Find out about the pros and cons of teams (2023)

channels

Basically,Channels are conversations you have with different people on the team.Similar to Slack,You can form channels around a team, project, or topic. They're a place to chat, hold meetings, add files, and collaborate with others.

tabs

Tabs help you navigate through your channel content. By default, you have three tabs: Posts, Files, and Wiki. Their names are simple – theThe Posts tab saves every chat you havewithin a channel while theThe Files tab stores all the documents you have shared with peopleinside the canal. The Wiki tab is a smart text editor where you can create notes, edit, and chat. You canadd more custom orbuilt-in tabs, if you want.

Advantages

The biggest benefit of Microsoft Teams is how well it connects with everyone elseMicrosoft 365 apps and tools for collaboration. You can use Teams as a central hub and leverage the capabilities of multiple apps like Planner, Outlook, and SharePoint—all without leaving the app's interface. We have listed the advantages of Microsoft Teams in more detail:

1. Integration of all tools in one place

Microsoft has put convenience at the heart of Teams. They have a chat tool that includes all the other apps too. You canMake a video or audio call, work on files without leaving a chat, and schedule a meeting or share a taskwith people from a channel.

2. No additional cost for Microsoft 365 users

Additional costs can be a deal breaker for some companies. That is the good newsIf your company already has a Microsoft 365 license, the Teams feature won't cost you a penny. On the other hand, standalone chat tools like Slack or Google Hangouts can add additional costs to your business. If you don't need premium features,You can always use afree version of Teams.

3. Useful chat additions

You can add third-party tools to your channels. Using Teams doesn't mean you have to give up the other tools you typically use. For example,You can add Trello and cloud storage platforms like Google Drive or Dropbox. Check out a full list of integrationsApps to add to your teams.

There are also many fun options like emoticons, GIFs, and stickers. It might not sound like a big deal, but emoticons can really brighten up your workday.

Those:products.office.com

4. Seamless file search, backup and collaboration

Each channel has its own file storage. Do you know those situations where you have to scroll endlessly to find a specific file? Then the file tabs come in handy –You don't have to scroll throughall channels.

There's a pretty good chance you need to dig up an old document you shared with a team months ago.Microsoft comes to your rescue and backs up your files.Even if you delete a channel,Files remain stored on a SharePoint site, so you haven't lost them.

If you're working on an important document, you can add it to a separate tab to distinguish it from others. As we have already mentioned,You can work on a file in real time without leaving the chat.

5. Helpful bots

Bots help you with the boring, repetitive, mundane tasksand save some time. You can create your own or use existing ones. Check theList of all available bots.

A bot appears like any other team member you interact with, except that it has a hexagonal avatar icon and is always online.

Those:docs.microsoft.com

Disadvantages

As much as Teams is a great tool that Microsoft is improving day by day, users can still struggle with the lack of certain features. Here are some of the Microsoft Teams drawbacks that we encountered while using the app.

1. Too many similar tools

Surprisingly, the biggest stumbling block for Microsoft Teams is other Microsoft tools. With the abundance of possibilitiesPeople are still very confused about which tool to use in which situation. It's up to Microsoft to educate its users about their tools. Check out our infographic below to familiarize yourself with some of the most popular Microsoft 365 apps.

2. Unnecessary memory usage

By default, anyone in the organization can create a team. This can lead to teams being formed unnecessarily and storage space being used up. The good news isyou canRestrict permission to create teamsto a set ofuser, but requires some manual work. First you need to create a separate security group with the people you want to create teams for and then run some PowerShell commands.

3. Increased security risk

As highlighted in #2, by default, anyone can create a team. while thisincreases opportunities for collaboration, it also increases security risks. Guests can upload potentially harmful files to Teams channels. Employees can accidentally upload files containing sensitive or confidential information. Unmanaged devices outside the organization can connect to Teams and potentially steal or compromise data within channels.

Of course, these risks can be reduced. However, resources are required to implement and manage controls, permissions, and authentication.

4. Missing notifications

If you attempt to create a new team with an existing name, you will not receive any notificationsYou may end up with two or more teams of the same name. This not only creates confusion, but also consumes your resources unnecessarily.

However, there is a workaround for this situation. Before starting a new team,You can check if the team name is already taken by typing the name in the search bar. You'll get a list of all existing teams and avoid the mistake of duplicating the name.

5. A limited number of channels

The number of channels is limited to 200 public and 30private channelsper team. While this isn't a problem for smaller organizations, others can run into trouble. If you exceed this limit, you will have to delete some of the channels. Note that shared files remain on the SharePoint site as backup storage.

Take a look at the table below to quickly see them allPros and Cons of Microsoft Teams!

Webinar Microsoft Teams behind the scenes - recording

If you are still not surewhat Microsoft Teams can bring youand how this affects your Microsoft 365 administration,Watch this webinar recording!

What we will cover:

• Microsoft Teams permissions governance
• Microsoft Teams settings
• Microsoft Teams-Gastzugangand how to control it

SysKitPoint - A centralized reporting tool for Microsoft 365 and Teams

SysKit PointReporting from Microsoft Teams and administrative functionhelps you:

• Discover teams in your tenantand associated Microsoft 365 groups.
• Find out who your team isOwners, members and guests are;Add or remove users in bulk.
• Recognizeall private channels and their usersin a report.
• Check the associated Teams audit logsfor a user-defined period.
• Remove guest userand share links from teams with one click.

Schedule a demo to check out all of SysKit Point's features with a custom walkthroughof the tool and feel free to ask any questions that will help you understand how we can help your M365 environment.