Introduction

Automation and governance is a winning combination to scale MS Teams collaboration system. With the advent of this new paradigm, we can start tackling more complex tasks and transform the entire MS Teams experience – whether it is application design to application usage. This fusion enables organizations to simplify and accelerate the administrative processes radically and achieve real breakthroughs in short time. But which parts of the governance process should be automated?

Governance components to automate in MS Teams

Microsoft Teams is deeply integrated with other Microsoft 365 apps and effectively enables collaboration among a large number of teams, sites and groups. As a result, governance in MS Teams demands constant monitoring of the ecosystem, enhancement of the architecture capabilities as per business needs and management of the infrastructure in tandem. Consequently, establishing business workflows and processes is increasingly complex, repetitive, and time-consuming.

Hence, to reduce excessive burden on IT and get the best results out of MS Teams, you must primarily focus on automating the five crucial components of governance which we have consolidated all in our single product called TeamsHUB by Cyclotron. Let’s go through them one by one –

1. Automate site provisioning

Automate team creation process and get rid of uncontrolled growth, unused workspaces and risks pertaining to loss of critical information.

“TeamsHUB by Cyclotron provides the easiest way to automate team creation using a dynamic form that collects team’s metadata to be approved by the administrator. It also ensures that all your workloads follow a specific naming convention before creation to prevent content duplication and minimize the mess. This enables teams to work in a structured workspace without limiting their freedom.”

2. Automate insights and monitoring

Automate analytics and reporting in MS Teams to proactively monitor Teams environment in real-time.

“Use TeamsHUB by Cyclotron and stop manually exploring your business data to get the answers you need. Auto-detect actionable insights, deviation, pattern, trend, etc. in an intuitive dashboard in real-time. Get smart reports with graphical visualizations and decipher data for making quick and informed decisions.”

3. Automate voice

Automate Direct Voice Routing in MS Teams and enable a zero-code telephony solution to configure and route voice calls to PSTN directly.

“TeamsHUB by Cyclotron provides you a full GUI for creating, troubleshooting, and testing your Direct Routing configuration. Now manage your voice infrastructure from a single pane of glass with greater flexibility. Also, monitor call quality to deliver right experience and access number management to make it simple to connect with your users and clients using all-in-one communication solution.”

4. Automate workload lifecycle

Automate team, site, or group lifecycle management for better organization of workloads and optimization of resources.

“Use TeamsHUB by Cyclotron for effectively managing the lifecycle of teams and other workloads by archiving or disposing them when they are no longer needed. Simply decide a threshold of inactivity in days and let the owners be notified to trigger a new, archive or delete action shortly before reaching the threshold.”

5. Automate access management

Automate user access management to delegate right responsibilities to right users in order to exercise a better control over the tenant.

“Using TeamsHUB by Cyclotron, you can easily define user as administrator, owner, member and guest and grant special privileges to each according to their role. TeamsHUB by Cyclotron is committed to provide you an unparalleled guest user experience with greater collaboration control and file security during exchange. Get various external collaboration settings in just a single page and quickly enable or disable guest user capabilities as per your business mandates.”

To learn more about TeamsHUB by Cyclotron, please visit https://teamshub.io or contact sales@cyclotrongroup.com to request a demo

Introduction

The need for improved employee communication, enhanced efficiencies and workforce productivity continues to push organizations toward cloud adoption.

Cloud collaboration is a common practice in majority of organizations across the world today which includes storing files in the cloud and then sharing and co-editing corporate content among virtual team members. We all know how successful Microsoft Teams has been as a cloud-based collaboration tool used for knowledge sharing, mind-mapping and other collaboration needs. As the demand for cloud collaboration is steadily on rise, the future of MS Teams is predictably bright and beneficial.

How to ease Teams deployment journey

Yet, there are confusions and hypes that surround MS Teams establishment as mainstream in organizations. This is because there is a constant set of myths that emerged with the advent of Microsoft Teams and are still prevalent among IT leaders. To learn about these myths, please check this blog.

Another reason is the challenges they encounter during change management such as user resistance, inadequate technical expertise, and lack of executive engagement which impede MS Teams adoption and progress. So, let us now uncover a few important MS Teams adoption strategies to effectively counteract such challenges and derive greatest value from Teams –

1. Prepare your organization

Assess your organization’s technical readiness for Teams. Verify your bandwidth requirements as per the amount of traffic your environment will need, Microsoft 365 domain as well as licensing agreement with Teams. Talk to companies that are already using Teams to get the best user experience from them.

2. Conduct an internal pilot

Test a broader roll out on a smaller scale by running a pilot program to validate user readiness. Involve actual users and impersonate communication and collaboration on Teams to achieve realistic outcomes. Keep utilizing your legacy applications and use Teams side by side to let users develop the flavour of it gradually. Alternatively, you can choose to deploy one functionality such as calls and conferences to tap into the right path forward for your organization.

