How many different types of collaboration software do you use at work? Some companies will use G Suite for sharing and emailing, while Microsoft Office and Skype for Business take care of instant messaging and document creating elsewhere. And if the company you work for uses two different packages or more, don’t worry – you’re far from alone.

But here’s why we think it’s worth consolidating your approach and genuinely unifying your communications and collaboration tools.

Could Two Tools Be Better Than One?

In a nutshell, not really. Think about it. Would you ever use Microsoft Office and Apple iWork, or the document creation applications with G Suite? Not unless you had to, right? Well, essentially, this is where many organisations are right now. A survey conducted by Mio, a U.S. startup specialising in software that enables communication between messaging tools, identified that more than 90% of businesses currently use at least two different messaging apps.

Slack and Microsoft Teams were the most prominent tools being used, and also the most regularly used ‘in tandem’ with one another. It was discovered that large organisations were trying to accommodate different needs and expectations across departments, with tech-savvy employees tending to prefer Slack, while office-based staff naturally favoured Teams and Office 365.

Why Consolidation To Teams Makes Sense

Although Slack was the most widely used app at the time of the report, with 65% of businesses using it, Microsoft Teams wasn’t far behind on 59%. However, the survey also acknowledged that Teams is still a relative newcomer to the market, and 56% of survey respondents expected to see more Teams users in the near future (compared to only 38% who expected Slack to become more prosperous).

Plus, Microsoft has been more proactive in recognising that organisations may want to continue using other applications, at least for a short time. There are, in fact, three different ways to integrate third-party apps into Microsoft Teams; Connectors, Bots and Tabs – meaning that even the people you work with who prefer to use another tool could continue to work as they please.

• Connectors – integrating the likes of Twitter, Skype, Dropbox and more, Connectors allows you to receive updates to apps that you still use without having to leave Teams.
• Bots – if a third-party bot has been uploaded to the Microsoft Bot Directory, you can still customise the way each bot behaves and communicates with your fellow users.
• Tabs – the most extensive integration of the three, Tabs allows you to view entire third-party services within Microsoft Teams. They’re incredibly convenient when you need more information than just brief snapshots of activity, and also open in a separate window – making viewing and keeping track of the tab far easier.

Essentially, these additional features of Teams give you and everybody else in your organisation the flexibility to continue working the way you each prefer – while still consolidating all of your collaborative working tools into one easy-to-manage package for you and all of your colleagues.

To learn more about the benefits of Microsoft Teams and the Office 365 package, our team are available when you contact us.