It was wonderful to be a part of the M365 Community Conference that took place in Orlando, FL from Apr 30 to May 02, 2024. The event was a great success with over 3000 attendees. However, the highlight for the Teams SMB product team was the engaging discussions we got to have with small and medium businesses (SMBs) and partners who support SMBs.
Hearing directly from SMBs was incredibly valuable, as was receiving validation on how effective Teams already is for several of them. We also recognized the need to raise awareness of scenarios that are already supported, such as the ability to connect with customers and partners in different ways. We will take the insights from these discussions to guide our product roadmap.
We held several Teams SMB-focused sessions at the conference, including a breakout session (PDF available here) on how Microsoft Teams can be an ally for small businesses, aiding in business growth and operational efficiency. Here are some of the topics we discussed during this breakout session:
- Meetings: Enhancements to the meeting experience for external participants and the several meeting options available, including Microsoft Bookings and Virtual Appointments.
- Chats: The ability for an SMB to chat with customers and partners, and how attendees in an external meeting can continue the conversation via chat even after the meeting.
- Shared channels: The ability to create shared workspaces with partners and customers for structured, long-term project collaboration.
- Multiple accounts: The new Teams feature that allows staying signed into various organizations and accounts for seamless collaboration with several customers and partners.
- Teams Phone: Various telephony capabilities allowing SMB users to communicate from anywhere with a myriad of smart features.
- Teams-certified devices: The option to easily acquire Teams-certified devices directly from the Store within the Teams app.
- Google Workspace integration: How Teams can be used by Google Workspace users without the need to migrate their e-mail and calendar from Google Workspace to Microsoft 365.
- Setup simplification: Admin app in Teams that makes setup even more straightforward for very small businesses.
- M365 Copilot in Teams: How Copilot in Teams can supercharge productivity and save time. Copilot was covered in a lot more detail in the conference keynote – The Age of Copilots.
A video recording of the session will be shared within the coming month. Meanwhile, the keynotes and general sessions from the conference are already accessible on YouTube.
We are committed to supporting the growth of small and medium businesses, and eager to continue these dialogues. So, if you’re interested in a deeper connection with the Teams SMB product team, please refer to this post for more information.
Thanks
Abhijat Kanade
Group Product Manager, Microsoft Teams for SMBs, Microsoft