3. Communicate the value

Engage executive sponsors to evangelize Teams value and communicate cultural transformation benefits to prepare employees upgrade to Teams. Create enthusiasm among employees for the new ways of working and demonstrate how to use Teams as a hub for teamwork. Provide them the content such as guidelines, training materials, etc. at different stages of adoption journey. Also, let users have a conceptual understanding via hands-on training.

4. Develop product thinking for Teams adoption

We suggest you treating MS Teams adoption as a product, not a project. A project has a start and finish date, but a product undergoes repeated testing and tweaks throughout its stages of development. Based on user feedback, you can also keep incorporating additional features or functionalities in MS Teams to ensure a smooth transition.

5. Create tangible use cases within business

Users tend to develop more inclination to a software or application that can offer a creative solution to their business problem. So instead of mentioning about features during the roll-out, a more practical approach to boost MS Teams adoption is to say something like  – ‘Here is how you manage guest access in Teams’.

6. Simplify Teams administration

Let not MS Teams governance create any havoc or burden on your IT teams or stakeholders and create user frustration. Teams is closely knitted with Microsoft 365 apps which demands constant monitoring and management of remote workforce.

Furthermore, writing complex PowerShell scripts or configuring governance policies manually and repeatedly is an arduous and time-consuming process. This creates inefficiency which is a major roadblock in Teams adoption. To ensure that end-users work flawlessly, securely and effectively, automate MS Teams governance and provide them an exceptional user experience to enjoy scalable and consistent collaboration.

If you want to know more about MS Teams adoption or need any help in defining adoption strategies for your company, please visit https://teamshub.io or contact sales@cyclotrongroup.com

Introduction

There has been an unprecedented rise in the usage of collaboration tools during the times of pandemic. We all know how Microsoft Teams strengthened digital communication and helped remote workforce to collaborate extensively from multiple devices. It established a flexible working culture by knitting all elements together that support the new way of working. Organizations that are already the consumers of Microsoft Teams continue to reap enormous benefits out of it some of which are mentioned below:

Benefit #1: Teams is user-friendly

Teams is extremely straightforward to use and facilitates virtual work environment by effectively connecting users and teams of an enterprise for a better teamwork. Also, it is quick to set up in just a few clicks. The simple and intuitive interface of MS Teams makes it easy for users to learn. Thereby users can start performing their daily tasks quickly with greater efficiency.

Benefit #2: Teams develops collaborative mindset to help agile teams work remotely

Teams allows a shared workspace to promote a natural collaboration among agile teams who are traditionally accustomed to thrive well when members are co-located. Eliminating all communication barriers, Teams encourages cohesion, facilitates problem solving and enables fast paced decision making to so that remote teams deliver as much value as co-located teams.

Benefit #3: Teams supports real-time collaboration

Teams offers variety of tools for seamless communication and collaboration such as instant messaging, audio-video calling, screen sharing, file co-authoring, etc. Besides, it is integrated with multiple Microsoft 365 apps such as Excel, Word, PowerPoint, etc., and other powerful cloud solutions such as SharePoint, OneDrive, OneNote and more for remote teams to plan, ideate, create, or innovate all in one place.

Benefit #4: Teams is constantly updated with new features

To revive user experience and strengthen its role to play in future, Teams is constantly evolving with new updates. You can search apps and easily integrate them in Teams to improve productivity. Besides productivity apps, you can also integrate intelligent apps such as Who, Conversational bot, Calls and Meeting bots, etc., to handle repetitive tasks and give users a personalized experience.

Benefit #5: Teams aids adoption and engagement by enabling extension of native functionalities

Teams allows you to renew the platform by extending its capabilities to enjoy seamless, stable, and secured collaboration. You can enhance Teams security posture by implementing governance policies or by using automated governance tools such as TeamsHUB by Cyclotron and even create corporate intranet portal for driving greater engagement among remote employees.

Conclusion

Microsoft Teams helped millions of employees to work remotely during quarantine effortlessly. Thanks to it to keep businesses on track when situations were extreme. For organizations that are planning for digital transformation, it is an exciting time to modernize workplace with Microsoft Teams, empower employees to work smarter and unfurl productivity regardless of unexpected dramatic shifts in the world.

Introduction

HR and IT services got huge relief when ServiceNow introduced chatbot builder technology called Virtual Agent. As we know it, Virtual Agent, powered by automation, resolves issues just like an IT help desk.

TeamsHub by Cyclotron has taken an effort further to incorporate ServiceNow platform to deliver an unparalleled user experience. Interestingly, a bot-driven process is a great way out to handle unending routine queries by users. Using ServiceNow, developers can build conversational interfaces for common service requests which helps in reducing call volumes. And as a result, it scales across business and reduces costs.

