Last week, Microsoft held its annual Inspire convention and introduced many new options and collaborations. My first weblog of the Inspire occasion lined Microsoft’s new DaaS platform Windows 365. Now, I need to cowl Microsoft’s modifications to its collaboration software Teams.
Teams is Microsoft’s workspace collaboration hub for Microsoft 365. It got here out in 2017 and was made accessible totally free by Microsoft a 12 months later. Back in 2017, I noticed Teams as a wanted response to Slack, Cisco Teams (now simply “Webex”) and Google Chat (Now a part of Workspaces), and when Covid hit, Zoom.
Since then, it has grown seven-fold from 20 million energetic customers to over 145 million energetic customers in 2020. While I generally query Teams simplicity and pace, I believe the spike in adoption for Teams is effectively deserved, as the corporate isn’t stopping at chat and video. It turned Teams right into a full-blown enterprise software platform.
Microsoft continues to pour an increasing number of into Teams, and final 12 months it built-in Microsoft’s Power Platform and Dataflex. Power Platform permits prospects to construct no-code/low-code bots, analyze knowledge, automate processes, and extra, and Dataflex is Power Platform’s knowledge platform.
With these integrations, it’s no shock to me that Microsoft is integrating Dynamic 365 an increasing number of into its platform. Let’s dive into Dynamic 365 in Teams and the implications it brings in digitally remodeling the way in which we work collectively.
Teams as an enterprise platform
At Microsoft’s Ignite occasion earlier this 12 months, it introduced the mixing of Dynamics 365. Teams integration into Dynamic 365 workspace to position calls, begin or proceed chats, maintain conferences and collaborate, and extra. It additionally included some integration of Dynamic 365 content material inside Teams.
I believe Microsoft is doing a good job of placing communication and private messaging capabilities on the middle of its Dynamic 365 Platform. It needed to have a direct response to Slack and Zoom and this was it. Microsoft wasn’t achieved and wished to make Teams a platform.
What’s new from Inspire
Many of Microsoft’s bulletins for Dynamics 365 and Teams integration at Inspire 2021 proceed what it introduced at Ignite earlier this 12 months. In integrating Dynamic 365 into Teams, Microsoft eradicated the licensing “tax” for Dynamics 365, and a license is not wanted to make use of the Dynamic 365 companies inside Teams.
Eliminating the licensing for Dynamics 365 in Teams will open up Dynamic 365 to extra organizations and pull collectively Teams as a collaboration hub. Microsoft will not be giving Teams’ 145 million consumer base any purpose to not use Dynamic 365.
Microsoft says Dynamic 365 customers can invite anybody within the group to view and collaborate on buyer information proper throughout the stream of a staff chat or channel. Microsoft additionally says Dynamic 365 customers can add Teams conferences to appointments and seize notes inside a Teams name, which additionally saves the notes within the timeline of the Dynamic 365 report.
I see these options being key in bringing readability to collaboration as totally different LOBs (Line of Businesses) join with prospects and with one another. Rather than having a number of locations to place info, it’s all built-in and centered below one productiveness workflow. Microsoft has tweaked notifications in Teams and Dynamic 365 by exhibiting customers when colleagues have made modifications. It additionally lets customers change notifications in chat channels, together with notifications and adaptive playing cards based mostly on the notification sort.
From my expertise with notifications on totally different platforms is they are often redundant and tough to handle. I like how Microsoft is tweaking notifications to be private whereas sustaining…
