What is Microsoft Teams Premium? An insider look into the new service.

Microsoft Teams is an app much beloved by businesses across the globe, being one that promotes connectivity and productivity in the workplace. Since its release in 2017, Teams has largely cut the need for third-party messaging apps in the office, allowing users to connect via calls, instant messaging, and meetings.

However, Microsoft Teams has recently had a makeover, with Microsoft announcing the release of a Teams Premium Service. The tech giant has asserted that ‘modern tools powered by AI hold the promise to boost individual, team, and organizational-level productivity and fundamentally change how we work’. A promise that can be assessed in the new Teams Premium AI-powered services.

What is Microsoft Teams Premium?

Microsoft Teams Premium is the more advanced version of the well-known Microsoft Teams App; this newly introduced layer promises users more advanced features for a monthly fee, with the Microsoft Teams Premium service currently costing $10 USD per month, per user. Businesses who hold a Microsoft 365 subscription can add the Premium license to their existing services. Those who currently hold a Teams license may notice some features disappearing from their apps, this is to be expected with Microsoft giving a 30 to 60 day grace period following Premium release.

The main point of innovation highlighted by Microsoft is the incorporation of Large Language Models powered by OpenAI’s GPT-3.5; included to make meetings more intelligent, personalised, and protected. The AI integration is present at all levels, whether in one-on-one appointments, large meetings, or webinars. The new AI features allow for increased transcription and captioning services, letting meeting participants keep live records of meetings

The incorporation of AI can be seen when we break down the new features that are currently being rolled out, the main introductions and differentiations from normal Teams are:

• Customisable meeting templates for your organization
• Read live translated captions during meetings
• Translate post-meeting transcriptions
• Set up a green room for webinar presenters
• Send reminder emails to registrants
• Use RTMP-In for Webinars
• Add watermarks to meetings
• End-to-end encryption for meetings with up to 50 attendees
• Control who can record
• Prevent copy/paste in meeting chats
• Navigate meeting recordings with autogenerated chapters
• Navigate meeting recordings with PPT live chapters
• View time markers in meeting recordings when you joined or left a meeting
• Search meeting transcripts with speaker suggestions
• View and act on autogenerated tasks from meetings
• View when you were @mentioned

Some of these introductions will give IT admins greater capability in managing and enforcing uniformity across meetings; for example, IT admins can set the requirement for meeting watermarks, providing meeting users with the watermark feature.

Will Microsoft Teams be changing in any other capacity?

If you’re questioning whether aside from the changes seen in the Premium rollout, will Teams be changing in any other capacity? Then the answer is yes. Microsoft have recently been working to improve the system resource usage of Teams on PCs and laptops, making major beneficial changes to benefit your system. The newly refreshed Teams will reportedly ‘use 50 percent less memory, tax the CPU less, and result in better battery life on laptops.’

These system changes will be introduced in March, and users should be able to see a noticeable reduction in resource usage. The new model will move away from Electron towards Microsoft’s Edge Webview2 technology, also moving to React, a Javascript library that will allow for more UI improvements for Teams in the future.

Getting the most from Teams?

If your business is currently using Microsoft products and services in its product arsenal, then it may be worth considering whether Teams Premium will be a beneficial addition to your operational needs. If you’re unsure as to whether the new features will be of use to your employees, then consult your trusted IT partner to audit your current Microsoft usage and establish your needs for the future.

It would be advisable to partner with a managed services provider such as Fitzrovia IT, who has a long-established partner relationship with Microsoft. Microsoft Partners have access to insider knowledge, exclusive training resources, and the extensive partner network.

If you want to audit your Microsoft service usage, and discuss the Teams Premium release, then contact one of our expert team today.