Microsoft Teams is an invaluable tool for us here at Cloud Cover IT – one that is integral to the day-to-day operation of all departments across our organisation. This fourth instalment of our How We Use Teams series focuses on how Teams is used by our Human Resources department to send company-wide communications, handle admin and manage our people more effectively.

Human Resources (HR) operations require regular communication with staff across the organisation, so it is crucial that this communication is easy, effective, and streamlined. This is true at every stage of HR work, whether that is annual leave, recruitment, staff inductions, or communicating crucial information to staff members.

Holiday requests

In the past, dealing with requests for annual leave meant flurries of emails, which led to clogged-up inboxes and general inconvenience all-round. With the holiday planner system within Teams, the process is simple. Once a holiday request is submitted by an employee, an approval form is automatically sent to their line manager, so that requests can be accepted or rejected in a matter of minutes.

Internal communications

Teams makes it simple for our HR staff to share resources across the company and keep employees up to date with the latest information. This has been more important than ever over the lockdown period, when protocol and advice is constantly changing.

Recruitment

When we are recruiting new staff, Teams is invaluable means of collating and controlling the sharing of sharing information about candidates, and for discussions within the team. Specific channels for the recruitment process can be made, so that only the relevant people are included. Once a new employee has been recruited, the communicative capacity of Teams ensures a smooth induction into the company; they can access all the info they need, the people they need to connect with, and tools to carry out their work effectively, all in one place.

Meeting management

Another aspect of Teams utilised within HR is our Meeting Rooms Power App, which automates the scheduling, reservation and display of upcoming meetings and visitors. Developed by our very own Cloud Development team, the app also allows staff to book refreshments and equipment for meetings, as well as automatically notify any members of staff who are involved. With display available across devices and locations, this service promotes flexibility, ease of access, and connectivity for employees across the company.

Returning to work post-lockdown

As we transition back into office working following the Covid-19 lockdown, HV Connector is helping us to keep every member of our staff safe and well. Temperature scanning terminals scan the temperature of each employee at the entrance to our office. If an abnormally high temperature is recorded, access is denied and an instant alert is sent by HV Connector via Teams to the employee’s line manager. Contact can then be made via the terminal intercom to support and advise the team member on the appropriate course of action. In this way, we are minimising the risk of infection in our office and protecting our staff.

For more information or to set up Microsoft Teams tutorials for your organisation, contact Alasdair Gauld or call us on 0141 280 2882.

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Microsoft Teams has been an integral part of our operations since its launch and has proved itself more useful than ever in this current period of remote working. In this third instalment of our How We Use Teams series, we speak to our Digital Transformation team about how the platform helps with their day-to-day activities.  

SPOKESPERSON: DAN GREALLY, PROJECT MANAGER
DEPARTMENT: DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

We’re more productive than ever thanks to Teams – as it brings all the powerful tools within the Microsoft stack together in one place. 

The integration of Microsoft Power Automate into Teams allows us to create workflows that automate repetitive, low value-adding tasks. It enables us to manage flows as well as automate alerts, notifications and more. Automating repetitive tasks in this way helps us to allocate our time more effectively. It also speeds up the approval process as when a task has been completed, an alert is automatically sent to Alasdair, our Head of Digital Transformation. Teams is also a major time-saver in notifying team members of new support tickets, as well as taking care of administrative responsibilities like holiday requests. 

Project Management 

We also use Teams for project management purposes. We use the Microsoft Planner app to create a project overview and a list of tasks to be completed. These tasks can then be assigned to specific members of the team in an all-in-one dashboard. This offers a simple and visual way to organise cloud projects and keeps us all on the same page, wherever we may be.  

When it comes to keeping track of our progress, we use a dedicated Product Development channel within Teams. Taking data from SharePoint, this helps us track the number of hours spent working on the project at hand. We can then use Power BI to create clear and compelling visualisations of this data in a way that is digestible and actionable. This enables us to mark project milestones, meet client expectations and stay on schedule for project completion. 

