Company
March 27, 2018

atrete goes Teams - a field test

We have already forgotten about Slack and Yammer again - and now Microsoft comes and presents "Teams". Actually (i.e. you're not so sure) it's easy: For each topic a team is created, in which appropriate discussions, information and documents are shared. You will be informed about updates and news in the teams in a targeted, and of course proactive way. Sounds interesting, this should finally stop the mail flood. In a critical field test, we as a company tried this out.

Finding 1:
Collaboration is really very easy and efficient (we still agree with Microsoft on that). 

Finding 2:
We no longer have any idea where (in which team, which channel) we should post or upload what. After a few days we already had three different channels for internal know-how transfer; created by three different people. And this in a small 25 person company! In other words, after a few days we already lost the overview of the existing teams ... (that's where our idea differs from Microsoft's).  

Insight 3:
Again and again the question arises whether we should send a thematic feedback to Hugo directly in the chat of Skype for Business or via @Hugo in teams... (We have already forgotten Yammer) 

Finding 4:
What else are internal emails good for? Teams is definitely a successful approach. But without some structure and help in using it, there will soon be a confusing jumble of teams with chat and "conversations".  

Our conclusion:
Absolutely try it out, perhaps rather on a small scale - and with some moderation, guidelines and structure.