What are Calling Plans?

Microsoft Teams Calling Plans allows organizations to make and receive phone calls directly from the Teams app. These plans provide the necessary infrastructure for voice communication, including phone numbers, calling features, and international dialing capabilities. When you need a dedicated phone line for business purposes, but you want to keep your personal number private, Microsoft Teams provides an excellent solution with direct phone numbers.

Key Features of Calling Plans:

Phone Numbers: Obtain direct phone numbers for users or departments.
Domestic and International Calling: Make calls within your country or globally.
Voicemail: Record and manage voicemail messages.
Call Forwarding: Redirect calls to other numbers.
Caller ID: Display your organization’s caller ID when making outbound calls.
Emergency Calling: Connect to emergency services.

Licensing and Availability

Calling Plans are available in various licensing options, such as Domestic Calling Plan, Domestic and International Calling Plan, and more. We help our clients determine which plan suits an organization’s needs.

Auto Attendants

What are Auto Attendants?

Auto Attendants act as virtual receptionists, guiding callers through menu options to reach the right person or department. They eliminate the need for human operators to handle incoming calls.

How Auto Attendants Work:

Menu Options: Set up menu prompts (e.g., “For Sales, press 1; For Services, press 2”) to route calls based on caller input.
Routing Choices: Direct callers to specific people, call queues, external numbers, other Auto Attendants, or voicemail.
Business Hours and Holidays: Configure different call routing options for business hours, off-hours, and holidays.
Language and Time Zone: Each Auto Attendant can have a specific language and time zone.
Operator Feature: Allow callers to talk to a specific person who can assist them.
Directory Search: Enable callers to search your organization’s directory by name or extension number.

Conclusion

Microsoft Teams Calling Plans and Auto Attendants empower organizations to streamline communication, enhance caller experiences, and efficiently manage calls. Whether you’re directing callers to the right department or providing seamless international calling, these features are essential for modern workplaces. Happy calling!

Microsoft Viva Connections is a powerful platform that bridges the gap between your organization’s intranet and your employees. It provides a seamless experience, allowing employees to access essential resources, stay informed, and engage with company content—all within the familiar context of Microsoft Teams.

Features

The Viva Connections experience is available worldwide, even for Government tenants! Here are some features you can expect:

Branding Capabilities: Customize Viva Connections to reflect your organization’s brand.

Announcements: Easily send important updates to your employees.

Flexible Card Sizes: Tailor the content presentation to your needs.

Conclusion

Microsoft Viva Connections empowers your employees by providing a central hub for communication, collaboration, and information. Whether you’re a seasoned user or just getting started, Viva Connections has something to offer. Stay connected, stay informed, and elevate your employee experiences with Viva Connections!

Remember, the features listed in this blog post is just the beginning—more exciting features are available. Connect with us to explore ways to enhance the employee experience and leverage the full potential of Viva Connections!

Cloud File Sharing and Collaboration

Microsoft Teams integrates secure cloud file sharing and collaboration tools directly into its platform. Here’s what you can do:

Access Files from Anywhere: Whether you’re working remotely or in the office, Teams allows you to access your files from any location.

Collaborate on Shared Projects: Say goodbye to version control chaos! Work on the same document with your team members in real time, preventing conflicting versions.

Stay in Your Workflow: Keep all your documents and files within Teams. No need to switch between apps—everything is conveniently accessible in one place.

Share All Types of Files: Whether it’s a PDF, spreadsheet, or any other file type, Teams simplifies the sharing process.

Seamless Integration with SharePoint

Files shared in Teams are stored in SharePoint, offering the best of both worlds. Here’s how it works:

Persistent Chat and Document Storage: Conversations, meetings, and files coexist seamlessly. You can communicate through threaded chat while keeping everyone informed.

OneDrive Integration: Teams leverages OneDrive for Business, ensuring that your files are accessible across devices and platforms.

Coauthoring and Real-Time Collaboration

Teams streamlines efficiency by making it your go-to app for collaboration. Key features include:

Real-Time Coauthoring: Multiple team members can work on the same document simultaneously, making collaboration smoother than ever.

Automatic Saving: Changes are automatically saved, reducing the risk of data loss.

Customization and Flexibility

Teams offers additional benefits:

Custom Channels: Create private and shared channels within Teams to organize your collaboration spaces effectively.

Migration Tools: Seamlessly transition from other collaboration tools to Teams.

Multi-Geo Support: Teams adapts to your global organization’s needs.

Microsoft Teams is a unified communication and collaboration tool built on a cloud platform. Teams is tightly integrated with Microsoft 365, creating a seamless digital workspace.  It combines various services for collaboration, including chat, meetings, calling, file sharing, and integration with other Microsoft 365 apps.

