6 Tips for Managing Virtual Meetings with Microsoft Teams

Thanks to Microsoft Teams, organizations can now manage meetings with internal and external team members.

In case you aren’t familiar with Microsoft Teams, it’s a versatile cloud-based communication platform that offers full support for chat, video, and audio support, as well as all sorts of other features to help make managing projects a breeze.

Thanks to Skype for Business capabilities recently being rolled into Microsoft Teams, organizations can now manage virtual meetings with individuals both inside and outside of an organization more effectively.

Below are several tips to help understand just how versatile Microsoft Teams can be when it comes to having productive meetings with individuals located down the hall, or on the other side of the world.

6 Microsoft Teams features that make virtual meetings more effective

Schedule a meeting with anyone

Thanks to the Anonymous Join feature, you can invite someone to a meeting even if they’re from outside of your organization. Simply enter a valid email address, and they’ll receive a meeting invite with information on how to join the meeting.All your meeting guests will need to do is click on the link and enter their name to join the meeting. Guests will be able to join the meeting online without having to install any software on their machine. Should they want the ability to share their own screen, they can install the Teams desktop client and join anonymously.

Join a meeting via phone

With Teams support for Audio Conferencing, users can join a meeting even if they’re traveling and can only call in by phone. If Audio Conferencing is enabled for a meeting, users will see dial-in instructions. Now, you and your team members won’t have to miss a meeting, even if they’re on the road.

Join a meeting without installing the Teams desktop app

Now you can join a meeting directly from Edge or Chrome. Simply sign in to your account from either of these browsers and enjoy a web-based experience.Edge gives you access to a meeting via audio, video, and screen share, whereas Chrome offers support for audio meetings and incoming screen share. Support for video is coming soon to Chrome.

Share only certain applications via screen share

No one wants to see your cluttered desktop. Use Application sharing within Teams to share a specific window as opposed to your entire screen.

Mute late attendees upon entry

For meetings with 5 or more attendees, Microsoft Teams will mute each new attendee that joins after the meeting has started. In addition, the meeting organizer can easily mute individual attendees or everyone from the roster. Users can unmute themselves if they need to say something to the group.

Take advantage of the virtual lobby

A virtual lobby will be created if you’re organizing a meeting with individuals from outside of your organization. This function allows you and your colleagues to have a few moments to discuss any particulars before admitting the external users into your meeting through the virtual lobby.

Ready to give Microsoft Teams a try?

Are you interested in learning more about Microsoft Teams and how it can help to foster virtual meetings among your colleagues, both inside and outside of your organization? If so, feel free to reach out to the Office 365 experts at MessageOps. We’re well versed in not only the latest features of Microsoft Teams but also all the other versatile applications you’ll have access to once you migrate to Office 365. For more information, feel free to reach out to us.