Microsoft Teams users were unable to access the collaboration application for most of the morning on 2/03/2020 due to an expired authentication certificate. According to Microsoft, Teams had more than 20 million daily active users as of the end of 2019. That is a lot of offices operating without the flow of communication we are used to – including LeafTech!

I think our clients would be surprised to know that we were suffering from a major communications outage at the beginning of the month. I can say confidently that the LeafTeam did not let this get in the way of serving our clients, but it was quite the hurdle to get over! Currently our team uses Microsoft Teams for just about all our company wide and collaborative communication.

Here are a few communication items that happen on LeafTech’s Teams Chats:
-The schedules for breaks and lunches are posted on Teams, and consultants post when they are coming and going from their desks so that we all know what resources are available to our clients who call needing immediate assistance.
– All onsites and travel plans consultants make to assist our clients in person are communicated about and coordinated on Teams.
– The escalations group where consultants discuss and problem solve high level issues is housed in Teams.
– All documents created in the course of the day are posted for peer review in our Teams chats too!

Luckily we had good habits to fall back on, and the phone calls and emails flowed to cover the gaping hole of Teams. More than half the job at LeafTech is communicating, whether that is within our team, or outside with clients. Sandwiched in the middle of all of that communication is the actual problem solving of the IT issue. Since we recognize that communication is such a big part of what we do, standards for email and phone contact are a large part of LeafTech training.

Though the Teams outage took down some of our most useful communication, LeafTech pushed through for our clients. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what issue we face as a team – LeafTech will always put our clients needs first!

Written by Alia Davis
Photo by John Schnobrich on Unsplash