Microsoft Teams is the go-to platform for virtual meetings, offering convenient recording features to capture important discussions and presentations. But have you ever wondered what happens to these recordings after a while? They don’t stay there forever, and understanding the expiration policy is crucial to avoid losing valuable information.

How Long Do Recordings Last?

By default, Microsoft Teams meeting recordings expire after 120 days. This means after 120 days from the recording date it will be automatically deleted from the platform. However, several factors can influence the actual lifespan of your recording:

• Admin Settings: Your organization’s IT administrator might have set a different expiration timeframe. They can choose to disable expiration entirely or change the default duration to a specific number of days.
• Compliance Recordings: If a meeting was recorded due to a compliance policy, it might have a different retention period set by the organization.

Remember: Don’t wait until the last minute! Be proactive in managing your meeting recordings to ensure you have access to the information you need, when you need it.

By understanding the Microsoft Teams meeting recording expiration policy and taking preventive measures, you can ensure important information stays readily available and avoids being lost in the digital abyss.

Viewing Recordings: Once a meeting recording is processed, it’s saved either to SharePoint (for channel meetings) or OneDrive (for other types of meetings). Participants can find the recording in the meeting chat or channel conversation.

To change the expiration date of Microsoft Teams meeting recordings, you have a few options:

Option 1: Change the Meeting Policy for All Videos in the Teams Admin Center:

As an administrator, you can modify the default auto-expiration setting for your entire tenant. Here’s how:

• Log in to the Microsoft Teams admin center.
• Select Meetings in the left navigation panel.
• Select Meeting Policies.
• Select Add to create a new policy or Edit an existing policy such as the Global (Org-wide default).
• Under the Recording & transcription section, turn off the “Recordings automatically expire” toggle. Alternatively, Set a specific number of default days for expiration.

Option 2: Change the Setting for Each Video:

As the user who recorded the meeting, you can adjust the expiration date for specific recordings. Here’s how:

• Open the Teams chat for the meeting that was recorded.
• Select the message that indicates to View or change the expiration date. Alternatively, select the three dots next to the recording thumbnail and then select Open in Stream.

• The recording should open in the browser.
• Select the default expiration date or Remove expiration.

Additional Tips:

• Always check the expiration date for your recordings to avoid any surprises.
• Clearly label your recordings with relevant details for easy identification later.
• Communicate the expiration policy to other meeting participants who might need access to the recordings.

Files are stored in a central location for all team members accessible via the Microsoft Teams Desktop app and mobile devices. 

When using Microsoft Teams, there is the added advantage of allowing for true collaboration beyond the standard video call. For instance, the process of creating information, files, and other forms of data become less tedious when using Teams as it can be done simultaneously while on your call.  

For instance, files and links can be shared through the chat with the members of your call, making the sharing process very fast and efficient. This also allows the team members to work on a project while being on the call at the same time.    

There is the option to upload the files or to review project-related items within the Teams app. By doing this, anyone on the team, whether they are on the call or not, has the ability to access the files or project information. Worried about allowing access to specific members? Fear not, with Private Channels, only those specific team members can access files. It requires special permission for outsiders to access files on your specific team.  

Teamwork can occur anywhere and anytime in a quick and reliable way for real-time collaboration.  

Uploading documents into Teams allows the team members to edit and make changes to the document within the app itself. As people move from their computers to their mobile devices, the documents are always up to date on any device. This allows for real-time collaboration and cooperation. This also allows for smoother teamwork and efficiency.  

Conversations with team members can occur via Posts for everyone to see for high visibility or via Chats for one-on-one or smaller group conversations.  

A conversation with your teammates does not have to necessarily take place as a video call. It can take place as posts within the Team’s channel. Workflow doesn’t have to be interrupted in order to make important announcements and notifications to your team.

Moreover, using posts to communicate to your team makes sure that the message is conveyed to the whole team as opposed to a selected few people. In a more private setting, the option to send a message to one or more people is also an option via chat. Also, documents can be shared in a post or one on one chat as well making access, sharing, and collaboration easier and more targeted.  

Microsoft Teams is often viewed as the central hub where team members can access and incorporate other Microsoft 365 apps and third-party tools.  

Teams lives up to its name when we say that it makes real-time collaboration possible and efficient. For instance, choosing to edit a Microsoft Word document, Excel sheet, or any other format of Microsoft deliverables will allow the content creator to access that particular Microsoft app and its features from within Teams itself. This includes the ability to make multiple changes, add comments, and simultaneously work on the same document with colleagues—all from within teams.  

No matter what you choose your workflow to look like, Teams has everything you need. 

Now that we have listed everything that Microsoft Teams has to offer, we stand our ground when we say that Teams is the app to choose as your business tool in the remote/hybrid workplace. That being said, the functionality of Teams is not limited to the ones listed here. To learn more about what Microsoft has to offer your business, send us an email: contact@seisayitsolutions.com!