Your company perhaps uses Microsoft Teams often for your virtual business meetings in place of video services like Zoom. While Microsoft Teams has been very useful to connect employees and business associates, it hasn’t had much in the way of customization features.
As someone who may use Microsoft Cloud Services, bringing more customization to Teams is probably important to you. It’s now possible, thanks to Microsoft recently adding the ability to customize your meetings through their Advanced Communications features.
What is Microsoft Teams Adding to their Platform?
According to Tech Radar, Microsoft is adding an ability for you to customize the pre-meeting experience. In other words, you’ll be able to do some branding for your virtual meetings before they begin.
This means use of “branded lobbies” that let you do specific branding before meeting with associates or prospects. Beforehand, you couldn’t set up a Teams page to give any indication of what your business is about.
Those of you working as Admins can now add logos to the pre-meeting experience when you add the Advanced Communications SKU. Your virtual meeting lobby presents the logo you normally use in your business to those you’re about to meet with for real brand identity.
It’s an indication of how much Microsoft listens to its regular users. Many who use Teams regularly continuously asked Microsoft to add more customizable features. Fortunately, it’s only the beginning of the features in their Advanced Communications add-on license.
What More Can You Add Beyond a Logo?
Being able to add a logo is already a big convenience to look more professional in virtual meetings. Microsoft is also letting admins be able to change the colors of the pre-meeting page to match a particular brand.
We all know color is a major part of branding. Adding colors that represent what you stand for sets a mood instantly before a virtual meeting begins. Still, it’s recommended you choose a high-contrast color (along with your text) so it’s easy to read.
Beyond the logo and color, you can add another thing: A destination link when someone clicks on your logo. Having this works like a landing page where a prospect or associate can go right into the meeting from the link.
Other features are available beyond customization. The additional features are another example of Microsoft helping you connect better with those you meet with regularly or prospects you might soon be hiring.
Keep Tabs on Users
In addition to the logo, colors, and link adds, Microsoft Teams will also bring a new way to keep track of the people in your meetings. Now you can monitor, track, and analyze data related to those particular users.
As a way to keep track of employees and what they’re doing, this is invaluable. Knowing where employees are at a given time and what they plan to do already enhances your ability to communicate with them.
Having metrics that analyze data on employee work is also essential for your business. For new prospects you want to meet with soon, having this information is also critical to connect at the right times.
What makes this most convenient is that you can use these customized branding elements across multiple departments. The use of this goes beyond the typical business world.
Avoid Using a Uniform Branding Image
Your company may have multiple departments, making it hard to send individual branded messages. Microsoft Teams’ new ability to let you do branding across various departments lets you individualize without being forced to use one image for everyone.
In many cases, this might mean departments in multiple locations where branding is maybe slightly different. What about other organizations like schools? They can use the pre-meeting branding features to post an outline of lessons for the day before a virtual teaching session starts.
A small business can also post some specific information that’s useful to a business prospect being met with on Teams. Rather than just post a logo, business owners could post information on pricing or information on business hours.
Just about anyone can use Microsoft Teams’ new Advanced Communications license for good use. How can you utilize this feature and other aspects of Microsoft Teams to improve your company’s technology?
Finding Microsoft 365 IT Management
Your company likely uses Microsoft 365 to access Microsoft Teams. Our team at In the Cloud Technologies can help you manage what 365 offers, including the Teams platform.
While our focus is on helping you find the right type of Microsoft cloud service that works for your business structure, we offer additional managed services. One of those is Teams Administration. We’ll help you with key aspects of the platform like team creation, archiving, and deletion as starters.
Other aspects of Teams we help manage include user and device management, plus conference room setup and deployment. Even IP phones and Softphone setup is available from our team.
It’s all part of our comprehensive ways to manage Microsoft 365 across the board, including having cloud services that work within your budgetary goals.
Other Microsoft 365 Management Services
Our goal is to bring superior unified communications and collaboration to you and your team. Much of this is through managed services we do remotely and through proactive support.
Advanced monitoring and management of Microsoft 365 tools can help you take time to focus on other aspects of your business. As you can see, part of this is managing Microsoft Teams, but it’s important to add more.
If you also use Microsoft Exchange Server for email, we do administration duties on that as well. Also, if you do file hosting on Microsoft OneDrive, our management system keeps you compliant at all times.
On the cloud angle, we offer management of Microsoft Azure. Using Azure Boards is a common feature with Microsoft Teams, something we can help implement for you as just one of many integration methods.
Visit us at In The Cloud Technologies to learn more about the recent upgrades to Microsoft Teams and how our managed services help make it work for you.