Benefits of using ServiceNow with TeamsHub by Cyclotron

Now, let’s take a quick walkthrough to some important advantages of using ServiceNow with TeamsHub by Cyclotron:

• Firstly, ServiceNow chatbot is meant to simplify end-users’ task.

• Secondly, the smart chatbot raises incidents or requests on user’s behalf.

• Thirdly, it is not only understands your issues but also provides you with solutions intelligently.

• Fourthly, users get instant assistance by simply choosing some options provided by chatbot without filling out long forms and lists.

• Next, managers can request for analytics and reports without traversing through menus on portal.

• Lastly, the support is available to you 24*7!

Thankfully, if you are using MS Teams as your messaging platform, TeamsHub by Cyclotron can let you integrate ServiceNow in just couple of minutes. You can simply install and integrate ServiceNow using a connector with TeamsHub by Cyclotron. Using Virtual Agent Designer in ServiceNow, you can define the topic flow with user inputs, bot responses and actions performed by a bot.

Moreover, the interface is user and mobile friendly. Additionally, TeamsHub by Cyclotron overcomes Teams limitations with ServiceNow such as:

1. HTML content and cards are displayed in the form of image.
2. For connection, one-time authentication is required which cannot be automated for all users.
3. As both the platforms, MS Teams and ServiceNow are interdependent, an upgrade in one platform might affect the other.

Summary

TeamsHub by Cyclotron makes the human-bot collaboration seamless. Let not legacy service management systems hinder your service delivery and business operations. Give your developers the power to explore bot creation and options to extend its capability using ServiceNow with TeamsHub by Cyclotron.

Use TeamsHub by Cyclotron and allow bots optimize your workflows to improve engagement, speed up business decisions and accelerate project efficiency.

Introduction

The art of leading distributed project team successfully is reliant on principles of good management and establishment of clear goals. Any loophole in communication and difficulty in leveraging strengths in team can negatively impact project execution and results. Hence, project managers must take ideal precautions to keep teams productive online and avoid issues that can lead to project failure. This can be achieved by implementing right policies, processes, tools, and templates in place to normalize project management settings and keep every individual of a team on the same page.

Why governance is critical for project success

As a framework for project management, governance helps establish clear guidelines for project teams to collaborate remotely in a structured environment which resists productivity and regulatory issues. In this blog, we will learn about five key steps essential to good governance for remote team management and project success. Let’s begin –

1. Set expectations for the team

Setting clear expectations for a dispersed team when initiating a project eliminates issues related to misunderstanding which can be a roadblock to team’s performance. In a team, everyone must know what they are accountable for, and the level of professionalism required for the project. Other project priorities include dedicated work hours, expected project deadline, how to keep everyone informed when change occurs, etc., to ensure that nothing falls through the cracks.

2. Generate team goals and objectives

First create an outline of the big picture of the project. Then determine goals and objectives that will help you to reach to the end of the project. Ensure that the objectives are attainable and clearly defined answering why, what, who, where and when. Set scope, time, quality, and budget standards under which the team will operate.

3. Establish KPIs for monitoring team performance

Setting KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are a great way to measure the effectiveness of processes, track project progress and gauge remote team’s productivity over time. It is an ideal measurement system that brings great benefits to both, an organization and its employees. A few instances of KPIs that you can develop are counting billable and non-billable hours, tracking milestones achieved on time, analyzing platform usage for communication via chats, calls, meetings, etc., and evaluating quality of deliverables and rework attended for the project.

4. Create standard policies

Project managers must choose an appropriate communication solution which enhances remote team productivity while offering best in-class security. Microsoft Teams is a popular collaboration tool that comes with abundance of productivity and project management features. Teams ensures flawless communication pivoted on native security capabilities of Microsoft 365.

Additionally, by implementing governance policies in Teams, you can standardize processes as well as workflows, and provide a consistent structure to Teams. This helps to create a disciplined environment for users where they know their roles and access permissions, and how to use resources to minimize confusions. You can also take Teams governance to next level by augmenting automation to it. Using a third-party automation software such as TeamsHub.io, you can streamline governance, automate repetitive tasks, eliminate search related issues, secure data while sharing, improve user efficiency and empower workforce to ensure project success.

5. Collect feedback from employees

Gathering employees’ feedback is vital to know how you can support them and improve work culture to build high performing remote teams. This can be done via conducting surveys or polls on weekly or monthly basis. This way, you can detect how happy or satisfied employees are and what they like or dislike about their work. You can also collect their suggestions on how to improve services to make the workplace more convenient and engaging for them. Last but not the least, you can launch corporate intranet to foster internal communications and socialization to elevate teamwork.

