various tools in projects meant to derive a specific outcome in an organization. The nature of Microsoft team design helps people working closely together get tasks done. Therefore, it is beneficial is especially for project-based work such as launching a product.

There are two main characteristics about Microsoft Teams; 

  1.  Microsoft Teams allow a group to create a public platform that anyone within an organization can access. Microsoft Teams allows up to 1000 members access to the public forum
  2. The Microsoft Teams also enable the creation of a private group. However, only the invited members can access the private team

The Microsoft Teams can help reflect the internal structure of an organization, such as departments since various types of information such as files, conversations, and notes are available to the team members. In addition, it helps in relaying and retrieving information easily.

 

Microsoft Channels


Microsoft channels are specific channels within a team that help to keep conversations within the group. These are platforms where you can carry out the task. The channel stores shared files on various topics or projects within an organization.

Like the Microsoft Teams, the channels can either be open to all within an organization or closed off to be viewed by a select few made private.

The Microsoft channels are most valuable when extended with applications that include tabs, connectors, and bots, increasing their usability to the team members.

 

Team Membership and Roles

 

Team Memberships

Once Microsoft Teams becomes activate for your organization, the team owner can invite anyone to join the platform. The team owner adds members to the program just by keying in their name. Other people can also join to the team as guests if need be.

The team owner is also able to create a team based on the Microsoft 365 group. This will help sync any changes made to the group members in the team's platform.

 

Team Roles

There are two leading roles on the team platform; 

 

Team Owner: 

A team owner is an individual who creates the team. Team owners can appoint any other team member as a co-owner at any point. The advantage of having several team owners is for easier management of the team settings and memberships.

 

Team Members: 

These are individuals invited to a team. Other roles carried out on a Microsoft Team include moderation. The team owner and members can have moderator capabilities once the moderation setup is complete. The moderators can create new posts in the channel and provide abilities to reply to channel messages.  

Team owners have moderation capabilities by default and, therefore, can act as moderators in a channel. In addition, the team owner can add or remove any moderator within the channel.  

 

Team Settings

A Teams administrator in Microsoft 365 has access to system-wide settings from the Team administration center. The settings made by the team’s owner can impact the options team members see under the team’s settings.  

The team owner can manage team-wide settings directly in Microsoft Teams. Some of these settings include:

  1. Setting permission for the creation of standard and private channels
  2. The addition of tabs and connectors
  3. GIFs usage, stickers, and memes
  4. The addition of team pictures 

 

Ways to Make Microsoft Teams Channel Work for You

Microsoft Teams help users to collaborate in their duties. As a team owner, you can help your members work together in a channel through the Teams platform. 
Microsoft Teams is great for managing organizational tasks and promoting cross-functional teams. You can therefore encourage your members to utilize the abilities of the functional team rather than focus on administrative boundaries.
You can also add structure to the Teams platform that will aid in the creation of focused channels that will enhance collaboration within the team. Some of the ways to do this are; 

Simplification through Separation

One of the best ways to simplify the experience of the Teams platform is through the separation of conversation, having different groups for different discussions and tasks.

You can also separate content where you create a new channel for new content. Creating a new channel will also create a matching folder on SharePoint that will store the documents and information for the particular channel.

Using Channels as Hubs

You can use the channels as hubs for meetings by initiating them directly from the channel. In the sessions, you can take notes; track the progress of tasks within the channel.

You can also share your outlook. Users should not have to leave the channel to communicate. 

Therefore you can share the conversation with outlook recipients from your channel. Moreover, the members will view the messages and reply to them while still in the channel.

You can also opt to avoid the email altogether and let members have conversations on the channel. By using the channel to communicate, members can get a fast response and do not need to keep forwarding messages to other people. So, you can use the channel as a great central communication point by all members. 


Users looking at Microsoft Teams


You can also store documents in the channel. Having records scattered in different places can pose a challenge, especially when you need the documents. 

As a team owner, you can encourage your team members to store their documents on the platform. If essential to store documents on the channel, it will save people the time to retrieve information from elsewhere. 

Another way that you can improve your team's experience is through the automatization of your documents.

Conclusion

The Microsoft Team platform is a great way to coordinate tasks within an organization. Proper utilization of the Microsoft Platform can help save time during discussion and tasks review. It is a revolutionary platform of great value in the administration and coordination of people in various organizations.