We use the product for communication and as a channel for discussion on projects.
Founder and GM at IT-Enterprise
A communication tool that works as a channel for project discussion
Pros and Cons
- "The solution integrates with project management products like Jira."
- "The solution should improve its user interface and recording features."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
The solution integrates with project management products like Jira.
What needs improvement?
The solution should improve its user interface and recording features.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with the product for five years.
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Microsoft Teams
December 2024
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate the product's stability a ten out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I would rate the solution's scalability an eight out of ten. My company has 6000 employees.
How are customer service and support?
Our first line of support is within the company. If they cannot resolve it, we open a ticket and get an immediate response from the Microsoft team.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
The product is better than Zoom in terms of features and capabilities.
What about the implementation team?
Our team did the solution's implementation.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate the solution a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Solution Engineer at a consultancy with 51-200 employees
A reliable product with good availability
Pros and Cons
- "The corporate world widely accepts the solution for virtual meetings. Also, it has good availability."
- "The solution's login process could be more straightforward."
What is most valuable?
The corporate world widely accepts the solution for virtual meetings. Also, it has good availability.
What needs improvement?
The solution's login process could be more straightforward. It takes four to five minutes to load. They need to improve their login speed. Also, its UI needs to be easy and accessible. In addition, the name and picture display options once we log into the meeting should be more flexible.
For how long have I used the solution?
We use the solution to schedule meetings or virtual calls with customers and vendors.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is a scalable solution.
How was the initial setup?
The solution's initial setup is easy if you have a Microsoft account.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We don't have to pay for the solution.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
In comparison, Zoom has a faster login process. Also, it has better UI and security features.
What other advice do I have?
It is a good and trusted tool from a security perspective. Also, it is the best solution for corporate use cases. I rate it a seven out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Teams
December 2024
Learn what your peers think about Microsoft Teams. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2024.
824,067 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Associate Director - Service Provider Solutions at Millennium Information Technologies
Useful account syncing, scalable, and easy setup
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable features of Microsoft Teams are the ease of use. It is very good for a small virtual office for meetings and calendars which sync well together."
- "Microsoft Teams could improve because it is heavy on bandwidth. We have some access points and when we have 30 or 40 users on it with Microsoft Teams calls can drop. WebEx does not use as much bandwidth."
What is our primary use case?
For all the meetings and events we are using Microsoft Teams.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features of Microsoft Teams are the ease of use. It is very good for a small virtual office for meetings and calendars which sync well together.
What needs improvement?
Microsoft Teams could improve because it is heavy on bandwidth. We have some access points and when we have 30 or 40 users on it with Microsoft Teams calls can drop. WebEx does not use as much bandwidth.
When someone joins a meeting we are not able to kick them out.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Microsoft Teams for approximately three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Microsoft Teams is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of Microsoft Teams is good and is easy to do.
We have approximately 450 - 500 users using the solution.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have used Skype for Business and WebEx.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of Microsoft Teams is straightforward.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We have a license needed to use Microsoft Teams.
What other advice do I have?
I would advise others to set the parameters correctly for security. You can transfer files between users in the chat window which is helpful.
I rate Microsoft Teams a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Proposal Manager at Data Unit NV
Easy integration with other Microsoft products, very stable, and simple to set up
Pros and Cons
- "The integration of online jobs and documents is one of the most valuable aspects of the solution. The ability to integrate tasks and to assign tasks to certain people is great."
- "I don't like the online version of Word and Excel. It skews the layout. It is no longer representative of the layout that you actually have in a document. You always have to open it in the desktop application to get an accurate representation of how the document will look."
What is our primary use case?
Microsoft Teams is used, in our case, to collaborate with all internal employees, to work on offering some proposals, and to work together online on files in Word and Excel. We largely use it to collaborate online and to have video meetings with customers.
We can integrate SharePoint sites with other people. We have libraries that are available within Teams so that people can sync those libraries to their local drives and therefore will have the most up to date information and documents at their disposal.
What is most valuable?
The integration of online jobs and documents is one of the most valuable aspects of the solution. The ability to integrate tasks and to assign tasks to certain people is great.
What needs improvement?
I'm really waiting for the release of Lists to be included. Lists is a new feature that will probably come into Teams in August. It will be a way of using some sort of database to enter interlinked lists.
I don't like the online version of Word and Excel. It skews the layout. It is no longer representative of the layout that you actually have in a document. You always have to open it in the desktop application to get an accurate representation of how the document will look.
If you open a document in Teams, it opens online first. If you have, for instance, an entire image on the front page, that image is descaled to the right and to the bottom. So you have a lot of white space on the page, while in reality, it's pretty nicely aligned. You basically have a borderless page. That's one of the main things that they can improve on. If they had a workaround where you can open it in the desktop apps first, it would be better.
