Understanding Microsoft 365 Tools
There are three collaboration tools in Microsoft 365 that offer solutions for the same issue: Outlook Groups, Yammer, and Microsoft Teams. However, they all have slight differences that set them apart from one another.
How Does Outlook Groups Work?
In Outlook Groups, each member gets a shared inbox, calendar, project planner, notebook, and document library. You can also connect to third-party apps such as Twitter, Trello, and Mailchimp, with notifications sent directly to your shared inbox.
This means all relevant messages and information will be sent to one place, so if most of your conversations are done via email, Outlook Groups is a great fit. Also, HR and sales departments that communicate with external parties will find plenty of uses for its email features.
A big downside of Outlook Groups is email overload. Because all messages and notifications are sent to one inbox, users become overwhelmed by the number of emails they have to sort through every day.
What is Microsoft Teams?
Microsoft Teams, a chat-based collaboration platform similar to Slack which works with Skype for Business so you can text, call, video chat, and share files with colleagues. Thanks to its seamless integrations with other Microsoft 365 programs, you can even work on shared files without leaving the app.
Unlike Groups, Microsoft Teams is designed for more advanced collaboration, making it great for completing projects with tight deadlines or other tasks requiring immediate feedback.
What is Yammer?
Improve engagement and enhance communication within your organization. Build communities of interest, gather ideas and feedback, and keep everyone informed, aligned, and moving forward with help from Yammer.
With Yammer, important files and announcements can be shared with the entire company like an office bulletin board. Users can also see the most popular post on their feeds, follow it, and even comment.
Yammer also takes design elements and features from social media apps like Facebook, making it a popular choice for companies with millennials in their workforce.
Although we’ve discussed an overview of the differences between Groups, Teams, and Yammer, we’ve barely scratched the surface of what each app can do. To figure out which apps your company needs, you must understand how your employees work, how they prefer to collaborate, and what you want to achieve from such collaborations.
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