Leverage Product Innovation by Building ISV Applications in Microsoft Teams

The modern workplace is evolving at an accelerated pace. Between complex customer needs and changing business models, staying up to date with modern workplace practices is imperative. 

Microsoft Teams is a collaboration workspace in Microsoft Office 365 that integrates apps and services that people use to do work together. Apps and services integrated into Teams help organizations improve productivity, make decisions faster, provide focus (by not having to switch between apps), and create collaboration around content and workflows.

As Microsoft Teams is available in 181 markets and supports more than 50 languages, ISVs can leverage this platform to build their apps and reach their customers in a new way. Having your application available on Microsoft Teams allows ISVs to reach customers who spend hours everyday using the platform to and build connections with them. This can be done through your app being discoverable on AppSource/ Teams App among others.

Leveraging Microsoft teams enables Independent Software Vendors to achieve a number of their business goals. Apps on Teams enable users to collaborate in a single location on app-specific work. Survey respondents cited the following key factors for adopting apps for Teams:

• 59% needed to collaborate better within groups and across the organization.
• 57% wanted all their third-party app tools available through a collaboration solution.
• 53% needed to communicate more effectively within groups and across the organization.

Microsoft Teams has become the fastest growing business application in Microsoft history- largely due to it’s ability to facilitate a workspace that allows people to communicate, collaborate, customise and personalise. By building apps on Microsoft Teams, ISVs can harness this power and by building one, the app can be used on any Teams client; web, desktop (Windows or Mac OS) and mobile (Android and iOS). 

Over the past two years, developers have created hundreds of apps for Teams that integrate functions that streamline workstreams into the Teams user interface. There is an opportunity for new apps to be developed and find an audience due to the following factors:

• Customers Have Positive Experience With Apps For Teams
  • 80% of respondents indicated their organizations plan to increase the number of users of apps for Teams over the next year. Interviewees shared that benefits encouraged them to use more apps with Teams than they had with other collaboration solutions.
• Customers Want To Access SaaS Solutions From Teams
  • Apps driving early adoption tend to be extensions of software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions that organizations currently use. Per the survey: 57% of customers wanted to access apps in their collaboration solution from SaaS solutions they already use.
• Customers Are Willing To Pay For Apps
  • According to the survey results, cost is not a significant adoption obstacle for customers.
    • 50% paid for upfront professional services.
    • 45% paid for ongoing professional services.
    • 52% paid ongoing app costs

Building your application into Microsoft Teams allows ISVs to leverage product innovation through the creation and automation of process flows for solutions. You can begin quickly with a tab or connector and then build to a higher value integration in your own time. Spanish Point have the skills to help you get started with Microsoft Teams.

Want to learn more? Visit our Microsoft teams page or ask us a question here.