As of July 2021, Teams has 145 million daily active users, and more than 500,000 organisations use Teams for messaging. Key indicators of its success include $6.8 billion in revenue (a 700% increase year on year), and growth of 894% more when compared to its base usage during the week of 17 February.

To say that Microsoft Teams growth is enjoying a bull run is to drastically understate its success. The software is benefitting from the perfect storm of the working conditions created by a worldwide pandemic, the power of the cloud, and delivering exactly what businesses need in these trying times – all at an attractive cost.

But Microsoft isn’t resting on its laurels. Microsoft Teams is an ever-evolving product that is continually improving thanks to the constant addition of new features that enhance the software’s value proposition even further.

No More App Creep

One of the most complex challenges in today’s business environment is the ‘application creep’ that comes from using business applications from a variety of vendors. 

While they provide value by allowing staff to do their work, it’s far less efficient for workers to load up five separate applications and switch between them to do various tasks than it is doing everything they need to from a single interface.

This is where Microsoft Teams’ ability to integrate with more than 700 apps from the world’s most popular software vendors delivers abundant value. Through these integrations, organisations that make use of third-party business software solutions can use the functions of those solutions inside the Teams interface.

And because Microsoft is a world-leading vendor of software solutions, the available library of Teams integrations includes big-name programs and apps relevant to the most common business categories and verticals.

The Teams App Store provides access to productivity apps, project management apps, industry-specific apps, and business department apps, all of which integrate seamlessly with Teams. Once the apps are installed, functionalities from those other programs become available inside Teams, allowing workers to use those functions without leaving the Teams interface.

How Teams app integration works

In the world of apps, there are several different levels of availability, each offering a certain amount of functionality. Some are completely free and require no subscription at all. Others are “freemium” and offer basic functionality for free and which only grant access to all functions if you pay. And then there are apps that only work if you pay for them from the start.

When it comes to Teams integrations, the available apps follow the same model – some are completely free to use and offer up all functionality, some offer basic functionality with more unlocked if you pay (Polly, for example), and others (like Wrike) won’t integrate at all unless you pay for them or have an existing subscription to their service.

On the other hand, if all you need is for your Teams to be able to talk to a customer that uses a non-Microsoft collaboration/communication/videoconferencing platform, that application’s Teams integration will allow you to do exactly that without requiring that you have your own subscription to the other service.

The above applies to many of the available Teams app integrations. Examples include Zoom, Cisco Webex, Adobe Creative Cloud, and many more. 

This ability to seamlessly communicate with applications from different vendors is the reason Microsoft Teams is such a powerful, versatile tool in any business’s arsenal.

Build your own apps

Microsoft takes apps for Teams a step further. Using the Microsoft Power Platform, end users can create their own low-code applications and chatbots for Teams, customising them to the distinct needs of their intended audience with easy drag-and-drop simplicity. 

So if someone can’t find exactly what they are looking for in the more than 700 existing apps available on the Teams Apps Store, they can always build their own solution. They don’t even need to know much about coding to do it.

How does this benefit business

Having apps that integrate with Teams can build new capabilities and reduce costs by providing access to functions from a single app that were provided by several paid-for apps in the past. It can also provide organisations with new revenue opportunities.

Whether that is through superior customer service that occurs from clearer and faster communication, brand new capabilities and services, increased agility, or by improving the collaboration of teams inside the business, the possibilities for generating new revenue due to Teams are almost endless.

Talk to Tarsus On Demand

Tarsus On Demand is one of South Africa’s largest providers of cloud services, specialising in the Microsoft stack which includes Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams.

Their experts are always ready to have a chat about what Teams can do for your organisation, and to help you get the most out of everything it has to offer.