5 Must Have Microsoft Teams Integrations in 2021

Microsoft Teams has been successful in winning over businesses by providing a smooth user interface that combines the best of products like Slack, Google Docs, and Skype. By combining chat, meetings, endless Microsoft Teams integrations, file sharing, and much more within one platform, Microsoft is not just competing with Slack – they’re innovating how we communicate at work. 

Microsoft Teams Integrations: Why use them?

Here’s the thing – Microsoft Teams gets better when you teach it new tricks. After all, what good is a collaboration platform if you don’t use it to collaborate with other people? To truly experience what Teams has to offer, you need to bring in the right integrations and plug-ins to make your organization more productive.

Adding new features and integrations is an important part of using Teams to collaborate with others. Integrations expand the functionality of Teams, giving you the power to choose the apps that make your teams work better. By adding the right integrations, you can create a more productive and inviting working environment for the people who matter most to your business.

So without further ado, here is a list of the latest Microsoft Teams integrations that’ll help your teams work smarter and not harder in 2021.

MURAL: for visual collaboration

Say goodbye to boring and unproductive meetings.

With MURAL, everyone in your team can brainstorm together to unlock new ideas, overcome challenges, and become more innovative. Visual collaboration is a new way to collaborate across distributed teams as it equalizes the playing field and ensures everyone’s voice is heard. Thanks to MURAL, you can do exactly that.

Firstly, MURAL offers its users a digital collaborative workspace in Teams. This integration’s visual thinking canvas transforms old ways of working into a digital environment and adds a new dimension to video calls. In addition to that, it also seamlessly integrates into Microsoft Teams by adding a custom tab, notification bot, and messaging extension to your workspace. 

In MURAL, you’ll find ready-to-use templates for everything from group brainstorming to client engagements. Learn more here.

Hypercontext: for organizing meetings

Are you tired of wasting time at meetings? Are you tired of conversations where all your team members drift off-topic and nobody gets any work done? If you answered yes to any of those questions, you’re in luck.

The Hyercontext app efficiently organizes meetings so you and your colleagues can have meaningful conversations. The app allows you to add items to your meeting agenda and check them off as you go, so you’re less likely to go off-topic. Microsoft Teams users can use Hypercontext to:

• Create a collaborative meeting agenda so everyone is prepared for the discussion
• Add agenda items to your meeting
• Get suggestions on discussion topics, so discussions are varied and meetings don’t become boring
• Keep track of their team’s next steps. Closed items are archived, open items are carried over to the next agenda

Hypercontext helps meetings become more structured, efficient, and better use of everyone’s time – what’s not to like? 

Vacation Tracker: for effortless leave tracking

Don’t crunch numbers or stress out when it’s time to track leaves — let Vacation Tracker do the work for you.

Vacation Tracker is a tool to help manage your company’s leave requests and approvals. Team members can book any type of leave and managers can easily approve or deny leave requests, both without ever leaving Microsoft Teams. This automated leave tracking system seamlessly integrates into Teams and helps you:

• Create multiple leave types
• Request and approve leaves in a few clicks
• Send out daily/weekly notifications to everyone in your department or organization
• Get a clear overview of your scheduled leaves through a concise dashboard
• Sync up with your favorite external calendar
• Accrue leaves with an automated rollover policy

And much, much more. It’s no wonder that this Microsoft Teams integration is trusted by over 1,500 companies worldwide. Get started with a free 7-day trial to witness the magic of easy leave tracking for yourself. 

Disco: for celebrating team culture

With the rise of remote work, companies are reassessing how to maintain company culture as employees have fewer informal opportunities to recognize peers for their efforts. That’s where Disco steps in. 

Disco helps make work more enjoyable. It’s the simplest tool for showing appreciation for coworkers and has been designed by a team of passionate people who are on a mission to make your company happier. The idea is simple — reward employees who follow your values and implement them into their work. Whether it’s the junior developer who comes up with fresh ideas for improving client satisfaction or your new intern who survives her first week of work, announce and celebrate these wins. Hence, Disco is ideal for remote teams who want an easy way to stay connected with their co-workers and build stronger team cultures. This Microsoft Teams integration allows you to:

• Socialize and reinforce positive behaviors using Disco Values
• Reward employees for giving and receiving helpful feedback through Disco Points
• View points and achievements from your custom profile
• View employee engagement and feedback data in real-time

Trivia: for bringing fun back into your team

Perfect for the inner child in all of us, Trivia is a Microsoft Teams integration that lets users play more than 1000 quizzes, games, word puzzles, anagrams, opinion polls, and even Gotcha right inside Teams. Besides, Trivia games are quick to launch and provide a 5-minute break during your workday. For example, here are a few Trivia games you can play:

• Instant quizzes: Choose from a variety of categories to get started
• (Un)popular opinions: Conduct simple, native polls, and get your team’s opinions in minutes
• Custom quizzes: design customized questions and answers & integrate them with Trivia
• Gotcha!: a multiple-choice quiz filled with surprises.
• Word Puzzle: Show off your English vocabulary 

Trivia is the little Office add-in that packs a big punch. It’s free and helps remind your friends that you know everything.

Snigdha Gupta

An avid writer and aspiring marketer, Snigdha is a student at Concordia University’s John Molson School of Business.