Microsoft Teams and Microsoft SharePoint in interaction: Collaboration knows many ways

There are many collaboration platforms, and depending on the company's technical history, these may be from one of the large manufacturers or they may be small special applications, often with very individual options, suitable for the respective company's everyday life. What they have in common is that they are intended to ensure collaboration within the company or are also used with a corresponding interface in customer communication. Sharing data, 1:1 communication, 1:n communication or even the mapping of entire processes or process chains - collaboration is a broad term and so are the collaboration platforms very diverse. Companies that want to reorganize or improve their internal communication can take a modular approach by choosing Microsoft solutions.

Teams and SharePoint can complement each other, not replace

The primary goal of Microsoft Teams is to support and optimize group collaboration. The use of teams is especially beneficial when employees work together in projects or groups.  Microsoft Teams is a web-based platform.
So-called team rooms can be created, which function like a virtual office, which can be equipped with office utensils. For example, with a virtual filing cabinet, a whiteboard, a task board and much more.  [nbsp
It is also possible to work on documents in a team room at the same time, so that joint work can also take place in separate offices. It is also possible to chat with colleagues, make a 1:1 telephone call or even hold entire conferences. In a Microsoft Team telephone call, one of the participants can also share his presentation or screen and thus let others participate in his work.    

The SharePoint also provides a web-based workplace where users can upload documents, share them with others and collaborate on them. However, it is less dynamic than Microsoft teams. SharePoint is often used as a company intranet. There it serves as a central location for finding company information, which can be prepared in a visually appealing way with "modern sites".  However, SharePoint is also well suited for the automation of business processes. For example, a quality management process that automatically sends tasks to the responsible persons or groups or uses approval levels before documents are published for all employees can be mapped.

The following overview roughly presents the main differences:

Agile cooperation in groups & projects Direct communication Conversations & Chats Conference calls and screen sharing Only usable online	Cooperation across the company indirect communication "Consume" information Automate business processes Online or OnPremises

Connecting teams and SharePoint

Microsoft Teams and SharePoint can be used parallel to each other or separately.  Simply put, a SharePoint database is located under the Teams interface and under the SharePoint Online interface. SharePoint Online thus forms the foundation for Microsoft Teams. For each team that is created in Microsoft Teams, a team website is also created in Microsoft SharePoint Online. Each channel of a team automatically creates a folder in the document library of the team website in which the files used in the channel are stored.  Both programs only have a different display layer.  In addition, the use of teams and SharePoint differs in essential basic features.

The best result can be achieved by using both products in combination. For example, the "Occupational Safety" section, on the one hand, is given a team in which it works together in an agile and direct way. On the other hand, they can use a SharePoint site where they can publish information company-wide. In addition, the "Occupational Safety" employees can then have relevant documents, such as an occupational safety guideline, digitally controlled via workflow and only publish documents that have already been approved. In this way, the workforce always has only the currently valid policy at their disposal.