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MVP Webinar Series Highlights – Advancing Modern Work Through Microsoft Teams Part 2

CMMA Blog

MVP Webinar Series Highlights – Advancing Modern Work Through Microsoft Teams Part II

Microsoft Teams has proved to be an invaluable tool, enabling businesses to communicate and collaborate more effectively and efficiently. Microsoft Teams is a vast platform and navigating its extensive list of capabilities can be challenging. Our MVP series was developed for this purpose – to help users get the most out of their Teams subscription by connecting them with the foremost experts in the field.

From optimizing your network to uncovering Teams strategies and tools to improve your workflow, this webinar series covers a range of useful topics:

Episode 1: Optimizing Your Network for Microsoft Teams
Episode 2: Empowering Collaboration with Microsoft Teams Devices
Episode 3: Developing Inclusive Communications Through Microsoft Teams
Episode 4: Supporting Neurodiversity with Microsoft Teams

In this article, we will briefly recap episodes three and four, highlighting some of the top tips from each episode. Highlights from episodes one and two can be seen in part one of our webinar series highlights .

Episode 3: Developing Inclusive Communications Through Microsoft Teams

With millions of users working daily in Microsoft Teams, companies must understand the different video-based communication and collaboration interfaces available before choosing the right format for any given situation. In episode three Daniel Glenn , M365 Apps & Services MVP, walks you through:

  • Using Live Events and Webinars
  • Breakout Rooms and when to use them
  • Using video to communicate through Microsoft Teams
  • Viva Engage and Microsoft Teams

In the clip below, Daniel when and how to use breakout rooms to increase engagement and collaboration in meetings.


Tips for Creating Inclusive Meetings

  1. Select the best type of meeting – Understand the capabilities of each meeting type and pick the interface that best matches your participant’s needs.
  2. Use breakout rooms – Large meetings can deter engagement. Breakout rooms create smaller spaces that make it easier and more comfortable for people to interact and share with the group.
  3. Turn your video on – Video shows people that you are engaged. It also allows them to understand your level of commitment while letting them engage with you more easily.
  4. Connect with Viva Engage – Use Viva Engage to connect with leadership and communities, share knowledge, and spark engagement.

Episode 4: Supporting Neurodiversity with Microsoft Teams

Global studies estimate that as much as 40% of the population lives with cognitive differences like ADHD, dyslexia, and dyspraxia. In theory, at least one person you work with has a cognitive difference. This means that they may communicate, consume, and interpret things differently.

Episode four features Megan Strant and Loryan Strant , M365 Apps & Services MVPs who share tools available on the M365 platform that support neurodiverse individuals and help them work more efficiently. In this episode, they cover:

  • Enhanced focus
  • Reading and writing
  • Leveraging audio and video tools
  • Other M365 app enhancements

In the clip below, Megan Strant and Loryan Strant discuss the Enhanced Focus tools that are available in Microsoft Teams and how they can be used to improve your workflow.

Tips for Creating Enhanced Focus

  1. Viva Insights Focus Time – Carve out time to focus and get work done. The Focus Time feature automatically schedules focus time for you, sets your status to “Focus” to alert others, mutes notifications and gives you reports to track how much focus time you honored.
  2. Teams presence and status messages – A Focus mode status is only sometimes enough to deter people from booking a meeting or messaging you. You can manually change your Teams status to let people know you are unavailable and add a status message to let them know why you can’t respond immediately and/or when you will be available again.
  3. Tuning out – Sometimes you need to tune out all the beeps that can derail your focus and reduce the noise and distractions. Learning to manage notifications for posts and chats and leaving meeting chats that you are not attending can help cut the volume. If a conversation has caught your attention and there is an action item in there, rather than becoming a part of the conversation, consider using “Create a Task” to help narrow your focus and return to it when you are ready.

Explore Each Topic On-Demand

Microsoft Teams has become an integral tool in the modern workplace, enabling seamless communication and collaboration regardless of device or location. The multitude of features in the Teams platform can be overwhelming to approach on your own. However, by leveraging the tips and strategies provided by the Microsoft MVPs who joined us for this series, you can easily get the most out of your Teams subscription while improving your workflow.

The post MVP Webinar Series Highlights – Advancing Modern Work Through Microsoft Teams Part 2 appeared first on Kollective Technology .

