Announcing the world’s top M365 & Microsoft Teams Collaboration Champions
There was one common trait amongst all the teams and departments that ranked at the top of SWOOP Analytics’ 2023 M365 & Microsoft Teams benchmarking analysis - they had all made the decision to work together in the same way on their digital platform.
Without exception, the top performers from the more than 266,000 employees using Microsoft 365 and 67,000+ teams on Microsoft Teams analysed in SWOOP’s benchmarking study had made a conscious decision to work in the same way.
Typically, working in the same way meant working out loud in Microsoft Teams channels, rather than chat, sharing files in Teams channels via SharePoint, turning on cameras during Teams meetings, never using email for internal communications and working asynchronously in Teams channels.
Most teams identified as Collaboration Champions by SWOOP’s benchmarking were surprised by their success because, to most of them, this was their everyday way of working.
When SWOOP met with the top-ranked team from UK telecommunications giant Virgin Media O2 to learn about their digital habits, the head of the team, Catherine Callan, Senior Manager – Partner Engagement & Performance, thought we must have the wrong team because she didn’t think they did anything special in the way they worked.
Catherine Callan, Senior Manager – Partner Engagement & Performance, Virgin Media O2.
“This is what we do everyday in our day job,” Catherine said.
“So in my day job … we do everything that way. We’ve got our documents up there and everything is on Teams so we can all work on it.
“Our team is dispersed so we work this way on Teams every day.”
While it’s become a natural way of working for Catherine and her team, data from SWOOP’s 2023 benchmarking shows only 24% of employees work collaboratively in any sort of way in Microsoft Teams channels.
Perhaps surprisingly, only 5% of teams/groups/departments analysed have strong and consistent collaboration habits while the remaining 95% used the M365 collaboration tools in very different ways, making it very hard to work effectively together in a consistent way.
In SWOOP’s M365 benchmarking data set, the top six organisations were all what we call “digital specialist firms” – they make their living helping clients to work more effectively with digital toolsets. These six organizations were closely followed by real estate management consulting and managed services firm RealFoundations and federal government department New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE), both of whom shared incredible stories with us of a digital collaboration culture across their organisations. You can read their stories in the full benchmarking report.
In SWOOP’s 2023 Microsoft Teams benchmarking, RealFoundations was the standout performer again, with an incredible four teams ranked in the top 10. Perhaps what makes this even more impressive is all four teams are client-based teams, either for projects or ongoing client relations. Not only is RealFoundations following world-best collaboration practices within their own teams but they’re bringing in clients as guests and sharing best practices with them.
Close behind RealFoundations was workplace consultancy and Microsoft Partner of the Year Engage Squared, with two teams in the top 10. NZTE and Virgin Media O2 also boasted teams in the top 10. SWOOP Analytics also identified other top performing teams/groups/departments in the top 1% of those benchmarked that showed outstanding digital collaboration behaviours.
Drumroll please…the 2023 M365 & Microsoft Teams Collaboration Champions are:
Congratulations to all these champions! In the full report we share case studies from these top performing teams and departments. By sharing their stories and best practices, you can learn from the best. Each one has some different tips to share and, you never know, they might just be the thing that works for you.
If you would like to uncover the best performing teams and departments in your organisation, try SWOOP Analytics for free today and we can provide you with your own custom benchmarking report for M365, Microsoft Teams, Viva Engage, SharePoint intranet or Workplace from Meta.
