Teams Supports Working with Outside Users and Organizations

Update: External Collaboration in Microsoft Teams is an Oct. 2022 update to this report that  covers new developments, including Teams Connect Shared Channels. Readers should refer to that report for the most recent coverage of this topic.

• Teams supports several types of participation by individuals outside of an organization without the need for additional licenses.
• These options can help organizations work with outside vendors, contractors, partners, and customers, and reduce the need for competing services.
• Not all features are available to external users, and granting access to some features requires additional configuration.
• Extra planning and implementation efforts are needed to address increased security, compliance, and management requirements.

Microsoft Teams provides several options for users within an organization’s Office 365 tenancy to communicate and work with individuals outside the organization via chat, audio or video calls, and Teams meetings. With additional configuration, guests from outside the organization can be added to team channels and SharePoint Online sites associated with a team. While any or all of these options can be enabled within an organizations Team’s tenancy, there are limitations on what class of individual can be given guest access to content within a team.