Governance for distributed project team management is easier said than done. But once established, governance mitigates risks and ensures smooth execution of the project. If you are managing a distributed project team and planning governance is too overwhelming for you to do, we at Cyclotron, can help you develop end-to-end governance solution tailored to your organization. For more information, please visit https://teamshub.io or contact sales@cyclotrongroup.com  .

Introduction

The ultimate benefit of cloud storage is the ubiquitous access to all your files and the ability to collaborate remotely and securely from any device. OneDrive for Business is one of the most powerful Microsoft 365 apps which helps users to save their documents in cloud, backed up and protected. You can easily use OneDrive for Business app on web, desktop and mobile to access your personal documents, and also files shared with you from other team members.

Further in this blog, we will read about the advantages of having OneDrive for Business at workplace and how to increase its adoption to get its full value. Let’s begin –

Why to make OneDrive your official storage solution

• Firstly, without a dedicated cloud storage, it can be dissuading for remote users to rapidly share and exchange information via emails which generates coordination challenges. With OneDrive, users can store all their files in one central location and experience real-life benefits of it. For example, users can have more control when documents are shared via links instead of sending static attachments via email.
• Secondly, OneDrive enables users to share content with external users securely and effortlessly. Users can terminate collaboration on files whenever they want. They can decide who can access, view, or edit their content and disable downloads or prints.
• Thirdly, when using OneDrive, users do not need to worry about their network bandwidth utilization while working on large files from home as OneDrive syncs only the changes in the file instead of the entire file. Also, smart upload management enables OneDrive to upload data in the background by only consuming unused bandwidth and not interfere with other applications using the network.
• Additionally, admins can take advantage of business management capabilities of OneDrive which ensures that no valuable corporate data is shared accidentally by end-users. By configuring most advanced features in OneDrive, admins can provide greater flexibility to users while keeping data safe.

As an organization, if you have decided to deploy OneDrive for your users, it is imperative to have an adoption plan in place before you make a transition. This is so because simplified adoption facilitates users to gradually change their old ways of organizing files and hence, helps in boosting user adoption for OneDrive for Business.

How to increase OneDrive adoption organically

OneDrive for Business is less complex as compared to other M365 apps such as MS Teams, SharePoint, and Excel and easy to implement. Yet, OneDrive adoption can go off track if users are not given proper guidance to use it effectively. When deploying Microsoft 365, here are a few considerations to boost adoption for OneDrive for Business simultaneously with MS Teams, SharePoint and other apps –

1. Communicate & provide user training

Convey the purpose behind using OneDrive for Business to your end users at the initial stage of deployment. OneDrive for Business is more than just a cloud storage app. Being incorporated with enterprise-level features, advanced security, versioning and sharing capabilities and more, it also ensures effective teamwork and online collaboration. It is important to inform your end users about all its unique and powerful features to understand its full potential. Provide training using specific use cases and enable them to explore OneDrive to easily adapt to the platform.

To learn about OneDrive for enterprises, please click here.

2. Give context on how OneDrive can make them do their jobs efficiently

Users must know how using OneDrive can simplify storage and sharing options for them to make their lives easier. Ensure that they know how to make the best use of it to enhance their productivity and collaboration. Teach them about the advantages of using OneDrive over traditional solutions to avoid reluctance.

For example, OneDrive allows users to work even offline if there occurs an internet issue. Next, using version control settings, users can stay relevant with the latest changes made by a coworker in the department. Native integration with Microsoft Teams and Outlook also enables users to drop links to their files in cloud directly within their conversations. This ensures that everyone is using the latest version of the document.

3. Know OneDrive limitations & analyze your content

To avoid hassles during the transition, you must familiarize yourself with the limitations that OneDrive has on the content it can host. For example, for migration to OneDrive for Business, the file size limit is up to 15 GB. Further, one can migrate file or folder structure, documents, and user level file or folder permissions but can’t migrate explicit deny permissions, hidden attributes, embedded URLs, corrupt documents etc. Also, OneDrive doesn’t support invalid characters in file or folder names, long file or folder paths and certain extensions. Hence, you need to analyze what content you can migrate and what not and choose an alternative to experience a smooth adoption by users.

4. Plan about OneDrive governance

To have a better control on data, businesses must set some rules and policies to restrict what can be shared via OneDrive and what can’t be. Using governance, you can configure expiration policies on externally shared links or set custom passwords for tighter security. It helps to manage compliance across Microsoft 365 including OneDrive and determines what should and what should not be stored in cloud.

Moreover, automating governance makes it extremely easy for admins to manage all aspects of M365 management including OneDrive efficiently. Automation facilitates effective monitoring and tracking of data to prevent accidental leakage or infringement in the cloud. This ensures protection of user’s files while communication. Hence, bringing security to data through governance boosts user confidence to share files and collaborate freely.