To view our Partner blog, click here

Microsoft Teams Live Events vs. Teams for Webinar vs. Teams Meetings with Overflow: Which is Best for Internal Comms?

CMMA Blog

Microsoft Teams Live Events vs. Teams for Webinar vs. Teams Meetings with Overflow: Which is Best for Internal Comms?

Today’s solutions for corporate communications are more robust than ever and Microsoft remains a top player by continuously innovating the Microsoft Teams video platform . New product features are amazing but can often confuse the end user. Do you know when to use a Teams Live Event vs. Teams Meeting with Overflow vs. Teams Webinar? The Enterprise Video Strategy (EVS) team at Kollective will help you navigate the best solution for your particular use case.

Microsoft Teams Live Events

Teams Live Events are an extension of Teams meetings that allows users to deliver video and other content to large audiences. It’s Microsoft’s primary one-to-many communication tool and is ideal for events where the host needs complete control of the content being presented – like a CEO Town Hall or All Hands Meeting.

In a Teams Live Event, presenters and producers handle sharing audio, video, or their screen with the audience and only one presenter can be active at a time. The audience can interact with presenters via moderated Q&A sessions or in Yammer. Attendees who are unable to watch the event live can view the recording after in Teams, Stream or Yammer.

Another benefit of Teams Live Events is that they fully integrate with enterprise content delivery network (ECDN) technology. An ECDN enables organizations to scale high-quality live and on-demand video behind the corporate firewall by optimizing bandwidth consumption. This is especially important for enterprises and small and medium businesses (SMB) with offices challenged by network capacity, remote locations and/or bandwidth limitations.

What are the Pros and Cons of Microsoft Teams Live Events?

Pros

  • Host up to 20,000 attendees through December 31, 2021
  • High production value
  • Equal access of features
  • Full ECDN functionality

Cons

  • Limited interactivity
  • Takes some training to understand how to use

When to Use Microsoft Teams Live Events

Teams Live Events remain the gold standard for large-scale, one-to-many communications. Choose to host a Live Event for meetings where audience interactivity is not necessary and executive polish is required.

Microsoft Teams Meetings with Overflow

While typical Teams meetings allow you to host up to 250 participants, Teams Meetings with Overflow expands that, now enabling up to 10,000 attendees to join your meeting. The first 1,000 users that join get to enjoy the same Teams Meeting experience they know and expect: they can share their own audio and video, view shared content, and interact in chat. Attendees that join after the 1,000-user capacity is met enter in view-only mode with reduced interactive capabilities.

View-only attendees cannot take part in chat or view PowerPoint Live files, or files shared using individual application shares. They are also not included in the event analytics, making it difficult to gain full insight into meeting performance.

The only way to know more about your Overflow attendees and their quality of experience is by deploying an ECDN. When used during a Teams Meeting with Overflow, an ECDN scales content and collects analytics for all view-only users.

What are the Pros and Cons of Microsoft Teams Meetings with Overflow?

Pros

  • Higher attendance capacity than a standard Teams Meeting
  • Collaborative environment
  • Easiest set up of Teams video solutions

Cons

  • No analytics collected on overflow attendees without Kollective ECDN
  • ECDN only scales Overflow viewers
  • Technical limitations

When to Use Microsoft Teams Meetings with Overflow

Microsoft Teams Meetings with Overflow should only be used when you require the same level of interactivity as a standard Teams meeting with over 250 users. If your network does not have the capacity to scale live video to 1,000 employees, opt for a Teams Live Event instead.

Microsoft Teams Webinar

Micrsoft recently released its new Webinar tool for Microsoft Teams . Designed to compete with top virtual event platforms, Teams Webinar offers many of the same benefits, including event registration pages, breakout room configurability and a dashboard that displays attendance data relative to registration details.

Teams Webinar does support ECDN functionality, scaling video for viewers behind the corporate firewall. An ECDN also supplies advanced analytics for all attendees, so you know who, what, where and when your Webinar was consumed.

What are the Pros and Cons of Microsoft Teams for Webinars?

