How the New Microsoft Teams Will Impact Partners

Earlier this month, Microsoft launched the new Microsoft Teams, announcing the general availability of the latest version of Teams 2.0 for Windows and Mac users.

Mark Vale, a U.K.-based unified communications architect, Microsoft Certified Trainer and Microsoft Teams voice expert/MVP, notes that partners work with various customers and ultimately have to switch between customers to collaborate on projects.

Callroute’s Mark Vale

“With the new Microsoft Teams, the tenant switching process is almost instant, making this process far more user-friendly than before,” Vale, who also is a director at Commsverse and chief product officer at Callroute, told Channel Futures.

New Microsoft Teams: ‘A 50% Reduction in Processing Power’

In layman’s terms, the new version of Microsoft Teams is faster, according to Vale, who assures us that this translates to enhanced meeting join-and-call answering performance, saying it will “significantly improve, thanks to its 50% reduction in processing power.”

This is one of the many ways partners will feel the impact of the latest version of the popular app, which has more than 280 million monthly active users.

Oded Gal, former chief of product at Zoom, told us that the tool’s improved performance and efficiency within the client is the leading advantage of the new Microsoft Teams. Gal is an advisor, board member and investor to companies building solutions around the future of work.

CoPilot for Teams, An Area for Partners to Focus

According to Vale, the principal new focal point for partners is CoPilot for Teams and the entire CoPilot Microsoft 365 suite.

“It is brand-new, and we are all trying to figure out what it is, what problems it can solve, and how and where we can add value,” Vale told us.

CoPilot in Teams Phone gives partners access to another tool — generative AI capabilities. That means leveraging generative AI to enable call summaries and for Microsoft Teams to note what Vale calls “key information from the conversation,” including target dates and other verbal agreements made during a conversation.

“I think the opportunity will present itself more clearly in the next six months for partners, as there will be various areas of concern that customers [to learn], especially where AI gets granted access to customer data, and users can [see] the results of that data access,” Vale said.

Vale believes the functionality of the new Microsoft Teams, for example, will soon help employees find out how their manager feels about them, asking CoPilot things such as, “What does my manager think of me?”

“And with CoPilot having access to chats, meeting notes, transcriptions, and documents as part of its data training, it might provide an answer of, ‘It appears your manager is seeking ways to terminate your employment,’ Vale told us.

While an extreme example, Vale’s point revolves around how we oversee AI within the workplace. He said it is also about how we limit its access to data and how we make those results available to workers.

“This is where the partner can add value to the customer by understanding what CoPilot has access to and how that can get used most ethically by each customer,” Vale said.