To learn about OneDrive adoption in detail, please click here.

Introduction

The next thing after end-user introduction to Microsoft Teams is to monitor user activities to understand their experience with Teams. By grabbing insights into usage patterns and trends, business leaders can determine the scope of engagement platform and deliver better training. In this blog, we will further delve deeper to know why analytics is a valuable resource and what are the areas that can be measured for strategic decision making. Let’s start –

Understand how your employees are using Teams

Analytics is an excellent way for managers to detect if employees are engaged and continuing to be productive. Activities performed by users on communication platform such as chats, calls, conversations, meetings, file sharing, etc., result in greater profitability to business. Active users on MS Teams indicates high level of focus to work and successful adoption of the platform.

Other than that, analytics can help identify ongoing technical issues with M365 applications. For example, if an employee is still found to be using emails for attaching files instead of sending links via OneDrive, then manager can provide learning materials to that employee on how to send files quickly and easily using OneDrive. Also, analytics help detect security challenges while collaboration. As it provides an end-to-end visibility into the tenant, if something goes wrong such as during external file sharing, managers can immediately act on it to prevent misuse.

Now let us highlight what exactly you want to measure on MS Teams, you should primarily measure to track productivity –

• Teams usage

You need to first know how actively employees from different departments are utilizing the platform. This information will provide you an overview of usage activity in Teams such as total count of active users and channels, guests and messages in each team, etc.

If you are global admin in Microsoft 365, Teams service admin, or Skype for Business admin, you can get this report (Teams usage) from Microsoft Teams admin center.

Furthermore, if you want to get detailed inventory report which includes owner-member details, status, date created, content size, email count, and more on Teams, SharePoint, Yammer, and other workloads together, you can use a third-party app such as TeamsHub.io.

• Coordination activities

This information will give you insights into various types of engagement activities employees are engaged in. For example, you can know how many employees communicate via 1:1 calls, channel messages and private chat messages. You can get this report (Teams user activity) from Microsoft Teams admin center.

Furthermore, if you want to collect user activity report including call count, meeting count, private chat messages, Teams chat messages, etc., across various workloads such as Teams, SharePoint, Yammer, etc., together, you can use TeamsHub.io.

• Device usage

Device usage provides you information about how users connect to Teams. You can use the report to see the users’ devices that are used across your organization, including how many use Teams from their mobile devices when on-the-go. The purpose of this report is to understand device adoption and its effectiveness in engaging employees and improving productivity.

• Most engaged users

Employees who are most active in Teams can be chosen as product evangelists or influencers to motivate others to use Teams. Influencers can easily interact with employees and share their perspectives about Teams to speed up adoption.

You can get this information as ‘Top 10 users’ using analytics in TeamsHub.io.

• Popular teams

Detecting top teams in Teams ecosystem gives you an idea about their success. You can evaluate their approach to understand the platform and strategies of teamwork to recommend others.

You can get this report as ‘Top 10 teams’ using analytics in TeamsHub.io.

• Inactive & orphaned teams

After a project completes, a team becomes inactive as employees don’t use it anymore. Also, employees often create duplicate teams or ownerless teams without a purpose. Hence, it gets critical to free up resources for better optimization by archiving or deleting teams that are unnecessary.

Sadly, MS Teams doesn’t provide a report to view inactive teams that float in your environment. However, you can view all inactive teams along with archived and orphaned (ownerless) teams through an intuitive dashboard offered by TeamsHub.io.

• Total guest users

When your employees are collaborating with external partners, clients or contractors, it is vital to have a good governance in place. Sharing valuable data externally poses security risks such as data theft and mishandling. Tracking guest user count along with files shared outside of organization gives a better control on data and enables you to apply data loss prevention measures proactively.

You can get an overview of total guest count in your environment, teams with guest users and external sharing insights from dashboard in TeamsHub.io.

• Third-party app usage

This report will provide you information regarding third-party apps downloaded by your employees in Teams ecosystem. Third-party apps are easily exploitable and may carry malicious code that can infect your system. Monitoring third-party apps usage can help you identify risky apps and prevent security issues such as shadow IT by configuring firewall settings. Furthermore, understanding user needs, you can provide safer apps as an alternative to unsanctioned apps, that achieve similar business functionality and comply with your organization’s policy.

Improving platform’s usability through automation

MS Teams is a great collaboration tool to keep your employees productive and engaged. However, it doesn’t offer real-time analytics to help you stay ahead of the curve. If you are an agile organization and need to keep an eye on Teams activities almost every minute, using an automation software such as TeamsHub.io offering advanced analytics can be revolutionizing for your business.

