Over the past 12 months, MS Teams has played an essential part in keeping us connected and communicating with our work colleagues. By now, most of us have had plenty of practice setting up teams, channels and talking to each other via Chat.
However, when it comes to finding the right apps that will improve the way we work, we tend to take a look at the overwhelming list and close it up again!
This month, CJAZ is sharing top 10 Collaboration apps to help bring your team closer. Whether you want a great way to get feedback from your colleagues, track work progress, share reports or just do a Friday quiz, these top 10 apps are a great starting point.
1. MS Lists – Quick, simple tracking and organisation tool.
The Lists app in Microsoft Teams helps you to track information, organise work, and manage workflows. This app is already available in MS Teams, so there’s no need to sign up. You simply find the right Team and Channel, go to your tabs and add the Lists app.
Watch this informative video and it will tell you everything you need to know to get started with using MS Lists.
Find out how to use MS Lists - watch the video.
CJAZ created a new list and chose the Content Scheduler Template. This helps us to keep track of our blogs and newsletter deadlines.We also added our existing email list. This way we always know our newsletters are going out to our current clients.
What jobs do you need to keep track of, or which lists would you like to share?
2. MS Forms – The quick, fun way to get feedback from your colleagues
Easily create surveys, quizzes and polls straight from your channel or group chat in MS Teams. It offers a simple way for your teammates to quickly vote on a specific question. The only thing you need to do is provide questions and answers, and Forms does the vote-counting analytics for you in real-time. Simply mention @forms to create and send your survey, and watch the results appear.
How to create a quick poll in Microsoft Teams. Watch the video for a simple demonstration:
BTW, you can also use Polly. This requires that you sign up whereas Forms are already included in MS Teams.
3. Trello – Manage any project with this flexible tool
Trello is a project management tool whose boards, cards and lists can help you to organise your projects in a flexible way. When added to Teams, you’ll be able to see all your boards directly from the app without having to go to a web browser. By integrating into Teams, you can see your Trello assignments, tasks, and notifications and have conversations about them. The process of adding a Trello app to your Teams app is quick and easy as Trello comes as a default app for Microsoft Teams.
The app will send notifications when your team member creates or removes a card, assigns you to a specific card, and comments or adds an attachment to the card. This way, you can ensure everyone is up to date, without having to check for updates manually. Trello is a fun and free way to bring together project management and project collaboration without leaving the Microsoft Teams app.
If you already use Trello as your project management tool, this video will explain how you can add a Trello tab to your Team.
4. MS Whiteboard - Enhance your meetings with this virtual whiteboard
Microsoft describes Whiteboard as a free-form digital canvas. It basically allows you to do anything you would normally do on a normal whiteboard but on your computer.There are also lots of other collaboration tips and tricks available.
Watch the video to find out how Whiteboard can make your next Teams meeting more fun and engaging…
5. FindTime – The easy way to schedule meetings
Want to schedule a meeting, but you can’t see their calendar?
We’ve all been in the situation when we are struggling to find a good time for lots of people to meet, especially if you’re scheduling a meeting with people outside of your company.
This is where FindTime, the Outlook add-in tool, comes in.
Watch the video to find out how to install and start using this invaluable, time-saving tool.
6. Karma – Promote wellbeing and reciprocity in your organisation.
Karma is an app that allows you to give “kudos” to your team members. Using this app, employees can give each other karma points and move up the leader boards. You can give kudos to a good reply in a thread or a particular post. That way, everyone is encouraged to work more efficiently and deliver faster. It is a bot that records small officially recognised encouragements and ‘thank you’ mentions that usually aren’t verbalised.
The Karma bot builds user-profiles and provides team leaders with detailed insights, introducing healthy competition that boosts efficiency. Using Karma, you can view a dashboard that can help you visualise the conducted statistics. That way, managers can review performance reports and create a more appreciative culture within the workplace.
Looking for a fun way to raise wellbeing awareness across your organisation?
7. The Wiki app – A light reference point for your teams or channels.
The Wiki app is a quick way for us to access what is essentially an easy how-to guide. For example, if two teams need to work on a particular process but have to follow basic rules of engagement, the Wiki app is a great place to iron out the rules everyone needs to follow in one central, easily accessible location.
The Wiki app also comes in handy for Team FAQs. This is especially good if you have a team that needs to stay up to date. Perhaps you’re working through a certification process and want to be sure everyone understands the correct messaging. Instead of simply highlighting it in a channel message, the Wiki app can be used as a central knowledge repository.
Lastly, though it’s fairly obvious, you can also use it as the name implies: a very simple, stripped-down Wiki. Having more of your traditional Wikipedia-type content here can turn it into a great lightweight resource if you don’t need a full-on OneNote page or SharePoint Wiki app. So, before automatically deleting it, consider if you need a light reference point in any of the Teams you manage.
8. YouTube – Share useful tips and tricks with a YouTube video.
YouTube videos are a fantastic way to share how to do anything.
By adding a YouTube tab to your Team – you can quickly and easily share any useful tips for your team.
Why not set up a Training channel, complete with a YouTube video you think your team would benefit from. Watch this video to find out how:
9. Add some festive fun to your next Teams meeting!
CJAZ has created 10 Christmas backgrounds [Kyla Skin2]that will add a bit of festive cheer.
Please let us know your favourite!
Read our fun blog: MS Teams 10 Free Christmas Backgrounds
10. Best MS Teams meetings ever!
There have been so many new features added to Teams recently that it's been hard to keep on top of them all. So in this video you’ll find 22 pro tips for Teams meetings to guide you through the new and existing features – to make sure you have a great meeting every time.
Still hungry to learn more? Watch the full video here: