Most businesses only use 10% of Microsoft Teams. Discover how to use Teams as a complete collaboration and productivity hub.
Most organisations deploy Microsoft Teams and immediately use it for two things: video calls and a chat replacement for email. This is like buying a Swiss Army knife and only using the main blade.
Teams is a complete collaboration platform that — when properly configured — can consolidate what most businesses currently do across five or six separate tools. This guide covers the capabilities beyond video calls that deliver the most practical value.
Channels as Persistent Conversation Threads
The most underutilised basic feature of Teams is channels. Most teams default to using chat (direct messages) for everything — which means valuable conversations, decisions, and shared information disappear into individual chat histories that nobody else can see.
Channels are the antidote. A channel is a persistent, topic-focused conversation space where the entire team can see, search, and contribute. When used correctly:
- Department channels replace “team email” distribution lists
- Project channels replace the “email everyone on the project” habit
- Announcements channels replace the “FYI all” email
- Incident channels can be spun up instantly for any issue requiring cross-team coordination
The transition from “email the team” to “post in the channel” is the single biggest productivity improvement most organisations get from Teams — and it requires almost no technical configuration, just behavioural change.
The rule that makes it work: If the conversation is relevant to more than one person, it goes in a channel. Direct chat is for genuinely one-to-one conversations.
SharePoint Files Integration
Every Teams team has a linked SharePoint document library. Files shared in a channel are automatically stored in the corresponding SharePoint folder — which means they are searchable, versioned, and accessible from SharePoint or Teams.
What most teams do: drag files into chat messages and lose them in scrollback history.
What they should do: use the Files tab in each channel as the document library for that team’s work. Pin important documents as tabs. Create a consistent folder structure.
The Teams/SharePoint files integration also enables co-authoring — multiple people editing the same Word or Excel document simultaneously, with changes visible in real time. This eliminates the “who has the latest version?” problem entirely.
Microsoft Planner for Task Management
Every Teams team can have a Planner board — a Kanban-style task management tool — added as a tab in any channel. Planner provides:
- Visual task boards with swim lanes (To Do, In Progress, Done — or custom stages)
- Task assignment to team members with due dates
- Checklist sub-tasks
- Labels and priority flags
- Progress view across all tasks
For project teams, a Planner tab in the project channel gives a single, visible view of what needs to happen, who owns it, and what is done — without requiring a separate project management tool subscription.
When to use Planner vs full project management tools: Planner is appropriate for task tracking with 5-30 tasks. For complex projects with dependencies, resource levelling, and Gantt views, Microsoft Project or a dedicated PM tool is more appropriate.
Forms for Data Collection
Microsoft Forms can be added as a tab in any Teams channel. Use cases:
- Team meeting agenda submissions (staff submit agenda items before meetings)
- Incident reports (staff report issues through a form rather than an email)
- Weekly status updates (structured input from distributed teams)
- Training completion confirmation
- Internal surveys
Forms responses are stored in the associated SharePoint list and can trigger Power Automate workflows — for example, automatically creating a Planner task when a support request form is submitted.
Power Automate for Workflow Automation
Power Automate integrates deeply with Teams. Common automations:
- Approval workflows: Route documents or requests through an approval chain and post the result in a Teams channel
- Form to task: When a form is submitted, automatically create a Planner task and notify the assignee in Teams
- SharePoint to Teams notification: When a document is uploaded or modified in a SharePoint library, post a notification in the relevant channel
- Teams to email: Convert a message flagged with a specific keyword into an email to an external contact
Power Automate connectors cover hundreds of services — the Teams-based automation possibilities are extensive without any coding.
Teams Phone System
Microsoft Teams Phone (formerly Teams Calling) replaces your traditional PBX phone system with a cloud-based telephony solution that is fully integrated with Teams. Staff make and receive calls through their Teams client — on their laptop, mobile app, or a physical Teams desk phone.
Capabilities:
- Business phone numbers assigned to individuals
- Auto attendant (virtual receptionist with menu routing)
- Call queues for shared numbers (e.g. main office number)
- Voicemail with transcription
- Call recording
- Transfer and hold
For businesses currently paying for a separate PBX or hosted VoIP system, migrating to Teams Phone consolidates telephony into the Teams platform, eliminates a separate vendor relationship, and reduces cost.
Licensing: Teams Phone requires Microsoft Teams Phone Standard licence ($10/user/month) plus a calling plan or a direct routing connection through an Australian SIP provider.
Webinars and Town Halls
Teams Webinars (for external audiences, up to 1,000 attendees) and Teams Town Hall (for all-staff broadcasts) are included in Microsoft 365 Business plans at no additional cost. For organisations paying separately for Zoom Webinars or GoToWebinar, Teams Webinars represents a direct cost saving.
Getting More From Your Teams Investment
CX IT Services helps Melbourne businesses configure Teams correctly and drive adoption beyond basic video calling — including SharePoint integration, Planner deployment, Power Automate workflows, and Teams Phone migration. Book a Right Fit Call to discuss a Teams optimisation review for your organisation.