Fetching reports in MS Teams is manual and a tedious job as one needs to navigate to multiple admin panels each time. Moreover, for specific reports that are yet not available in Teams, admins are required to write complex PowerShell scripts which is a time consuming and an inefficient way of generating reports. Powered by automation, TeamsHub.io resolves this issue by providing a powerful dashboard where you can visualize Teams statistics in real-time. Using smart reports, you can take data driven and informed decisions best for your business.

To learn more about TeamsHub.io, please visit https://teamshub.io or contact sales@cyclotrongroup.com to request a demo

Introduction

A remote workplace that uses Microsoft Teams as collaboration tool cannot deliver uninterrupted productivity without governance. Governance ensures controlled Teams infrastructure, data protection and a risk-free environment for flexible teams for enhanced collaboration. So, before an organization plans to deploy MS Teams, here are a few important governance considerations for increasing Teams adoption while facilitating an organized teamwork.

Access to MS Teams

Corporate data in M365 is accessible by employees remotely from various geographical locations through multiple devices using Teams. Hence, content can easily be copied via M365 apps – Teams, Outlook, OneDrive, and SharePoint to a personal device like home PC, tablet, mobile, etc. In such a case, organizations can use conditional access policies to tighten security around sensitive data and restrict access to unmanaged user devices. Further, organizations can also decide to apply multi-factor authentication (MFA) during user sign in for additional security.

Team creation and management

Teams architecture allows creation of Microsoft 365 group, SharePoint, OneNote, and other workspaces simultaneously. Without governance, employees may create too many workspaces. Hence, an unprecedented growth in teams causes sprawl because of overlapping of those workspaces. Consequently, finding relevant content gets difficult which further impedes productivity and raises security issues.

Also, teams should not exist indefinitely. In large-sized organizations, a Teams environment commonly gets flooded with redundant teams, teams without a purpose, ownerless teams and teams that are idle for a long time. This causes consumption of resources unnecessarily and spurs management challenges. An ideal way to combat this problem is to archive or dispose teams once they have served their purpose. To do this, it is important to define Teams landscape by using governance features such as expiration policies and activity-based group expiration during deployment phase.

Also, team creation can be restricted to a specific group of users to control proliferation. However, it must be still kept in mind that restricting employees to explore platform and use it freely may decline adoption and not deliver expected results.

To strike the right balance between security and productivity, it is better to automate lifecycle management of teams right from their creation to disposal. This includes enforcement of policies for teams nomenclature, setting up of request-approval form for team creation, scheduling notifications for team’s inactivity and automating archival or deletion process after a specified time, etc. This helps optimizing resources, and promotes better visibility and monitoring of Teams ecosystem.

“Automation enables effortless administration by mechanizing replicable tasks and gives a sense to employees that platform is in control so that they can create and innovate fearlessly. While you can design an in-house project to automate Teams platform, this can be easily achieved by using a third-party governance software such as TeamsHub.io.“

Teams security, data governance & experience

MS Teams provides a comprehensive set of policies for applying org-wide security and controls. For example, external collaboration settings can be configured to prevent overexposure of content to guest users. Next, content sharing controls can be activated during Teams meetings to facilitate remote collaboration while keeping private or confidential elements to yourself. For example, you can show just one window and no notifications or other desktop activity when sharing your window.

For secure access and sharing of data, you can enforce two-factor authentication, single sign-on through Active Directory and encryption of data in transit and in rest. Then, apps connected with MS Teams such as SharePoint and OneNote are backed by encryption too. Here, you can configure additional governance policies for to ensure only trusted information is stored.

Moreover, using Microsoft 365 retention policies and labels, you can retain content such as chats, messages, files, emails, etc., for a specified period. You can also define rules to delete a content automatically after the retention period is over. Then, integrating retention policies with M365 data protection and recovery tools, you can keep the data as backup and avoid accidental deletions.

So far we have observed that MS Teams demands a meticulous administration and management. Hence, to elevate user experience and smooth governance, you can automate security settings such as external access, file sharing and back up and recovery using TeamsHub.io.

TeamsHub.io offers an established system to manage external access and resolves the complexity of navigation by joining disparate pieces of settings in a unified interface. Further, you can even monitor files exchanged with users outside of organization effectively and revoke the access whenever required. TeamsHub.io also provides a robust backup and recovery capability to overcome unexpected data loss against basic protection features offered by Microsoft which can easily fall through cracks.

To know more about TeamsHub.io, please visit https://teamshub.io or contact sales@cyclotrongroup.com to request a demo

Introduction

In the age of disruption, closely knitted teams that work toward a common goal in an organization need excellent communication and easier collaboration. Therefore, businesses today are reliant on collaboration tools for efficient teamwork and fast results, especially when team members are geographically distant.

