Companies have realigned their digital technology due to the transition to working remotely during the previous two years. Today, working remotely is widespread, and several meetings are held by video conference instead of in-person meetings.
77% of those who work remotely claim that working remotely increases their productivity (a big reason is fewer distractions). Additionally, 85% of managers questioned said that teams made up of remote workers would become the new standard.
However, as a Melbourne IT Service Provider, we wanted to highlight why using cloud communication solutions is necessary for working remotely without leaving staff feeling cut off and clients thinking you’re difficult to contact. Microsoft Teams is quite renowned, and its use has grown significantly.
In April 2021, Microsoft Teams had 145 million users active each day, compared with 75 million in April 2020.
Teams offer more than chat and video conferencing as a platform for all forms of communication. It integrates several characteristics to provide an online workspace center for communication and collaboration.
MS Teams has several essential features, such as:
- Calls that are both audio and video
- Attendance tracking and registration for webinars
- Directed team conversation
- Sharing and storing files
- Word, Excel, PPT, and other document sharing within apps
- In-app cooperation in apps from third parties
- Tabs that enable teams to link applications, channels and their websites
- Status updates and notifications
- Compatible with all devices
Evolution of Microsoft Teams
Initially, a Microsoft 365 Business membership was required to access Microsoft Teams. Then, in 2018, Microsoft released a free version of Teams and videoconferencing becoming more popular and competing with its services like Zoom.
This increased the service’s user base, but the premium version with an M365 and versions with and without subscriptions had very different functionalities, such as significantly poorer Office 365 Support, fewer functionalities, etc.
Microsoft acknowledged that the small business market was one it had not focused on. Small company owners had harder difficulty integrating into the premium model, which needed a complete M365 membership, or the free model, which had severely constrained group meeting schedules.
The third version of MS Teams was released in December 2021, hoping it would be “just perfect” for smaller businesses requiring the same communications and collaboration capabilities as everybody else. You may purchase this package, known as Teams Essentials, without registering for M365.
Comparing Teams Essentials, Teams Free, and Teams with M365 Business
The following section will explain how the three MS Teams’ plans differ to determine which is right for you.
Microsoft Teams: The Free Version
Microsoft Teams’ free version was introduced to appeal to residential and individual users. A group of users that up to that time had been absent from the Teams userbase
These are some of the capabilities of this plan:
- Endless group meetings lasting no more than 60 minutes
- One hundred people maximum at every meeting
- Each user gets 5GB of cloud storage
- Unrestricted conversation
- Events, online polls, and document sharing
- Encryption of data for chats, meetings, files, and calls
- Possibilities for collaboration
- Tabs on group channels
The 60-minute time limit on group video meetings is the main disadvantage of utilizing the free version for commercial purposes. Teams’ 5GB of cloud storage may be too little for commercial use.
The fundamentals of Microsoft Teams
In spite of not wanting to subscribe to M365, Teams Essentials is an excellent cloud collaboration tool for small businesses that are still looking to stay connected and productive. This plan has the following capabilities:
Teams Essentials was developed for small businesses that might not want to invest in an M365 subscription but want a dependable cloud collaboration platform to keep their team connected and productive. It costs $4 per user per month.
Some of this plan’s capabilities are as follows:
- All the features of the free version plus:
- Countless group conferences lasting up to 30 hours
- Each meeting may include up to 300 attendees.
- Each user gets 10GB of cloud storage
- 24/7 phone and online assistance
There is more than enough time for any form of meeting, including those that last all day, in the additional group meeting time (up to 30 hours). Users also receive twice as much cloud storage space, and phone and online assistance guarantee that your workers can utilise the software when necessary.
Bringing teams together with M365
Every company plan includes the M365 Teams edition. The cheapest plan costs $6.00 per user per month (exceeding Essentials by $2). However, just the online versions of the Office suite—Word, Excel, etc.—are included in the Basic package.
M365 Business Standard, the next level up, is considerably more expensive than Teams Essentials at f12.50 per user per month. The Office applications that may be downloaded are included in this one.
The following features are available in these plans:
- All of the features from the Essentials edition plus:
- Applications for the office (either web or web & downloadable)
- Each of the several M365 cloud apps (OneDrive, Forms, SharePoint, OneNote, and many others)
- Each user gets 1TB of cloud storage
- Hosting webinars
- Scheduling customer appointments
- Superior security attributes
It makes sense to get Teams in addition to an M365 subscription if you want to utilize Microsoft Office and other programs and make use of their Business Microsoft 365 Support. Teams Essentials offers several features at a lesser cost if the offline version of the Office suite is already installed in your company or does not require it.
Do you need help setting up Microsoft Teams or other cloud tools?
Strong collaboration tools are necessary to compete in today’s remote teams and hybrid workplaces. If you need assistance launching MS Teams or another cloud solution, we’re an IT Managed Service Provider in Melbourne who have helped a range of businesses successfully adopt these tools. Contact us now to see if we can help provide a unique setup so your crew can get started immediately.