The Knowledge Share channel within Teams is a useful space for everyone to share and discover useful resources, allowing them to learn new things and upskill themselves with the help of their team members. 

For more information or to set up Microsoft Teams tutorials for your organisation, contact Alasdair Gauld or call us on 0141 280 2882.

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Microsoft Teams is the central hub for communication, collaboration and teamwork for us here at Cloud Cover IT. In this instalment of our How We Use Teams series, we went around the (virtual) office to build a real-life snapshot of how our Sales and Marketing team uses Microsoft Teams on a daily basis.

SPOKESPERSON: LANCE GAULD, FOUNDER AND CEO
DEPARTMENT: SALES AND MARKETING

Microsoft Teams is a real asset for our Sales and Marketing team for communicating both within our team and with our external partners. Video conferencing and screen sharing is all very simple, requiring just a few clicks. Plus, improvements are being made all the time. Microsoft recently increased the number of participants who can be viewed simultaneously during a meeting on Teams from 4 to 9, with plans to increase this to a maximum of 49 in the near future. With these virtual face-to-face conversations now part of our ‘new normal’, this has been extremely helpful.

Touching base with everyone via email can lead to long, drawn-out threads that clog up our inboxes and become very tiresome, very quickly. Using Team’s Chat feature, I can send messages to one or more people with just a few clicks. This is particularly useful when working on content for social media, as well as suggesting edits for digital mailers, email campaigns and various other marketing projects.

The fact that Office 365 apps (Word, PowerPoint, Excel etc) are integrated within Teams is a god-send. Documents can be worked on by multiple people simultaneously and are stored securely on the cloud. There’s no more chasing someone for a missing document or wondering where the most up-to-date version has gone, as Teams’ centralised and structured file management system keeps all our crucial resources in one place. Moreover, hosting our data on the cloud like this has eliminated any risk of losses due to physical server failures, as well as the need for us to use a slow, vulnerable VPN connection when working from home. In short, Teams has revolutionised the way we work.

For more information or to set up Microsoft Teams tutorials for your organisation, contact Alasdair Gauld or call us on 0141 280 2882.

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Microsoft Teams is the central hub for communication, collaboration and teamwork for us here at Cloud Cover IT. And we’re not the only ones; since its launch in March 2017, usage of Teams has grown to over 75 million daily active users in April this year.

In this first instalment of our new series How We Use Teams, we went around the (virtual) office to build a real-life snapshot of how our IT Helpdesk uses Microsoft Teams on a daily basis. 

SPOKESPERSON: JIM MURRAY, SENIOR IT ENGINEER
DEPARTMENT: IT HELPDESK

Teams is the connective tissue for our Helpdesk and field engineers to communicate, solve problems and tackle projects together. 

When working remotely on-site, we use Teams to share data, images and information concerning the client’s requirements or the issue at hand. This helps greatly with problem-solving, meaning we can resolve any issues quickly, minimising downtime. Having Teams set up on any device allows for field engineers to have mobile access to all of the tools and company resources they require to get great work done. 

Our custom-built Remote Worker app is invaluable for our field engineers. They begin their day by referring to the Job List which uses data from SharePoint to detail all their tasks. As they attend various locations throughout the day, they can check in and out via the app and tick off tasks as they are completed. Extra information, including job notes, images and location data, can also be added. This is visible by our Line Managers who can ensure all jobs are completed to a high standard. If the engineer fails to check in within a set time, an alert in the form of an actionable adaptive card is automatically sent via a Teams channel to the Line Manager. They can then contact the employee to check on their welfare and provide assistance or instructions if needed. This improves accountability and employee safety whilst also ensuring we always deliver on our promises to clients.

For more information or to set up Microsoft Teams tutorials for your organisation, contact Alasdair Gauld or call us on 0141 280 2882.

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