We all know how vigorously collaboration tools have been used ever since after the global pandemic outbreak and a vital role that it plays in agile organizations today. A good base of collaboration empowers workforce and improves productivity as teams can coordinate on projects in a smarter way without wasting their time in emails or getting things done in traditional and unproductive methods.

There are a variety of collaboration tools available in the market. However, one needs to be selective while choosing one of them as every business has  unique set of requirements.

In this blog, we will learn about different types of collaboration software and share their key characteristics to make it easy for you to choose right one that gives you a great deal. Let’s begin:

Types of Collaboration Tools

Broadly, collaboration software can be categorized under two main dimensions:

1. Synchronous

Synchronous collaboration software is a real-time software which allows team members to interact, co-edit a file, exchange files – all at the same time on the same platform. Some of the synchronous collaboration tools that are market leaders today like Microsoft Teams have powerful features to make communication hyper-efficient and expedient.

Using instant messaging, chat and conversations, voice and video calling, whiteboard applications and more, synchronous collaboration is more productive, clear, and purposeful as there are no lags and delays in responses. Example: Microsoft Teams, Slack, Zoom, etc.

2. Asynchronous

Asynchronous collaboration software allows team members to work at different times. Such software does not support instantaneous activities or tasks. Some of the features of asynchronous collaboration software include email, bulletin board, document sharing, web logs, group calendars and more.

Asynchronous platforms are useful when projects need enough time to improve the quality of documentation before presentation. However, due to mismatched time zones and schedules, it causes communication delays and other collaboration issues.

Now, let us categorize collaboration tools based on the domain that they serve –

1. Communication software

Communication software helps remote teams to connect from anywhere and anytime and helps in problem solving faster. The features and capabilities that lie at the core of such software are instant communication, live chat and messaging, comments, audio-video conferencing, screen sharing, discussion threads and more.

2. Task management software

Task management software enables teams to manage their tasks by keeping track of deadlines and also by providing boards, calendars and timelines. Other key features that it includes are task assignment to appoint users, task prioritization to move tasks, planning and scheduling to create plans and meet deadlines, and file management to arrange files.

3. Document management software

Document management software enables storing, accessing, synchronous editing and cooperative writing on different files in real-time. It allocates a central repository for users to access files on any device. Additionally, users can track changes in files made by their team. They can also use ready-made templates to create documents faster.

4. Information sharing software

Information sharing software are notification-based software where users can send alerts or updates after signing off a project related task. It also allows users to share or access critical business information when they need it. This improves project management and better workflow in a business.

5. Time management software

Time management software helps organizations to stay organized using digital calendars for scheduling, employee attendance tracking, event alerts, notifications, and other time-saving administrative features such as ability to view and approve timecards electronically.

6. File sharing software

File sharing tools allow seamless and secure sharing of files when organizations have huge volume of files including those that are large sized to work on effectively. Such tools store files in the cloud and lets users to sync them across multiple devices for easy collaboration. Files or documents are encrypted before sending it to the recipient, so users need not to worry about information theft or loss.

7. Project management software

Project management software allows end-to-end execution of tasks, permissions, responsibilities, and activities in a project. It also provides transparency to guest users during project execution. Such software also incorporates task management module to keep track of resources and other elements for efficient project management.

7. Knowledge management software

Knowledge management software includes features and capabilities that support collection of data and information, storage of incoming and currently-owned data, communication and interpretation of data, data querying and information-based inputs, and creation and deployment of data and evidence-based knowledge.

Factors to consider while comparing different collaboration tools

Furthermore, we share a few considerations while comparing different collaboration tools before you pick one –

• Think about what problem you want to resolve with this software.
• Determine your company’s requirements and which features suit your particular case.
• Consider ease of use and how widely the software can be accepted by your teams.
• Check for a software that has high usability ratings.
• Consider your budget for collaboration software. You can also try trial or free versions before making a final decision.

Microsoft Teams – a junction for all your collaboration needs

From a variety of cool collaboration platforms, we understand that it can be a bit tricky to choose one. Hence, we would like to recommend Microsoft Teams using which you can revolutionize your business in a cost-effective way.

Microsoft Teams is the world’s leading communication platform which serves as a unified collaboration solution to connect your remote teams and provide them with most useful apps, tools, services, and solutions to manage projects, tasks, information, users, resources, etc., and other business operations productively and securely – all in one place.

So let’s grab this opportunity to unite dispersed teams, shun communication silos, and make sure you keep them alive remotely and turn them to high-performing teams using Microsoft Teams!

Introduction

We have stepped into a digital age where communication is instantaneous and effortless between businesses, employees, and customers. While talking about corporate communications, how can we skip ‘Intranets’ which have been a key communication tool for many enterprises for almost three decades now. But are they still relevant to keep pace with modern workplace?

