What is Microsoft Teams?
Microsoft Teams is the chat, meeting and calling app in Microsoft 365. It keeps conversations, video calls and shared files in one place for a team.
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What it is
Teams is organized around teams and channels. A team is a group of people, such as a department, and each channel inside it holds a topic or project with its own conversation and files. Files shared in a channel are stored in SharePoint, and private chats keep files in OneDrive.
Meetings can be scheduled from Outlook or started on the spot, with video, screen sharing and chat. Teams Phone is an optional add-on that lets staff make and receive regular phone calls from the same app. It also needs phone numbers, either from a Microsoft calling plan or through a connection to a phone carrier. Chat and meetings work without it.
Why it matters to a business
- Tenant ownership: chats and files belong to your Microsoft 365 tenant, so the company controls them.
- One account: the account that gives someone email also gives them Teams. Disabling it removes access to every team.
- External sharing: settings decide whether guests and other companies can join chats and meetings. Set them on purpose rather than leaving the defaults.
- Retention and cost: message and file retention can be set by policy. Microsoft sells most business plans both with and without Teams, so check which version you are paying for. Teams Phone is usually an extra per-user cost.
How KawaConnect works with Microsoft Teams
Teams is administered under our Microsoft 365 service, together with Exchange Online, SharePoint, Entra ID and Intune. KawaConnect is an official Microsoft reseller, so the Microsoft 365 licenses can come from us too.
In practice that means setting up teams and channels, meeting policies and external sharing rules, and migrating mail and files so staff start with their history in place. The best-known alternative for chat is Slack. Our Microsoft guide explains the rest of Microsoft 365.
Related services
Microsoft 365
Teams, SharePoint, Exchange Online and security managed together.
Microsoft reseller
License purchasing and changes handled through KawaConnect.
VoIP phone systems
Business phones built on FreePBX when you want calling outside Teams.
Learn more
- Microsoft Teams on WikipediaA neutral overview of what Teams does and how it developed.
- Microsoft Teams websiteMicrosoft's own overview of chat, meetings and calling.
- Microsoft SupportOfficial help articles on Teams for staff and administrators.
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