Microsoft has announced the launch of Teams Connect, which it says will allow organisations to collaborate with external companies.
Connect, which is available in private preview, is designed to help companies “collaborate seamlessly” with customers, partners and suppliers through shared channels.
The feature leverages the most commonly used functions in Teams, such as chat, meetings and document collaboration.
Microsoft said that Teams Connect channels will feature alongside other standard Teams channels.
speaking during a session at Ignite, Nicole Herskowitz, General Manager of Microsoft Teams, said: "[Users can] easily invite individuals and teams and create a shared workspace where you can collaborate across organisational boundaries, leveraging all the rich capabilities that only Teams brings together.
“You can chat, meet, collaborate on apps, share content, and even co-author documents in real-time with people outside of your organisation"
“Shared channels appear in your primary Teams view alongside all of your internal teams and channels, making it easy to stay on top of all of your work in one place.”
The service will likely draw comparisons to Slack’s similarly named Slack Connect, which allows users to connect with up to 20 different organisations in the same channel.