Intranet Evolution

Traditional or legacy intranet portals were static with outdated content and had clunky interface which caused a massive decline in the employee usage. As companies got fragmented, reaching out the front-line workers effectively and keeping them engaged using traditional intranets became a pressing issue for IT leaders.

This suggested developing a cohesive approach to employee engagement by creating a central hub for knowledge and tools and streamlining internal communications using cloud solutions. This is how modern intranets emerged. Although traditional intranets have taken a back seat due to stale content, poor experience and other complexities, modern intranets are proving to be instrumental in driving business productivity today.

Features of Traditional Intranet

The traditional intranet was confined to the company’s local network which acted as a gateway for desk employees seated at an office computer during the business day. The features of traditional intranet portals typically included:

• Corporate news from the internal or employee communications team
• A repository for information and linked resources maintained by IT
• Linked connections to some corporate systems, such as HR, payroll, expense reporting and so on

What is Modern Intranet?

Internal communication revival forms the core of IT modernization. Using modern intranet businesses are creating a new experience to meet the needs of every employee.

Today’s employees are design focused. A modern intranet is interactive, typically designed to help employees become more efficient and effective at their jobs. Alternatively, it can be defined as a next-gen platform that offers a virtual work environment by integrating contemporary communication, real-time collaboration and social networking features to perform multiple tasks such as

• Accessing corporate information via mobiles or web easily
• Reading personalized content, company news, updates, etc.
• Searching and finding documents, apps, tools, etc.
• Ability to socially connect with co-workers to enhance bonding

Furthermore, let us quickly learn some key benefits of having a modern intranet that helps in building a collaborative and engaging environment in a company –

1. Brings strategic alignment

Now avoid being buried by email messages, notifications, alerts, and static posts on old and creaky intranets. Modern intranet unlike conventional intranet portal supports two-way engagement. It displays a creative and personalized home page with updated content and company news for every employee on their screen automatically. This further ensures that no critical information is ever missed or overlooked.

Additionally, modern intranet reduces passive consumption of information by enabling employees to actively participate by asking questions, posting comments, sharing information, providing feedback and more.

2. Improves employee efficiency

Modern intranet, eradicating the loopholes of communication and information management, helps employees to carry out their daily tasks faster without hassles. They can reach out for assistance and resolve their problems quickly to ensure all projects are executed systematically. Besides, sharing all corporate information at a central hub where employees perform their daily tasks ensures less context switching and thus, less waste of time.

3. Promotes collaboration

Modern intranet brings together all people, resources and tools at one place to get work done. It enables multi-location teams to freely communicate, share ideas, exchange files or plan events easily. By pulling information from other collaboration tools such as SharePoint Online, MS Teams, Yammer, OneDrive, etc., modern intranet simplifies work while streamlining functionality of applications and processes.

4. Offers centralized communication

Modern intranet offers centralized communication providing space for targeted discussions in a team-wide environment. This streamlines decision making process across cross-functional teams while promoting transparent communication.

5. Enhances teamwork

Modern intranet supports peer-to-peer communication to be straightforward and thus enables all employees to find answers quickly, collaborate on projects effectively and strengthen camaraderie. This further cultivates an inclusive environment and a happier workplace.

6. Secure knowledge management

Modern intranet provides one central repository for embedded knowledge to store all company documents and makes it easy to find, access, and manage content with the help of right navigation tools. Additionally, modern intranet promotes organic knowledge sharing by enabling connections. As knowledge experts and employees can easily connect, job-related insights, experiences, knowledge or independent learnings can thus be transferred to each other for better organizational performance.

8. Strengthens HR and IT

Modern intranet eliminates inefficiencies and frustrations of HR and IT teams who constantly support users by answering their queries via email or phone. The entire process is apparently time consuming and costly as many users ask the same questions repeatedly. Modern intranet is a source of self-service resources such as how-to guides, instructional videos, company policies document, employee handbook, etc. to help employees get quick solutions to common help desk issues.

Choose the perfect intranet solution for your business – Try TeamsHUB by Cyclotron’s Engagement Platform!

Intranet is a powerful source to boost employee engagement. However, all intranets available in the market are not equal. As such, how do you pick one from a countless portals that can offer you the best possible ROI with minimal disruption during deployment phase?

The engagement platform offered by TeamsHUB by Cyclotron is an intuitive and visually appealing intranet portal that ensures continued business success post launch. Built on top of Microsoft Teams, TeamsHUB by Cyclotron’s new age engagement features makes it an interesting platform for your remote employees to stay connected, collaborate, access internal resources, manage projects, socialize, recognize each other’s contributions, and much more.

To learn more about our dynamic intranet portal and how it helps bringing your employees close to your business systems, please visit https://teamshub.io or contact sales@cyclotrongroup.com to request a demo