Microsoft began rolling out Teams on March 14, 2017, according to RCP. General availability did not mean every Office 365 account immediately had every advertised feature. RCP named Business Essentials, Business Premium and Enterprise E1, E3 and E5, plus previously purchased E4 subscriptions. Education and Government were excluded, and Teams was not sold as a standalone service. [rcp]

Within that scope, RCP described persistent chat: discussions remained searchable. It also reported internal Office 365 use without external guests; guest access was expected in June, not delivered at launch. Availability was gradual, with completion expected by month end. A proposed reader checklist would therefore separate plan eligibility, tenant access and the participants a particular conversation needs. [rcp]

TechCrunch’s reported interview adds a distinction of purpose, not another entitlement. Microsoft’s Mira Lane described broad organizational communication and tighter collaboration as potentially using different tools. A persistent team channel should therefore not be confused with either an organization-wide broadcast or an external guest workspace. This is an explanatory comparison of the reports, not a finding about how any reader’s workplace was configured. [tc][rcp]

Finally, keep announcements separate from delivered functions and adoption. RCP’s 150 integrations were available or forthcoming, so the count was not 150 completed connections. TechCrunch said the preview’s 50,000 organizations included trials as well as continuing users. Our editorial checklist would mark each needed integration available, planned or unverified, and would not treat trial participation as proof that a deployment worked. [rcp][tc]

Source documents

  1. Microsoft Teams General Availabilityhttps://rcpmag.com/articles/2017/03/14/microsoft-teams-general-availability.aspx
  2. Teams, Microsoft’s Slack rival, opens to all Office 365 usershttps://techcrunch.com/2017/03/14/teams-microsofts-slack-rival-opens-to-all-office-365-users/
  3. Microsoft Teams readies for battle in highly contested collaboration spacehttps://www.cio.com/article/234515/microsoft-teams-readies-for-battle-in-highly-contested-collaboration-space.html