The solution needs to adjust the number of protected channels within a team.
The solution should maybe include breakout rooms within a team meeting. For example, let's say you are with 10 people, within one meeting space. You can have three accounts in separate smaller "meeting rooms" with just two or three people accessing them and still be within the same larger meeting environment. Let's say if you have a team where you have some technical members, some solution architects, a bid manager, a capture manager, an account manager, etc., you should be able to break up a meeting into multiple smaller sessions on certain topics, and yet still stay within the same meeting space.
They should include a visual application also within Teams, so drawings that are made can attach to that space within the proposal with the ability to add Word or Excel files, as well as tasks, etc.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've been using the solution for two years now. That's well before everyone started using conferencing systems during COVID-19.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's a stable solution. We haven't had any hiccups. Its been working flawlessly for the two years that I'm using it now.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is easy to scale, however, you need to take into account best practices so that you don't lose oversight on the number of teams that you have.
There are other things that can be improved of in terms of scaling. For the moment, you can have approximately 5,000+ different teams within your Office 365 license. In each team, you can have multiple channels. The number of channels with limited access rights is limited to 256 or 250. If you create a channel where you want to find all your different projects and you have more than 250 customers within one team, you run into issues. Then you have to create separate teams for each customer. In those teams, you have various possibilities on channels. We started using a team, for instance, for customer projects. However, in customer projects, you are limited. It's only on about 25 channels that you can give access rights to certain people. If you are working on the project with company X together for a customer, you don't want them to see another project for another customer with a competing solution. That's the tricky part.
That was a limitation that we encountered with scaling. We changed the approach from having a team customer project to creating teams for each customer where we have projects.
Currently, in our organization, we have 250 employees using Teams. We use it quite extensively every day.
How are customer service and technical support?
We haven't really reached out to technical support. If we need support, we first reach out to our IT department and they will figure it out on our behalf, or contact Microsoft directly. In my experience, until now, with Office 365, I haven't had any issues. I'm satisfied with the product but I can't speak to any specific experience related to customer service.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We use a bunch of solutions at any given time. We have Cisco Webex, for example. We also have the Mitel My Call app and for some of our customers, we also need to use Zoom and BlueJeans. So we have quite a few solutions that are active.
If you look at just the feature of video conferencing and you look at Zoom and BlueJeans and Microsoft Teams, they're all pretty much alike. It's mainly the integration of everything document-wise and the consistency that I really liked within Microsoft Teams.
Out of all of the other solutions, BlueJeans is the one that I found the least reliable. We had quite a few hiccups where we eventually fell back to Cisco WebEx for video conferencing instead of the BlueJeans solution.
Then we have Zoom, which I have less experience with. It's used by a few vendors with whom we collaborate from time to time. They use Zoom predominantly, so when we conference with them, it's largely through that.
In terms of Cisco WebEx, the thing that I don't like is that if someone invites you for a meeting and you connect to the meeting early, you don't get notified when the meeting actually starts, so you constantly have to reload until the meeting organizer starts the meeting and accepts you. For instance, last week, I went into a Cisco WebEx meeting. I connected two minutes before the actual time that the meeting should have started. I opened the WebEx application and the meeting didn't start. 10 minutes later, I reloaded the application and reconnected to the session and they were already actively meeting. The application didn't notify me when the meeting actually started. That's a big drawback.
How was the initial setup?
The solution is installed by our IT department. In the beginning, we had some issues with assigning rights. Not everybody was able to create a team or to invite people into a team or to share files. However, now they have changed a few things around. There are quite a few people now that can create teams, add members, etc., and you can add external members and there are a few new policies internally about best practices.
I was one of the first parties to implement a solution like Teams. Our company bought a few companies and every company was using different tools as their main resource. The one thing that they all had in common was Microsoft Office 365, and yet they didn't use Teams at that time. I was one of the people asking our organization to implement Teams because my position requires me to have to collaborate with people from all of the different companies that our company bought.
The deployment was done in less than a week. That was due largely due to the availability of our IT staff. Once they began doing the implementation, however, it was done within a few hours. It was activated, rights were assigned, and people with rights could begin working and downloading the team's application on smart devices, on their computers almost right away.
It's as easy as using Skype for a private person. You just download the application and you can start.
What other advice do I have?
I believe we've been using the latest versions of the solution. We use whichever version is pushed out with Office 365.
I would recommend the product. It works with everything. I have an iPad Pro, I have an iPhone, I have my computer. It's installed on all three devices. It works flawlessly.
