Stop the Email Nightmare. Use Microsoft Teams for Improved Efficiency.
Date Published: Feb 28, 2023
For line of business leads stuck in never-ending Outlook loops, there are, thankfully, alternatives to the traditional time-consuming email. Email still has its time and place for specific interactions, but other forms of digital correspondence are more efficient than hitting send on your umpteenth email of the day.
Compared to email, Microsoft Teams is a more seamless way to collaborate and communicate quickly. This application can also be your work activity hub, making it a powerful productivity tool.
Here we look at when to use Microsoft Teams vs email and how to use Microsoft Teams for improved efficiency. By adopting this approach, you can avoid the headaches of email overuse and enjoy more streamlined daily work.
Learn More: Time Management Skills and Tools for Managers and Line of Business Leads
When to Use Microsoft Teams vs. Email
A good rule of thumb is to use Microsoft Teams for most internal company communications. The vast majority of intra-organizational messages are quick back and forth correspondence that can benefit from a more agile communications platform. Or, company emails are topic-specific and would be better contextualized according to the subject matter. Microsoft Teams is perfect for both of these situations.
Traditional email is best suited for messages sent to people outside of the organization. Additionally, email is usually reserved for internal communications that need to reach a large audience.
Why Use Microsoft Teams for Improved Efficiency
Consider these four benefits of relying on Microsoft Teams vs email:
1. Focused Communications & Structured Messages
Email threads can quickly lose focus. After the initial emails, the original topic is often lost. The conversation can take a turn and be difficult to follow. Finding specific information in the communication, especially at a later point, is challenging. There might be people on the thread no longer needed there or others who should be cc’d.
Microsoft Teams allows for focused communications, particularly when using channels and posting with headlines. Channels are created for specific collaboration topics for invited team members. As such, there is a designated place to share an update, pose a question, or later search for a specific conversation on a predetermined subject. The use of channels also forces you to structure messages before they are sent, rather than putting messages in folders after the fact, as with email.
Learn More: How to Manage too Many Emails
2. Searching Made Easy
Microsoft Teams exceeds email in search too. Use Microsoft Teams for improved efficiency when searching by filtering conversations based on:
Team
Channel
Individual
Date range
Attachments
If you were mentioned
After locating the message you need, you can glean the relevant information at a glance. All communications in Teams are structured so that the context is readily understood. This saves considerable time compared to re-reading through information in unfocused email threads.
The context-laden design feature of Microsoft Teams also allows new people on a thread to promptly get up to speed on the topic. They also have access to all previous conversations on the thread, a feature that email cannot boast.
3. Seamless File Sharing
Sharing files via email is tedious, confusing and prone to errors. Attempting to track all the versions of a document is a major time-waster and often leads to revisions and comments being omitted, and the correct version of the document being lost.
Instead share a link to a document through Teams. Your team can work on the file concurrently. All changes and comments are automatically applied. Co-authoring in Teams is transformative in improving efficiency and accuracy for working groups still trying to share files in email.