The performance of an individual has an effect on the overall success of a business. However, increasing emphasis has been placed on the impact of teamwork and collaboration on business goals. Recent studies show that collaborative teamwork has risen by as much as 50% in just five years.
One of the driving factors behind this is teamwork technology and software. There are many different pieces of technology out there that allow businesses to engage in collaborative work. However, some are better than others, with Microsoft Teams perhaps being the best and most popular.
My aim is to discuss Microsoft Teams in terms of its capability to increase collaboration within business structures. Many people ask how collaboration using MS Teams can help their company.
There are many beneficial impacts that Microsoft Teams has had on businesses – especially during COVID. Let’s discuss them and how businesses stand to gain from using it.
The Growing Popularity of Microsoft Teams
Before we discuss the benefits that MS Teams brings to the table, it is worth looking at who uses it. Microsoft Teams may have become popular in only the last few years; however, its popularity and use have skyrocketed in that short amount of time. So, let’s take a quick look at a few impressive MS Teams statistics to understand how popular it is.
- There are currently well over half a million organizations of various sizes that use Microsoft Teams.
- Of the top Fortune 100 companies out there, an astounding 91 of them use Microsoft Teams to organize their workforces.
- There are over 150 organizations using Microsoft Teams that each has over 10,000 users.
- Microsoft Teams currently operates in 181 different markets and provides services in 44 languages.
Surveys have shown that Microsoft Teams improves employee and customer experience, accelerates decision-making, and reduces collaboration costs.
Obstacles Which Microsoft Teams Aims to Help Businesses Overcome
The results and achievements that MS Teams has helped companies produce are numerous and impressive. However, before we start looking at the figures, let’s analyze which obstacles MS Teams are designed to help businesses overcome.
The main goal of Microsoft Teams is to allow for simplistic and real-time collaboration between an organization’s employees. In addition, the aim is to enable employees to engage in productive teamwork as efficiently as possible.
Another goal of Microsoft Teams is to account for the increasing hybridization of the workplace. More people work from home than ever before; however, many are beginning to return to their offices. Microsoft Teams allows employees to easily communicate with one another, whether at home or in the office.
Microsoft Teams also allows for faster and better innovation by producing a way for employees to collaborate and communicate efficiently. The market is ever-changing, which means that constant innovation and adaptation are integral to success.
Yet another goal of Microsoft Teams is to provide security and safety. As the world becomes more digitally focused, digital threats from the outside increase as well. It is, therefore, necessary that collaboration takes place in a secure environment that is safe from external threats.
The Very Real Benefits of Microsoft Teams for Businesses
Now that it is clear what Microsoft Teams strives to achieve let’s analyze the results. Based on numerous studies, collaborative team-oriented software offers many benefits for businesses. We will look at three main factors: collaboration, communication, and security.
Collaboration Benefits of Microsoft Teams
MS Teams offer many benefits in terms of teamwork and collaboration. Here are a few key points to consider.
- First-line workers saved 45 minutes per week thanks to Microsoft Teams. This software allows these workers to find information with greater ease and speed. It also allows them to collaborate with other workers much faster. So the total savings can really add up.
- Microsoft Teams allows for swift and straightforward team collaboration, leading to improved decision-making capabilities, particularly in terms of speed. For example, it is shown that MS Teams can speed up the decision-making process by nearly 18%.
- Microsoft Teams also comes with features that allow various sectors of the same company to easily collaborate and share information. These features include version control, conversations, searching documents, and co-authoring. The total time saved per week for each employee equates to roughly four hours. In addition, having all information in a central location can save as much as $14.3 million in just three years.
- Another statistic concerns the dozens of emails a worker can get per day. Studies show that a single worker can get up to 89 emails per day. Microsoft Teams has simplified this collaborative process to include conversation threads or strings. This can reduce the number of emails a worker gets by up to 17.3% per day. Not having to spend several minutes searching for a specific email saves time.
- Often, collaboration meant getting on a plane to go to a business meeting. These trips and plane tickets are not cheap. However, Microsoft Teams can reduce the number of overnight business trips by 150 over three years. This massive reduction in transportation costs allows that money to be allocated to other aspects of the project.
Communication Benefits of Microsoft Teams
There may be some overlap between the collaborative and communication impacts of MS Teams. However, the following communication-based benefits of Microsoft Teams are still worth noting.
One significant benefit is that workers can save upwards of one hour per week because they don’t have to switch between various applications. In addition, MS Teams provides access to various line-of-business and third-party apps for communication. These can be used on any device, a benefit for remote workers. This improved employee cohesion saves one hour a week, which translates to close to $5 million in savings.
One of the simplest impacts of MS Teams is reducing the amount of time spent in meetings. Companies using Microsoft Teams see their employees spend nearly 19% less time in meetings. In addition, both the duration and the number of meetings are significantly reduced. The time saved can equate to $6.9 million in savings over three years.
MS Teams allows employees to save 7.6 minutes per day, thanks to improved call quality. It might not be a massive figure, but those minutes add up over the long run. Moreover, telephone solutions on MS Teams allows companies to save nearly $650,000 over three years.
Security Benefits of Microsoft Teams
The other front where companies stand to gain from Microsoft Teams is that of company and personal security.
Downtime can be reduced by 14.6%, thanks to Microsoft Teams. Additionally, due to all information being in one place and complexity being reduced, compliance and security are increased.
The vast majority of users agree that MS Teams has great privacy features and controls. Most would say that it is the best collaboration tool in this regard.
Microsoft Teams keeps information secure when remote work is involved. Close to 85% of users agree that remote working security is drastically strengthened by MS Teams.
The Impact of Microsoft Teams on Businesses – Final Thoughts
The bottom line is that the impact of Microsoft Teams on businesses has been overwhelmingly positive. In terms of collaboration, communication, and security, Microsoft Teams is helping businesses achieve their goals with greater ease.