Pros

  • Host up to 1,000 attendees
  • Registration page integration
  • Disable/enable cameras and microphones (globally or individually)
  • Configuration of breakout rooms before the meeting
  • Breakout room timers, room retention, and attendee reassignment
  • Dashboard displays registration and attendance data

Cons

  • Focused on external customer engagement, not internal use

When to Use Microsoft Teams for Webinars

Microsoft Teams for Webinars is best for meetings where you want a high-level of interactivity and tracking for up to 1,000 attendees. While Webinars can be used internally, it is especially useful for external communications and marketing activities.

Choose the Right Tool for the Task

To determine which option in the Microsoft Teams ecosystem is right for you, consider the purpose of your event and how you want your attendees to engage. For events where a high-level of interactivity is needed, consider Webinars or Teams Meetings with Overflow. However, for one-to-many communications and large-scale internal broadcasts, Teams Live Events will serve you best.

Learn more about Microsoft Teams video solutions and virtual event best practices from our team of experts. Sign up for a FREE one-hour consultation with Kollective’s Enterprise Video Strategy team. We will review your requirements, help you navigate the platform and help you choose the right Microsoft Teams video solution.

The post Microsoft Teams Live Events vs. Teams for Webinar vs. Teams Meetings with Overflow: Which is Best for Internal Comms? appeared first on Kollective Technology .

To view our Partner blog, click here

The T Word: Transparency, Trust and Microsoft Teams

CMMA Blog

As Satya Nadella prepared to take the stage last Wednesday morning at Microsoft Inspire, the tens of thousands of Microsoft partners and employees packed tightly inside the T-Mobile arena sat in anticipation of a Corenote speech from the man credited not only with the turnaround around of Microsoft’s fortunes, but with completely rebuilding company culture.

If last year’s speech focused on the importance of people-centric experiences and of measuring ourselves ‘not by technology for technology’s sake, but how we are empowering people’, this year’s keynote felt like a natural extension of that theme – addressing the importance of democratization of digital transformation, and of both corporate and individual trust.

Amidst the staggering numbers on display illustrating the rapid evolution of the digital workplace, HoloLens 2 conjuring up a hologram capable of real-time language translation, and an amusingly impressive augmented reality MineCraft demo that made Legoland look like an afternoon in the DMV; at the core of Satya’s speech, a simple line resonated more than any other:

You cannot claim trust, you have to earn it. Each day.

As effective as it was simple, that statement summed up the very reason that queues had formed outside the T-Mobile Arena more than two hours before the doors opened and the reason that Microsoft reaffirmed its position as the most valuable company on earth just two days later. Its importance and application was also perfectly illustrated by the first three numbers displayed behind Satya as he began his Corenote.

Trust is what forges the bond between Satya and his 100,000 employees, trust is what permeates the relationship between Microsoft and its partners’ 17 million employees, and trust is the way Microsoft will achieve Satya’s stated goal of having an impact on every one of the 7 billion people on this planet.

While these are undoubtedly grand figures with an impact on the very grandest scale, the statement resonated with me on a far more individual level.

Earlier in the week, when Gavriella Schuster stood alongside the Kollective logo during her Corenote speech, discussing the most impactful Teams integrations, and later, when Hao Tang, Senior Product Partner Manager at Microsoft presented Kollective as a Teams ‘Solution that Customers Love’ during her own session, the common factor that lead to these acknowledgements is trust. Trust between Kollective, our customers, our partners and Microsoft.

Gavriella Inspire 300x175 1

My first week at Kollective coincided with the bi-annual Customer Council ; an event at which a select number of our customers present to other existing, new and prospective customers about the difference Kollective has made on their organization.

Watching our customers take the stage to share stories and videos about the immediate and long-term impact Kollective has had on company culture was my first exposure to the ultimate example of trust realized.

Trust is not just a core component of the Kollective solution – giving our customers the confidence to host global, mission-critical live video events in the knowledge they can touch every employee regardless of location – moreover, trust is the foundation upon which every interaction at the heart of Kollective is built.

Now, more than ever, in an age of half-truths, fake news and misinformation, trust is the universal truth to every successful relationship and equally as important as the act itself, is the act of respecting its fragility and acknowledging the fact that it must, indeed, be earned each and every day.

While the most uttered, fastest-growing and exciting T-word at this year’s Microsoft Inspire was Teams, the most fundamental that has made all of that possible, is undoubtedly Trust.

The post The T Word: Transparency, Trust and Microsoft Teams appeared first on Kollective Technology .

To view our Partner blog, click here