I recently read a story in a leadership book called Chief that I'd like to share with you. The story was about a holy man and his assistant. They were walking in the Andes Mountains and came to the hut of a very poor man. His only possession was a milk cow. After visiting with him, the holy man told his assistant to push the poor man’s cow over the side of the mountain. The assistant obeyed but he lived with regret because he felt terrible for doing it.
A year later he went back up the mountain to ask the poor man for forgiveness. However, as he came to the original site the hut had been replaced by a mansion. He was terribly confused and asked the poor man, “What happened?” He replied, “Well, our cow fell off the mountain. We had to find another way to make a living. We discovered that the tourists down in the city love our woven blankets. So, we started a factory, which now employs many people.”
The moral of this story is that sometimes the best thing we can do is push some sacred cows over the cliff.
Like the poor man in the story above, Covid came along and threw our “sacred cows” over the mountain, right? It has caused untold damage to South Africa’s economy. Many South African employees have lost their jobs and employers have had to close their businesses down. It’s caused us to seriously rethink how we work and make a living. For many of us, we can no longer rely on our sacred cows, our traditional business methods and models for our livelihood. No longer can we try the same things and expect different results. We must look for new ways to achieve our business goals.
Covid has caused us to seriously rethink how we work and make a living. For many of us, we can no longer rely on our sacred cows, our traditional business methods and models for our livelihood. We must look for new ways to achieve our business goals.
Covid has changed the business landscape whether we like it or not. In the process it has forced us to make a choice regarding how we view change: We can choose to see the glass as half empty, or we can choose to see it as half full. How do you see it? As a business we have decided to see the glass as half full. We have decided to let go of our sacred cows and to embrace the cloud.
As a business we have decided to see the glass as half full. We have decided to let go of our sacred cows and to embrace the cloud.
At the beginning of the year we decided to partner with Microsoft in order to help small and medium sized businesses to transform digitally. This has resulted in us becoming part of a dream team. And we want to expand this team to include other business owners too. As part of our mission, we are seeking to educate anyone who is willing to learn and embrace technology to grow their business.
Two weeks ago, we kicked off a series called ‘Microsoft 365 for Dummies’ because we want to help people to understand the basics of this platform. In the first blog we answered the question, “What is Microsoft 365?” In this blog we’ll answer the question, “What is Microsoft Teams?” Much of the information in this blog can be accessed from Microsoft’s official site.
Syntelo is currently running a 10-week campaign on Microsoft Teams. You may be wondering why we would dedicate so much time to speaking about this platform? In addition to the prevailing ignorance out there, Microsoft has revealed some fascinating statistics regarding the demand for Microsoft Teams:
• Daily active users have jumped from 32 million to 44 million.
• Daily minute meetings have increased by 200%.
• Video calls usage has increased by 1000%.
These statistics reinforce the point I made earlier: Covid has caused businesses to rethink how they conduct the way they work. And many business owners have turned to Microsoft Teams to help their employees to connect and collaborate in this digital world.
So, “What is Microsoft Teams?”
Microsoft Teams is essentially a universal hub or central point of access where different team members can work together using dedicated team channels. With Microsoft Teams on your PC, Mac, or mobile device, you can:
• Pull together a team of people, content, and tools surrounding different projects.
• Work on dedicated team channels or sections within a team to keep conversations organized.
• Use chat instead of email.
• Securely edit files at the same time.
• See likes, @mentions, and replies with just a single tap.
• Customize by adding notes, web sites, and apps.
If you’re interested in learning more about the basics of Microsoft Teams, then please check out this short video. So, why should you consider using this central hub for your business or school?
Here are some key benefits and features of Microsoft Teams:
• It enables team members to chat, meet, and call each other from their office desk or from their virtual office while on the go using their mobile device.
• It empowers team members to safely collaborate with each other using familiar Office 365 apps and tools like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook etc.
• By connecting apps and tools into one single hub, team members can simplify processes and accelerate decision-making.
• It is built on Microsoft 365 delivering enterprise-grade security and compliance capabilities with full manageability and controls.
• It is also designed to help schools to do provide distance learning through virtual classrooms.
Based on these benefits and features, you can see that Microsoft Teams is more than a set of products. It is fundamentally a different way of working! If Covid has disrupted your business, then perhaps Microsoft Teams is your next step? Perhaps it’s your solution to help your employees connect and collaborate more effectively?
At Syntelo we use the latest Microsoft 365 applications to provide other businesses with swift, scalable, and secure solutions that will help them to accelerate their business goals, save them unwanted costs on software and devices, and give them peace of mind regarding cybersecurity all in one unified service and flexible contract. In the next blog we’ll answer the question, “What is Microsoft Viva?”
As always we’d love to hear from you to see how we can help you begin you’re your first steps with Microsoft Teams, the hub where your teamwork will excel!
