During trying times like today, it is important to understand the most effective ways to communicate. Traditionally while in the office, we would visit someone’s cube when we had questions, scheduling an in-person meeting when there was a common goal, or tapping on someone’s shoulder when there was a deadline coming soon. And, of course, to get lunch with a colleague to do some last-minute crunch time (no pun intended 😀) before your important afternoon meeting.
Today we are going to talk about the virtual collaboration or the modern way of communicating and not from your traditional sense; this is using Microsoft Teams as a Platform and not only using Microsoft Teams but pairing that with the Power Platform to work smarter, not harder.
The Power Platform has a large number of connectors for Microsoft Teams, and more continue to come out (List of Power Apps Microsoft Teams Connectors). We used to look forward to the days where everything Microsoft would live in one place. Before we knew it, the structure of what O365 once was (no Microsoft Groups, Teams, Power Apps, Power Automate, Yammer, etc..) is no longer what is. Fast forward a few years later and we are in a spot to see Microsoft Teams bring together these seemingly separate products enabling them to complement one another as a hub for teamwork. Utilizing Teams, you can communicate through chat, collaborate by integrating O365 apps, customize with third-party apps, and work with confidence due to the enterprise-level of manageability. There isn’t another product out there that can provide such a rich and cohesive experience on your desktop, browser, and mobile device. Now think of using this hub to your advantage for teamwork, but then multiply it because you can now add automation to your world of collaboration.
Process automation starts with one person. All it takes is for one person to want to learn something new and be more efficient. Whether it’s someone capturing data or repeating daily tasks, it results in manual work. Power Apps is something governed by IT but does not need to be built by IT; therefore, it can be utilized by information workers who would rather spend their days streamlining and automating business processes. I’m not saying Power Apps can solve all of your needs, but it can be a great place to start! Especially when it comes to being a citizen developer, utilizing the low code and no code concepts, turning requirements into solutions!
The point of covering these topics is not to cover them separately but to combine them to build not just a hub for teamwork but utilize Microsoft Teams as a Platform. In the video below, we discuss work team productivity, smart restart use cases, and automation use cases. Please take a listen and come along and learn from our experiences!
