5 MS Teams Apps You can’t Live Without

Introduction

Workforces around the globe have hailed Microsoft Teams as a force for collaborative good. In April 2020 MS Teams recorded a user base of 75 million users daily, meaning it must be doing something right. One of the things the communication platform has done incredibly well is its application integration. By allowing such a level of integration with third-party applications we have seen an astronomical rise in said applications. What follows is a brief list of the top applications for improving workflow and the work environment.

Planner

There are several third-party project management apps that integrate seamlessly with MS teams, however, one of the easiest to get the ball rolling is Planner. When scouring the Internet for the best teams apps, Planner has the advantage of already being integrated with MS Teams by default and is a lifesaver when working with multiple teams. Each team will have its panel and navigating between panels is just as easy as creating a new one. Onboarding teams is also a simple task making sure everyone is on the same page.

ScrumGenius

For development teams who apply agile scrum methods to development cycles sometimes post it’s on a whiteboard just doesn’t cut it anymore. These minefields of neon colors can be just as confusing as the jumbled meeting schedule. ScrumGenius is an app that looks to clear up the whiteboard mess and allow team leaders to automate meetings and recurring tasks. Further, this higher level of automation can be used to help take minutes during those daily meetings.

Polly

This app is as simple as it is brilliant. Polly allows for the creation of polls within Teams channels. The upside of this is that it allows teams to quickly decide on a wide range of things from the more mundane like lunch orders, or quickly deciding on what documentation to send stakeholders without the need for taking up valuable meeting time.

Health Hero

The global pandemic has thrust health, mental and physical into the spotlight. With many employees now working remotely, keeping tabs on the well-being of staff has been harder given that they barely physically see each other with their own eyes. An app that looks to improve the health of teams is Health Hero which allows the linking of health-tracking devices to the app as well as providing challenges and leader boards designed to help keep your team healthy.

Mio

Not all projects can be assigned to one team within one company, often projects can span multiple partners who invariably use different platforms to communicate. Mio looks to help connect teams using MS Teams with others using Slack or Cisco WebEx Teams, for example, helping ensure communication and collaboration by preventing teams from working in bubbles. This has a nasty habit of generating problems that are thoroughly preventable and deadlines being missed.

Conclusion

This is certainly not a comprehensive be all and end all list of apps to improve your MS Teams experience, it certainly shows a wide range of applications that can be tailored to a team’s needs without a massive outlay of capital.