anavem.
Back to Glossary
T

Teams

Microsoft Teams is a collaboration platform that combines chat, meetings, calling, and file sharing within the Microsoft 365 ecosystem.

What is Microsoft Teams?

Microsoft Teams is a unified collaboration and communication platform that enables teams to chat, meet, call, and collaborate on files in real time. It is tightly integrated with Microsoft 365 services and identity systems.

Teams is widely used for internal collaboration, remote work, and enterprise communications.

Why Microsoft Teams matters

Microsoft Teams is important because it:

  • Centralizes communication and collaboration
  • Reduces reliance on email
  • Supports remote and hybrid work
  • Integrates deeply with Microsoft 365 apps
  • Scales from small teams to large enterprises

It has become a core productivity tool in many organizations.

Core features

Microsoft Teams provides:

  • Chat and channels for structured conversations
  • Online meetings with audio, video, and screen sharing
  • Voice calling (VoIP and PSTN with add-ons)
  • File sharing and collaboration
  • App integration and extensibility

These features are accessible across desktop, web, and mobile clients.

Teams and Microsoft 365 integration

Teams integrates natively with:

  • SharePoint and OneDrive for file storage
  • Outlook for calendar and meetings
  • Planner and To Do for task management
  • Power Platform for automation and apps
  • Entra ID for identity and access control

This integration enables seamless collaboration workflows.

Teams and telephony

Microsoft Teams can function as a business phone system:

  • Internal VoIP calling
  • External PSTN calling (via Calling Plans or Direct Routing)
  • Call queues and auto attendants
  • Voice policies and compliance features

Teams often replaces traditional PBX systems.

Teams in enterprise environments

Organizations use Teams for:

  • Daily team collaboration
  • Company-wide meetings and webinars
  • IT and helpdesk communication
  • Secure document collaboration
  • Unified communications strategies

Teams is frequently a central hub for digital workplaces.

Security and compliance

From a security perspective, Teams supports:

  • Identity-based access control
  • Encryption in transit and at rest
  • Compliance and retention policies
  • Audit logging and monitoring
  • Conditional Access and MFA

Security depends on proper tenant configuration and governance.

Teams vs other collaboration tools

While similar tools exist:

  • Teams excels in Microsoft ecosystem integration
  • Strong enterprise security and compliance
  • Deep identity and device management alignment
  • Suitable for large, regulated organizations

Tool choice depends on organizational needs and ecosystem.

Common misconceptions

  • "Teams is just a chat app"
  • "Teams replaces all project management tools"
  • "Teams is insecure by default"
  • "Teams only works on Windows"