If your entire team has suddenly been forced into remote work[1], it's hard to get everyone on the same page. Management tasks that used to be simple are now a challenge without your familiar physical meeting spaces and tools like whiteboards and shared printers.
Even if you're a sole proprietor or a freelance contributor, your options are drastically different when you're unable to leave your home office. If you can't meet a client in a coffee shop, what's your best online alternative?
Software can help to make the remote transition easier, especially if it ties tightly with the programs you already use.
You could cobble together a group of disparate products and services into something that sort of works and doesn't cost too much. You find a chat app and something that lets you do meetings and conference calls, and you figure out how to collaborate on documents and spreadsheets and presentations without too much friction.
Or you find one package that does all that stuff, at a price that won't stress your fragile budget.
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For anyone who uses Microsoft Office, Microsoft Teams[2] has suddenly become that package. It's especially appealing for small businesses that already have an Office 365 subscription.[3]
What is Microsoft Teams?
Microsoft Teams is a collection of online services that you can access through a web browser (at https://teams.microsoft.com[4]) or through the Teams app[5], which is available for Windows, MacOS, iOS, and Android. (There's also a new Linux client; details on how to get it are here[6].)
That combo of