Teams

Microsoft Teams is a chat-based collaboration tool that provides global, remote, and dispersed teams with the ability to work together and share information via a common space. You can utilize cool features like document collaboration, one-on-one chat, team chat, and more.  It is naturally integrated with other Office applications and uses the Microsoft Office 365 global, secure cloud platform.

How Do I Access?

All Microsoft 365 applications can be accessed through the Microsoft 365 Portal at https://portal.office.com

Quick Links

Becoming a Member of a Team ▾

You must be licensed and either create a Microsoft Team or be added to a Microsoft Team. 

  • To request a new team site for your department, project, or initiative, complete the Teams Request form. Note: If you need a site that is School of Medicine related and/or used primarily for School of Medicine, please use this request form.
  • If you are added to a team, you will receive an email informing you that you are a member and include a link to access it. 

Either of these options will automatically license you to use Teams. 

Channels ▾

Teams can contain channels to separate topics and/or groups within your team.  Channels can be standard (available and visible to everyone) or private (focused, private conversations with a specific audience) or shared. Once you define the type of channel, you can't change it to the other type of channel so it is important to decide whether you want to keep the information within the channel private to just a smaller subset of people or allow anyone in the team to view it.  More resources and information on teams:

 

Training & Resource Information ▾

 

Collaborating with External Colleagues ▾

Can I collaborate with external colleagues using Microsoft Teams?

Yes, but the external colleague also needs to use an Office 365 account.  You will need to enter the email address for the external user when you add them to the Team (or SharePoint) and this will automaticaly send that external user an invitation email with a link to the Team (or SharePoint site).  Once they click on the link, they will be able to login using their Office 365 account (email address for account must match email invitation was sent to) and then they will appear in the list of users for your Team/site.  Note: external users will appear as guests in Teams.  If the external user does not have an Office 365 account associated with the email you sent their invitation, they can easily create one using the link provided in the email inviation. 

Get more information about Difference between Guest and Member.

 

Notifications/Updates ▾

To get the most out of Teams, make sure you have the Teams application installed. Both on desktops as well as mobile devices. This really helps when you don’t want email notifications as the apps will provide notifications.  Follow these instructions on Managing Notifications in Teams if you would like to get updates.

 

Security Information ▾

Microsoft Teams has a broad set of global compliance and data protection requirements, which includes ISO 27001, ISO 27018, EUMC, SOC 1 Type I & II, SOC 2 Type I and II, HIPAA, and FERPA. Microsoft Teams also enforces two-factor authentication, single sign-on through Active Directory, and encryption of data in transit and at rest.

Using and managing 0365 Groups ▾

Office 365 Groups is a service developed with collaboration in mind. 

Office 365 Groups is shared workspace for email, conversations, files, and events where group members can communicate and collaborate. For example, you can create a group for your team and invite other users to join the group, and then share documents, conversations, meeting notes, calendars, and OneNote information related to that specific group. It works with the Office 365 tools you use already, so you can collaborate with your teammates when writing documents, creating spreadsheets, working on project plans, scheduling meetings, or sending email.

Groups in Outlook

By creating an Office 365 Group, you'll get:

  • Shared Inbox: For email conversations between your members. This inbox has an email address and can be set to accept messages from people outside the group and even outside your organization, much like a traditional distribution list.
  • Shared Calendar: For scheduling events related to the group.
  • OneDrive Document Library: Central place for the group to store and share files.
  • Shared OneNote Notebook: For gathering ideas, research, and information.
  • Planner: For assigning and managing project tasks among your group members.

You don’t have to manually create any of those resources; creating the group automatically creates them for you and assigns the necessary permissions for your group members so they can start using them right away. One of the best parts is that each Office 365 Groups comes with 1 TB of storage available within the Office 365 Groups shared OneDrive Document Library for group members to share and collaborate on data.

You can access these resources through the familiar Microsoft Outlook 2016 desktop client, via Outlook on the Web, or using our dedicated Microsoft Groups apps on iOS, Android, or Windows Phone.

Can I use Office 365 Groups in my email client or only through OWA?

Outlook 2016 (Windows) has the ability to use Groups as well as OWA. See Compare Outlook Groups on All Platforms for more details.  

How do I add an Office 365 Groups calendar to my Outlook calendar pane?

The Group appears in the Mail section of Outlook (Outlook 2016 only). If you click on a group's Calendar button, the Group calendar opens in a new window. 

However, if you want the Group calendar to show up in your Calendar Navigation pane, you need to add the group to Favorites (right click on the group and then choose "Add to Favorites"). Once you do this, the group Calendar will show on the Calendar Navigation pane at the bottom of the My Calendars group.

Deleting Groups

If a group outlives its intended purpose, it can be deleted by its owner or CITS. Please follow these instructions to delete an Office 365 group

Warning: When you delete a group, you are permanently removing the group team site, group conversations, email messages, files, calendar events, and any other related information.

Want more information?

Much more information about Microsoft Office 365 Groups is available from Microsoft. Here are some helpful links: