{"id":1461,"date":"2020-04-06T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-06T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/inswwdev.azurewebsites.net\/au\/insights\/uncategorized\/getting-teams-going-fast\/"},"modified":"2020-04-06T01:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-04-06T01:00:00","slug":"getting-teams-going-fast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.insentragroup.com\/au\/insights\/geek-speak\/modern-workplace\/getting-teams-going-fast\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting Teams Going Fast"},"content":{"rendered":"

Teams in the time of Covid-19<\/h2>\n

We\u2019re all in lock-down: in a few short weeks everyone is being forced to transition into a remote workforce and you\u2019re being forced to provide the technology and techniques to make it all work.\u00a0 Teams, and its friends are already having their day in the sun but how, we\u2019re all asking, do we get the most value from these new tools in the fastest possible time but with the least risk?\u00a0 The perennial triangle.<\/span><\/p>\n

But where to start?<\/h3>\n

I \u2013 and many other people \u2013 have written about adapting to a remote working culture so I\u2019ll focus here on some tools and techniques to get you going fast.<\/span><\/p>\n

The first step is to decide on your priorities.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

At the simplest level, Teams combines three ways of working which we need to think about:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Direct, ad-hoc conversations<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Scheduled meetings for groups <\/span><\/li>\n
  3. \u201cTeams\u201d which persist over time and include rich collaboration tools, file sharing and channels<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I\u2019ll say up front: I suggest that for most people, the \u201cTeams\u201d in Microsoft Teams are NOT the place to start.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

    I recommend starting with something more like real life; start with conversations between people.\u00a0 Get people chatting, talking and meeting via Teams.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

    What do you need?<\/h3>\n

    Teams chat \u2013 both internal and external \u2013 is built into the product right out of the box.\u00a0\u00a0 Whether your end users are in Office 365 for any other services, by setting a few DNS entries, you can enable internal and external IM and voice calls for your team.<\/span><\/p>\n

    I\u2019d also recommend a headset.\u00a0 Wireless is good but not essential, but noise cancelling can be a godsend if the family are in the wings.\u00a0 You might try stealing your child\u2019s gaming headset to see how you get on before you buy one but don\u2019t get too attached to it.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Once people have started connecting via chat, it\u2019s easy to extend this to Teams meetings if you\u2019ve already moved your email to Exchange Online in Office 365.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

    If you\u2019re already running Exchange 2016 with CU3 or above, good news there too, we can still make it work.<\/span><\/p>\n

    But what if I haven\u2019t?<\/h3>\n

    If neither apply, you\u2019ve come to a dead end for the time being.\u00a0 You can still create ad-hoc meetings and circulate the URLs for people to join via email or other means, but you can\u2019t use the meeting functionality and in the context of business, this can be a critical blocker.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

    Your best option is to press on with your migration to Office 365.\u00a0 As always, the key is good preparation.\u00a0 Once the foundations are properly set up, migrating your mailboxes can be quick and easy and with very little impact on your end users wherever they\u2019re working.<\/span><\/p>\n

    So, now what?<\/h3>\n

    Up to this point, these functions don\u2019t require a high level of governance and there are a few simple controls you can implement if you want to manage access more closely:<\/span><\/p>\n