Team Analytics Data for All – Does This Make Sense?

Without communicating it through the Message Center, Microsoft recently rolled out an interesting add-on to the Teams landscape. From now on, any Teams member can access a Team’s statistics, not just the Global Team Administrator.

On the Manage Teams page, there is an Analytics tab. Here you see listed all the teams in which an individual is a member.

Select a specific team, to drill-down for more information about that team (Manage Team). At first, the data looks exciting. But, looks can be deceiving.

Data requires context to bring added value. For example, there is little use knowing that 10% of your users are not actively engaged, if you don’t know who those users are. Without this critical information, how can you determine and address the underlying cause of their inactivity?

Another example is the number of Messages. How can you evaluate communication when you have no information on how many messages receive replies? Are two people simply engaged in a lengthy discussion about a topic or are they using fast, targeted queries and answers to achieve a goal?  Lastly, the usage data is not up-to-the-minute. You must always be aware, the data you see might not reflect the reality of the moment.

Given the current “rough” state of data, giving everyone access may not be a problem. In the future, however, giving every team member access to data could be a problem. What if Microsoft begins to grant unannounced access to information only the team owner should see? What use is such superficial data to anyone?

Returning to the example with 10% inactive users. This number must be thoroughly understood by the team owner. If the majority of users come from only one department, the implication is clear there is a problem in that department. Its cause can be found and addressed.

What if the 10% come from many different departments and the inactivity is due to routine, “legitimate” reasons? Perhaps they’re no longer with the company or their roles and needs have changed?

The point being, the real use and value of this type of data can be very different.

At panagenda, we take a new and completely different approach when talking about Teams data analysis and how that data can be consumed.

First, there’s our product, OfficeExpert – Teams Analytics. A single client app delivering usage data in much more detailed form directly into the Team Client.

Furthermore, access to the usage data analysis is limited to respective team owner. The following picture shows a lot of global statistics for all teams where you are owner.

Selecting a team will show details such as channel or country activities. This is information you just don’t get from Microsoft.

With panagenda’s OfficeExpert, you have a graphically rich solution with which you can easily determine the right course of action.