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Summary: Microsoft introduced Decisions for Microsoft Teams to enhance meeting management and productivity. It streamlines meeting processes with four principles: Prep, Run, Do, and Repeat. The platform offers seven meeting management tools, including structured agendas, one-click meeting minutes, feedback and engagement scores, automated follow-up, time tracking, and secure voting. Decisions for Teams offers various plans, from a free trial to organization-wide solutions. Installation is simple and integrates with Microsoft 365 Apps. In a time when remote and hybrid work is prevalent, Decisions is a valuable tool for effective meeting management in Microsoft Teams.

Many business professionals often quote the adage “Time is money.” However, in practice, a highly lucrative enterprise might find itself squandering precious time on unproductive endeavors, which can be detrimental in the long term. Team meetings are integral, but they can be a hit or miss. An ineffectively conducted meeting can squander valuable time, lead to incorrect decisions, result in diminished productivity, reduced focus, and overall dissatisfaction. Employers should elevate their team interactions to become a catalyst for success.

To solve this issue, Microsoft launched Decisions as an extension to make meetings the most productive part of their user’s day. It immensely helps to improve Microsoft Teams performance. Many users are unaware of the ocean of powerful features that the Decisions platform brings, and if you haven’t used it yet, this is your ultimate guide to Decisions for Microsoft Teams.

What is Decisions for Microsoft Teams?

Decisions stands out as a remarkable meeting management tool that has brought about a positive transformation in the way meetings are conducted. It has significantly enhanced collaboration, engagement, and productivity in meetings, whether they are virtual, hybrid, or in-person. Within a short span of less than ten years, it has garnered widespread recognition and earned prestigious awards, including the title of Best Office Integration application.

You should have a good understanding of Microsoft 365 and Teams. Decisions integrates seamlessly with these platforms to offer a distinct meeting management experience. meeting management experience

What are the main principles of Decisions?

Built upon these four robust principles, Decisions for Teams has empowered millions of productive working hours-
steps

Prep

Before the meeting

The emphasis lies in formulating a pertinent agenda and disseminating it to both internal and external participants. This affords them ample time to collect information and enhances their ability to engage actively and boost productivity during the interaction.

Run

During the meeting

This entails transforming concepts into active discussions during the ongoing meeting. It also guarantees that each speaker is given an appropriate amount of time. This approach ensures that every member has an opportunity to express their thoughts, resulting in satisfaction and clarity without any confusion.

Do

After the meeting

Following the meeting, tasks that were discussed are given priority, enabling participants to easily reference them and make progress towards meeting the established expectations. The meeting’s content is archived in SharePoint, and the associated deadlines are synchronized with Planner.

Repeat

Ongoing

This functionality empowers team members to preserve all content from previous meetings, preventing redundant tasks. It guarantees that users make the most of their time, ensuring each session surpasses the previous one.

What are the 7 Meeting management tools of Decisions?

Some exceptional utilities are behind the success of a well-known platform. The same is the case with Decisions, which includes tools that help to magnify the team’s engagement and efficiency during work calls. Decisions for Microsoft Teams has 7 such utilities known as Meeting management tools, which include –

  1. Structured Agendas-
    A clearly outlined agenda imparts organization and purpose to the overall formal engagement, ensuring participants are better equipped for the topics at hand. In the absence of a defined agenda, a meeting could devolve into an unproductive discussion.
    How does it work?

    • Build a new agenda or use a template.
    • Assign tasks for presenters and add the time tracker.
    • Upload necessary attachments.
  2. One-Click Meeting Minutes-
    A simple and on-click Minutes tab allows you to create and customize the content of your speaking minutes during the meeting. It creates a Word or OneDrive document that can be shared with others to have a clear idea.
    How does it work?

    • Create the document using one of the templates.
    • Option to standardize the time, place, brand logo, and attendees.
    • Sync Tasks with Decisions.
  3. Meeting Feedback Score-
    Continuous feedback can help you to measure and further improve your meetings. This score is a simple yet insightful feedback that the participants can provide using their identity or anonymously.
    How does it work?

    • Rate the effectiveness once the meeting is over.
    • Members can cast scores anonymously.
    • Improve until you reach your goal score.
  4. Meeting Engagement Score-
    The Meeting Engagement Score is a quantitative term that helps to determine the preparedness of the presenter and the attendees. An increased score amplifies the efficiency of the meeting.
    How does it work?

    • Measure the quality of the set agenda.
    • Measure the preparation of your team.
    • Analyze both to make better decisions.
  5. Automated Follow-up-
    Decisions is powered with a smart text recognition feature, which identifies all the major tasks from Meeting Minutes and keeps track until completed. It perfectly syncs the assigned work with other task management applications in Microsoft 365, including Teams, Planner, and To-Do.
  6. Smart Time tracker-
    The Smart Time Tracker lets you specify the allotted time for each topic level. In addition, it turns red when only a minute is left so that the members can wrap up the discussion. Presenters can also check the exact time left without getting distracted.
  7. Secure Voting-
    Professionals often have to make big decisions that cannot provide the correct details by creating a poll in Microsoft 365. The Vote Now feature in Decisions allows them to cast secure votes in an organized manner. However, this is a premium feature.
    How does it work?

    • Create a topic that requires voting.
    • Apply specific settings.
    • Begin the actual voting.
What are the different plans available for Decisions for Teams?

Depending upon your organization’s needs, Decisions for Teams offers the following plans for all its users-

Trial Small teams Organization-wide
Users can try the platform for 14 days before actually purchasing it. Ideal for small teams, which can benefit from the tools. Ideal for all companies and can be customized depending on the team’s requirements.
Free of cost $9.90 per month per user Price on request
Multiple users 3 to 25 users Suitable for over 25 users
Full access to most of the Meeting Management Tools Full Access to all the Meeting Management Tools Full access to all Meeting Management Tools.
Additional access to premium features like eSignature and Secure voting.
  Annual discounts Better support, a designated account manager, and much more.
How to install Decisions for Microsoft Teams?

The installation of Decisions is a simple procedure, and it integrates smoothly with all Microsoft 365 Apps. You can download the Decisions directly from the Microsoft AppSource, Outlook, or Teams store.

  1. Go to Teams and click on Apps.
  2. Search for “Decisions” and click on Add to install the application.install the application
  3. Sign in using your Microsoft credentials and click on Accept.
  4. The Global Admin needs to approve Decisions before you begin using it.

Conclusion

Since the pandemic, Microsoft Teams has seen a great user boom. Since companies have adapted to the remote or hybrid working environment, they must adopt a detailed platform to manage the meeting culture. Decisions is the right fit for every organization. However, if you plan to migrate your Teams data between Microsoft 365 tenants, then an easy yet secure solution is the Kernel Microsoft Teams Migration. It accurately maps the source and destination Teams and migrates the entire data.