Key Features and Licensing Options
In this month’s webinar, James Golden, Director of Technical Development at Plow Networks, highlights key features of Microsoft Teams and how to determine the best licensing option for your business. Teams is Microsoft’s secure communications platform that allows your team to collaborate within and across departments. Information is encrypted and ties into your existing SharePoint accounts. You can connect other applications to your Teams for ease of collaboration, such as OneNote and Org Chart.
Your organization may want to monitor who is using certain applications within Teams. To view this data, go to the “Analytics and Reports” tab at admin.teams.microsoft.com. Under “Usage Reports,” you will find charts that track who is using what apps and whether they are premium services.
Microsoft offers different licensing plans depending on your organization’s needs. Teams Essentials is the standard offering that provides general user licensing. If your organization wants more customization and control past the default settings, you may prefer to upgrade to Teams Premium.
Beyond these options, your organization may opt for Teams Rooms Pro, which provides data analytics and auto-patching. Other licensing plans include Teams Resource Accounts and Teams Phone. Microsoft is currently working on updating its licensing options for Teams. To learn about the new licensing policies, watch this clip:
Communication on Teams is not only limited to users within your organization. You can communicate with any users also licensed for 365 in Teams. To change your organization’s policies, visit admin.teams.microsoft.com and navigate to the “Users” tab. Under the “External access” page, you can change the external domains to allow all, some, or no domains to communicate with your company’s users.
Policies for Microsoft Teams are individually created and can be packaged into batches to assign to users. These can be designed for messaging, meetings, or any other feature.
Microsoft Teams receives frequent updates, so keep your app updated to ensure you have the newest features. Look out for Copilot, Microsoft’s new AI scribe that records notes and touch points from meeting transcriptions.
This is the first entry in our webinar series on how to transform your workplace with Microsoft 365 tools. To learn more about maximizing your Microsoft 365 services, you can watch past webinar sessions here.
About Plow Networks
Plow Networks is a leading IT services provider, connecting businesses to technology since 2012. With deep expertise in network, cloud, and end user support services, we partner with clients to leverage technology in ways that simplify operations and fuel growth. Plow Networks is based in Brentwood, Tenn.