I'd rate the solution eight out of ten, simply because there are a few things the solution still needs to improve upon.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
CEO at Zington
Good integration of all features; video conferencing could be improved
Pros and Cons
- "Integration with document management capabilities and video conferencing."
- "Lacking in more complex hierarchies for files and teams."
What is our primary use case?
We mainly use Microsoft Teams for our project teams, and of course also for remote virtual meetings. We mainly use it internally but also for external communication when we have remote meetings. We're customers and I'm the CEO of our company.
What is most valuable?
The feature I find to be the most valuable is the integration with document management capabilities and video conferencing, screen sharing, etc. It's a powerful tool for when you need to work in teams and to communicate with storing files and meetings. I like Teams very much.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see some improvement in the file hierarchy and team hierarchy. Right now it's not as powerful as when using SharePoint for files. They could develop more complex hierarchies for files and teams. I think there could also be improvement at the authorization level, who can see what and things like that. It's not that easy to work with.
I think the idea of authorization could be included as an additional feature. In addition the video conferencing is not as good as Zoom, which is a more powerful solution. Zoom provides the ability to see many people on the same screen and to break out into different virtual rooms. Those are a couple of features that Teams could implement.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this solution for two and a half years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This is an extremely stable solution. I think I restarted only a couple of times over the past two and a half years. And in the last couple of months, of course, we've been using it all day and it's very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution scales automatically for our needs. We add users and it scales accordingly.
How are customer service and technical support?
We've never had to contact technical support.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is extremely straightforward. It's all Office 365 right so it's quite simple. We have two people in our company of 400 that can assist if we need anything. They deal with anything Microsoft related but they do other things as well, it's not a full-time job.
What other advice do I have?
Potential users of the solution should be aware that it's very good at what it does as long as you don't try to stretch the usage to something that it isn't meant to do. It's mainly for internal communication and internal projects. It's not Slack and it's not Microsoft Yammer which is for larger organizations. This is really for small teams of up to 30 people. After that, it becomes clumsy and a bit rigid.
I would rate this solution a seven out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Strategic Program Management at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
Enables us to communicate in real-time and share documents in real-time
Pros and Cons
- "I think what the team likes most is the improvements when it comes to communication."
- "I would say that Microsoft Team invitations from the calendar within the solution could be improved."
What is our primary use case?
We mainly use this solution for project collaboration. It could be, for example, when we are developing a new product or taking a new product to market. We use it for designing, publishing and marketing assets, so basically team collaboration where we are working on a project. It helps with communication in the team and it allows us to share different documents or content with each other.
How has it helped my organization?
We used Skype for business in the past and we had a reasonable audio and visual experience when communicating with teams, if you have a scheduled meeting, for example. But now, with Microsoft Teams, we are able to communicate in real-time and share documents in real-time. And that is a really big improvement for us. The solution has a lot of capabilities in one application. Whereas in the past we had to use multiple applications. That, I would say, would be the biggest benefit that we've experienced, in that we have only one application that we can use to collaborate and speak with each other.
What is most valuable?
I think what the team likes most is the improvements when it comes to communication. We've been using Skype for business in the past but the audio and visual communication is really good with Microsoft Teams. I also really like the speed of the product and the way that the channels can be leveraged.
What needs improvement?
There is nothing that annoys me at the moment but perhaps the layout can be improved. In my experience working with Microsoft tools, they continuously work on usability. There are a few minor issues when scheduling meetings, and that is that some of the descriptions are really long. And there seems to be very little control over what a user could control in terms of the texts that appear. An invitation, for example, can look very complicated. So I would say that Microsoft Team invitations from the calendar within the solution could be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Microsoft Teams for about six months now.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable, I've never experienced it being unavailable or behaving in a peculiar way.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We are only 30 people using this program, but what I have not noticed any issues when more colleagues participate in Microsoft Teams. When usage increases, the program still offers a seamless, consistent experience. We may even add more users, so I believe the program is very scalable.
How are customer service and technical support?
I haven't used the technical support yet, because I contact our administrator directly. But I know that he was working with Microsoft's technical team from time to time, as well as a third party that delivers hosting services.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We used Skype for Business before but Microsoft Teams came along with the Microsoft Office subscription that we had. We had subscriptions to Office. And then we moved from On Premise Exchange to Exchange Online. It was the natural choice to make. We do use other services from other providers, but I would say that Microsoft Teams is the most stable one.
How was the initial setup?
From an end-user perspective, the initial setup was really straightforward. We started to use Microsoft Teams when we deployed Microsoft Exchange Online earlier this year, and as part of that, we adopted the use of Teams and Yammer. I have been using Microsoft Teams in the past, but it wasn't really until we as an organization had deployed it and exchanged online that we were all able to enjoy the benefits. Testing the application before was very fragmented.
