As businesses continue to build their remote capabilities, Microsoft Teams has become one of the most-used solutions for remote collaboration. Schools, businesses, and individuals have all utilized Teams to remain connected and organized in a socially distant world.
If you aren’t yet familiar with it, Microsoft Teams is a collaboration platform that helps businesses and individuals communicate effectively. It combines features such as instant messaging, video meetings, and file sharing in one package and place for a productive, streamlined experience.
It’s no wonder that organizations are rushing to get this feature-packed system in place—but that rushing can lead to some time-consuming mistakes, both now and down the line. This is our list of top mistakes to avoid when implementing Microsoft Teams in order to make your life easier and fully utilize the program’s benefits.
1. Rushing Data Migration
Migrating your data can seem like a daunting task, so you might be tempted to just get it over with as quickly as possible. But when you’re migrating files from their current location to Microsoft Teams, it’s important to take your time and organize them properly from the beginning. You can organize them easily through SharePoint libraries.
If you find yourself rushing the process, you may fail to give the task the attention needed to complete the migration in an organized manner, which you’ll regret later when you have to search for buried files.
A hybrid migration process can help you stagger your data transfers so that you can work on organization and also catch any potential issues with the first data transfers instead of discovering major problems only once they’ve already affected all of your files.
2. Failing to Communicate Goals
When making a company-wide software transition, it’s important that all users are on the same page in terms of the new system’s goals, uses, and implementation.
If your IT management or support is doing something completely different from your other employees who are assisting with data migration, then you’re going to run into problems. It’s ideal to have a timeline or set of goals that you want to achieve when integrating this platform into your organization. You may also want to stagger the implementation of certain features or release some functions for company use at a later date.
When setting up Microsoft Teams, your communication needs to be clear and thorough to avoid frustration and confusion from employees left wondering what to do or when to do it.
3. Neglecting To Train Employees
Building on the previous point, training your employees is another essential step when setting up Teams. If employees are expected to immediately begin using a new platform and just “pick it up” along the way, productivity will dip while employees navigate the long learning curve of teaching themselves the new system.
Without clear direction, at best, your team won’t understand how to utilize all the benefits Teams has to offer, and at worst, their daily workflow will be significantly inhibited due to constant tech hangups.
You should hold team-wide information meetings and trainings, as well as offering “free play” meetings where employees can explore the system and ask questions.
4. Not Understanding Compliance Requirements
As your organization changes the way it communicates and stores data, you may be concerned about meeting compliance requirements, especially for organizations that must follow HIPAA or other strict standards.
Thankfully, Microsoft 365 is completely secure, and there’s an easy tool that allows you to double-check the compliance of your Microsoft programs in the Microsoft 365 Compliance Center. However, any time your organization goes through a major technological change, it’s a good idea to triple-check security and ensure your compliance status has not been jeopardized, particularly in the case of third-party apps and software.
5. Technical Mishaps
There will always be a learning curve when implementing a new communication platform, but there are some technical mishaps we see happening more often than others that you’ll want to avoid. These include:
- Sending a message in the wrong channel or team
- Setting up a meeting without inviting attendees
- Video chat mishaps such as forgetting to turn a camera off or turn mute on
- Accidentally editing a shared document
Some of these problems are bound to happen as users acclimate. Our best piece of advice is to train employees well and give them resources for troubleshooting basic problems. Our next best piece of advice is to laugh it off, learn, and move forward.
Introducing Microsoft Teams to your workflow is a worthwhile investment for any organization looking for long-term remote solutions. And if you keep these tips in mind, it can be a smooth transition from the start.
Tolar Systems offers Abilene IT support to businesses throughout the area. So if you’re looking for an IT partner who can help with Microsoft Teams implementation, remote IT solutions, and more, contact us today to learn about our managed IT services.
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