In a recent move to bolster its collaboration tools, Microsoft has rolled out a series of new features for its Teams desktop app, specifically targeting multi-tenant organizations. These enhancements are set to streamline communication and collaboration across different tenants, a scenario frequently encountered by global corporations or those undergoing mergers and acquisitions.
Streamlined User Experience Across Tenants
The newly introduced Multi-Tenant Organization (MTO) capabilities in Microsoft Teams are poised to redefine collaboration experiences across various functionalities, from search and chat to calling, meetings, and content sharing. This development is particularly pivotal for organizations juggling multiple tenants, be it due to operational intricacies or the necessity to cater to diverse subsidiaries and test environments. With these updates, users can now seamlessly work across multiple tenants and accounts using side-by-side windows. This means they can actively participate in a meeting or collaborate in a channel hosted in another tenant while simultaneously engaging in chat conversations in their primary tenant.
Revamped Search and Chat Functions
One of the notable challenges previously faced by users was the duplication of search results when looking for coworkers in a multi-tenant organization. Addressing this, the new MTO features ensure that a search for a coworker within an MTO group yields a singular result, clearly indicating their home tenant name. This enhancement not only streamlines the search process but also ensures that users can effortlessly identify the right colleague and consolidate their conversations.
Elevated Meeting Experiences
Meetings are a cornerstone of organizational collaboration, and Microsoft's latest features are set to elevate this experience. Users from different tenants, who often find themselves collaborating in shared meetings, can now leverage the full suite of meeting tools they are accustomed to in their own tenant. This includes features like whiteboarding, ensuring that the quality of collaboration remains consistent, irrespective of the tenant hosting the meeting.
Seamless Collaboration with Shared Channels
Beyond the MTO-specific features, Microsoft Teams Connect is paving the way for seamless collaboration across organizational boundaries, such as between multiple tenants. The Teams Connect shared channels facilitate uninterrupted chat, call, meeting, and file collaboration functionalities, eliminating the need for users to toggle between different tenants. While these shared channels operate independently of the MTO configuration, they can be synergistically used in multi-tenant organizational scenarios to further enhance collaborative efforts.
Implementation and Future Prospects
For organizations keen on harnessing these MTO capabilities in Teams, the initial step involves configuring their MTO tenant via the Microsoft 365 admin center. Post this setup, Teams will autonomously activate the MTO features, negating the need for any supplementary configurations. As of now, these features are accessible to commercial users on the new Teams Windows client app. However, Microsoft's roadmap indicates plans to extend these functionalities to other platforms, including iOS, Android, and MacOS. Additionally, an optimized version of the Teams web app, tailored for these MTO features, is on the horizon.
