So you’ve got all these people, and a lot of technology. How do you bring them together to achieve a successful outcome for your organisation? From a budgeting perspective, they’re often looked at in separate silos – headcount budget and IT budget – but neither works without the other, so why not make them both better together?

At Utilize, we’ve spotted a brilliant opportunity for businesses to do this in the form of Microsoft Teams. Naturally integrated into all Office 365 apps, and available to commercial users of Office 365 across a variety of agreements, this new chat-based tool offers the ability for any organisation where teamwork is key (ie: every organisation!) to improve their bottom line.

Forget the tools, this is about the task

Microsoft Teams embraces the idea of an environment for optimum performance. No more trawling sites for files, waiting for PowerPoint slides to arrive in your inbox, or conversations that are lost. Full integration with every familiar part of the Microsoft Office Suite, and the newer Office 365 tools, means everything your team needs to work together is in one place.

Real communication, in real-time

By leveraging Skype, colleagues can talk to each other via video, IM and voice within moments. Sentiment, emphasis and voices are maintained, reducing awkward interactions and making sure that everyone is understood. People can chip in using their preferred method without being side-lined to a separate app and documents can be shared, annotated and saved in a way that makes sense to everyone. No more checking a document in and out or waiting for the latest version.

Nothing wasted

When you’ve already invested in technology, you want to wring every last drop of value out of it. Because Microsoft Teams is part of Office 365, many organisations will soon be able to access its benefits at no extra cost.  Microsoft Teams will help organisations to derive even greater value from their subscription by pulling the most useful functionality of Office 365, and the most valuable tools to the forefront of how teams work together.

Reduced risk

Employees using non-approved apps or personal devices to discuss or share company confidential information poses a range of risks to an organisation. Providing a secure chat-based environment people will want to use, that works across all of their devices, reduces the potential of costly leaks or security breaches.

In all, this adds up to people working together in a way that is more efficient, more productive and more human. The ability to make good decisions for the business is increased, reducing the potential for error and lost time. And with your Office 365 subscription working even harder for you, you’ll derive greater value from your IT investment as well as your people – that’s the bottom line.

If you’d like to find out how Microsoft Teams could be great for your bottom line, get in touch.