Improve Team Culture with These 3 Microsoft Collaboration Tools

Maintaining a positive team culture whether you are in the office or working remotely is vital to the success of any business. In an era of hybrid working, online collaboration has never been more important, which is why cloud-based platforms are essential for ensuring productivity is not hindered and team culture is sustained.

With Microsoft collaboration tools, maintaining connectivity in the workplace, and enabling collaboration is more attainable than ever. 

Microsoft has developed a series of applications that nurture and grow team culture, regardless of what challenges may come up. These tools all integrate with other Microsoft 365 applications, whether you’re on your phone or laptop, at home or not – all your files and data are accessible instantaneously.

Today, we’re deep diving into some of the best Microsoft collaboration tools for remote and hybrid teams. Ready to get started?

OneDrive

OneDrive provides the space for users to store and share their content from one online location. Storing your documentation and files in the OneDrive cloud ‘filing cabinet’ means less paperwork, less back and forth, and easy access to data. By saving content in one centralised space, your team can share, connect and communicate efficiently.

Microsoft Whiteboard

Microsoft Whiteboard allows you to collaborate as a team with ‘blue sky’ whiteboard thinking, no matter your location. Microsoft Whiteboard is a tool that enables you to bring your entire team together to brainstorm as a unit as you might do in a physical office space, on any device, all using the same canvas. With direct integration into Microsoft Teams, working together has never been easier.

Microsoft Teams

With Microsoft Teams being used by over 270 million users, it has quickly emerged as one of the most used modern communication tools. There are a lot of elements that make Microsoft Teams the best collaboration tool out there. It’s worth going into a bit more depth to highlight exactly how your business can benefit from using Microsoft Teams.

Here are the top benefits of Microsoft Teams

Integration and Co-authoring  

Microsoft Teams integrates with both OneDrive and SharePoint, so you can communicate directly about projects, meetings, and shared documents. This means that you can access all your files, information and data within the Teams app or in your browser in SharePoint and OneDrive. Microsoft Teams allows for the inter-collaboration of applications and co-authoring of office documents to be done directly through Teams. 

Client and colleague communication 

Instant messaging and video calling are available at the touch of a button. Not only can you talk one-to-one with colleagues, but you can also host group meetings to ensure everyone can contribute. These calls and chats are not limited solely to your team, as external non-Microsoft users can be invited in. This makes it a perfect solution for client conversations as no one will have trouble accessing the necessary meetings.

Creating culture  

Chatting to teammates in a fun and engaging platform (and not just email) helps to maintain and build workplace relationships. Teams is one of the best Microsoft collaboration tools, because chats have all the modern communication features wanted, such as likes, emojis, gifs, so light-hearted work banter can still be maintained. Working remotely with Microsoft Teams is an easy way to socialise with colleagues – an element of work culture that is hard to maintain when working remotely.

It sounds too good to be true, but with Microsoft Teams, positive working relationships can be maintained through efficient and proactive work. Reducing the amount of internal emails exchanged creates a culture of being able to ‘chat’ with colleagues remotely as you might in an office context. This will boost team confidence and keep a positive team culture at the heart of your business.

The way we work has changed dramatically and we need to seek out new innovative ways to ensure that company culture remains intact. With Microsoft collaboration tools, productive collaboration, and social interaction can be effectively achieved remotely.  The seamless integration of Microsoft collaboration tools with each other means less back and forth between multiple files, tabs, and applications to find what you are looking for; all you need is one location that can be accessed on any device globally.  

Find the right Microsoft Collaboration Tools with Southern IT

At Southern IT, we’ve got the Microsoft specialists that can help you set up the right Microsoft environment that will help you boost your operations and collaboration. We’re here to support you every step of the way. Ready to get started on your Microsoft journey?