Deployment took a couple of days. When we started to go from using Microsoft Outlook for mail, we started to integrate Yammer and Teams.
What other advice do I have?
My advice to others would be that, if they're working with a similar product, they should have a change management program in place. They should also give themselves a few days at least to deliver some training for the users. I think the training is really important to enhance the user adoption experience. It doesn't have to be a lot, but at least give them an introduction and a guided tour through the program's features.
The biggest lesson I've learned is actually using a single application that can deliver all of the services that are required. Since I've only been using the solution for six months, I haven't even used all the features yet. I think that Microsoft Teams may replace Microsoft Outlook in the future.
On a scale from one to 10, I will rate this solution a seven. I think there's always room for improvement, even if it's not obvious what those improvements can be. I guess I could be tempted to say eight but not higher than that. I am very satisfied with Microsoft Teams.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner.
Representative for the Nuclear Industry in Spain (EU) at a energy/utilities company with 501-1,000 employees
A perfect solution that helps with meetings and trainings
Pros and Cons
- "The solution is perfect and works pretty well. It gets your streaming and helps to get your calls. I like it a lot."
- "I have faced issues with connection. Maybe, it's an issue from my side. The company accounts in Teams has some issues as well. I could not establish calls with certain domains, and then the product asked me to buy a professional account. The problem with Teams is that they are split between professional or company accounts and personal accounts. It's not very clear how you can go from one to another. That's the main issue with teams."
What is our primary use case?
We use the product for meetings and trainings.
What is most valuable?
The solution is perfect and works pretty well. It gets your streaming and helps to get your calls. I like it a lot.
What needs improvement?
I have faced issues with connection. Maybe, it's an issue from my side. The company accounts in Teams has some issues as well. I could not establish calls with certain domains, and then the product asked me to buy a professional account. The problem with Teams is that they are split between professional or company accounts and personal accounts. It's not very clear how you can go from one to another. That's the main issue with teams.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with the product for a year and a half.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Teams is better and more polished than Zoom.
How was the initial setup?
The product's installation is easy and took only a few minutes to complete.
What about the implementation team?
I did the solution's installation by myself.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The product's pro accounts are cheap.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate the solution a seven out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Senior Project Manager - IT Services at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
The collaborative nature of the solution has greatly improved productivity
Pros and Cons
- "Multiple channels and tools for recording."
- "Screen sharing sometimes causes the solution to crash."
What is our primary use case?
We use this solution both for our internal team as well as with our customers and suppliers who participate in some meetings. We are a corporate partner of Microsoft and have an integrated package with all the licenses from Microsoft. It includes the majority of products such as Office 365, SharePoint, and Azure. I'm the senior project manager, IT services.
How has it helped my organization?
This is a collaboration tool so in the current situation, the most important thing for us is to be able to continue to run our business in a collaborative manner. Given that nobody is working from the office and there's no way to meet formally to discuss key challenges and discuss work updates, moving to this solution was a good option. Since we started using it, our productivity has increased and we are very coordinated with each team member.
What is most valuable?
I think the video calling and the calling facility are valuable features as well as the ability to create multiple channels and tools so that you can record your information. It's a good solution.
What needs improvement?
One of the issues we have is that sometimes when you're trying to share your screen the solution crashes. The problem occurs quite frequently and it's an issue across multiple users. It's been reported to technical support but there seems to be some bug there. That should really be improved. I haven't experienced any other difficulties.
I'd like to have the ability to increase the number of participants in a meeting as an additional feature. For now, you can only see a maximum of nine people in a single screen. I believe that Zoom enables the ability to see 20 plus people during video conferencing. I'd also like to see a screen sharing option which would include sharing of videos.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this solution for a year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's a stable solution, the only challenge being the screen sharing portion and that the solution sometimes crashes when you share your screen. It's hard to say whether this is a Teams problem or our problem.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I think the system is quite scalable.
How are customer service and technical support?
I think Microsoft technical support is on point. It's good because I was involved in one of the technical issues we were having and they provided us with good support.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was very easy. It's deployed on cloud and you just need to set up your organization based on the kind of access you want to give the user. It's very easy to configure. It's not so complicated that you need specialized resources to maintain the administration part of Microsoft Teams.
What other advice do I have?
My recommendation is that if you look into the majority of the end users who are using laptops or desktop computers, we're predominantly using the Microsoft operating system and the Microsoft Office network. I think it's better to have one common system which is an integrated solution. It makes it much easier for anyone to get the benefit of this solution.
I would like to see some improvements in this solution but I would still rate it a nine out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
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