This post was written when our service lynes was called Easy Teams.
One of today’s hottest topics— for obvious reasons — is collaboration tools.
Companies have been forced to pivot and adapt their operations to the digital office.
Now, more than ever, you need a strong collaboration platform for both external and internal communication. So which ones are out there, how do they work, and which collaboration tool fits you?
In this post, we’ll compare lynes and Microsoft Teams.
What does a “teams collaboration” actually mean?
Let’s start by defining team, a word most of us know.
SAOL defines it as:
“Team [tiːm], noun — a smaller group that collaborates with a specific purpose.”
Not entirely wrong, but here’s our take:
Team(s) is a collaboration tool that ties your organization together. It enables collaboration through a single interface where you can chat, call, hold video meetings, and share files.
In other words: a team or “teams” is a collaboration tool designed to streamline how you interact with colleagues and customers. To paraphrase: one app to rule them all!
Now that we’ve sorted what Teams is, let’s dive into what sets lynes and Microsoft Teams apart.
Getting started with a Teams-style solution
Before you start collaborating in Teams, you need to set up your organization. To make the choice easier, it’s good to know what you’re getting into: how much do you want to handle yourself, and how much do you want someone else to take care of? Let’s walk through how to get started with each option.
Getting started with Microsoft Teams
First, you need to choose your license type — and decide whether you’ll use telephony in Microsoft Teams or not (more on that below). Back to licenses:
Besides a freemium option, there’s a whole range where Teams is included because it’s native to Microsoft’s portfolio.
You’ll pick between Microsoft Business Basic, Standard, or Premium. Not too bad, right? Hold on — there’s more: Microsoft E5, E3, F1, and 365 Pro Plus.
This can feel overwhelming, but if you have an IT department, they should know the drill. If not, Microsoft resellers can guide you through the jungle.
Once you’ve chosen, the real setup begins — which can be time-consuming if you lack prior knowledge.
If you get stuck, check Microsoft’s website or contact their support.
Onboarding in Microsoft Teams
Microsoft has always been good at onboarding materials — Teams is no exception. You’ll find everything from “Teams for Dummies” to advanced collaboration guides. In the bottom-left Help tab you’ll find tutorials, videos, and articles to get you rolling.
Getting started with lynes
With lynes, you pick your number of users and your PBX package — Standard or Pro. Your mobile subscriptions can be integrated. Because lynes isn’t just a collaboration tool — it’s also a business phone system (included at no extra cost).
When you’re ready, you’re assigned a project manager who ensures your teams, channels, and settings are right from the start. One 30-minute project meeting, and you’re off.
No prior knowledge needed — your PM is your sounding board on how to structure your organization.
Prefer DIY? You can set up lynes yourself. The onboarding flow is simple: answer a few questions and your answers become your lynes structure. lynes? lynes!
Onboarding “the lynes way”
We’ve built a simple, user-friendly onboarding. Your first login greets you with a guided tour of key features so everyone can get going fast. Users can even keep using their current tools during migration for a smooth transition. As soon as users are created, you can start using lynes.
We also offer a library of short videos, plus PDFs and instructions in the help section — all to get you up to speed quickly. That’s what people call “The lynes way.”
Administering Teams — easy or not?
Maybe even more important than setup is administration. Like it or not, you’ll spend time on it: employees leave, new ones join, others switch departments. You need an admin UI that doesn’t fight you.
Microsoft Teams administration — soft or not?
As a Team owner you can easily invite colleagues: go to Manage team, click Add member, and search by name, distribution list, or security group. You can also invite guests by email.
Under Manage team you can add channels, change member/guest permissions, and activate Microsoft-integrated apps.
For more advanced settings — restricting Teams, setting policies and permissions — you’ll head to the Microsoft Admin Center. It’s less intuitive than the app and requires more prior knowledge.
So, is it “soft”? Partly!
lynes administration
An admin in lynes can manage everything company-wide from mobile or desktop.
Click the gear icon (top-right) to access all settings. Create users and guests; edit permissions and restrictions.
Because lynes is also a phone system, you can manage answer groups (queues) and other telephony features. Add or edit groups, and even generate new audio with Text-to-Speech. You can also manage mobile subscriptions right in the app: order new ones, adjust existing ones, and view invoices.
Admin is designed to be simple and available everywhere. Need a new channel? A new user? Do it in the app. You always have the controls at hand.
Features — what are they and how do they work?
Like they say on MTV Cribs: “This is where the magic happens.” Teams is packed with user-friendly features that make life easier — from bread-and-butter chat and video calls to deeper file structures and email.
When choosing, first make sure the features you care about are present — and how they actually work (there are differences). Let’s break it down.
Chat in a Teams solution
Microsoft Teams chat
Microsoft splits chat into two areas — Chat and Teams. Chat is your DMs with one or more people you’ve chosen. Teams holds your channels and their content (e.g., Support or Finance).
Features are plentiful and easy to use — GIFs, emoji reactions, threaded conversations on messages and files, etc. It’s a complete chat experience.
To quickly share information received by email, you can share an email to a channel — but you’ll need to hop to Outlook and use the Share to Teams add-in. Despite owning both apps, Microsoft doesn’t (yet) offer a more seamless path. Alternatively, grab the channel’s unique email address and forward the message there.
Chat in lynes
In lynes, your DMs are at the top, followed by your Teams and their channels. A handy channel feature is Read Only. Create a news channel to reach everyone, set who can post, and whether comments are allowed — a simple way to ensure important info doesn’t get lost.
All the fun, user-friendly bits are here too — GIFs, emoji reactions, the works. It’s a complete chat.
Email sharing differs: lynes includes a built-in mail client mirror, so you can share an email into a chat or channel without leaving the app. If a colleague needs to reply, they click the message and respond — still inside lynes.
You can also dock/pin chats, channels, and video meetings. Keep a chat up while you’re in a meeting or typing elsewhere — less context-switching, more flow. You can pin messages in channels too (e.g., “New website: everything related goes here”).
And if your partner uses Slack, you can sync a lynes channel with Slack. Create a channel (say, Supplier AB) in lynes; they have Customer X in Slack. Messages and files flow both ways. No one has to switch apps.
Email & Calendar
The point of a collaboration hub is connecting your daily apps and centralizing them — fewer tools, smoother comms.
Microsoft Teams calendar & email
Teams provides an integrated calendar mirroring Outlook, making it easy to book video meetings with internal and external attendees. Scheduling is simple, with advanced options like recurring events. Participants get a join link.
Email, however, isn’t available in Teams. To send mail, you’re sent back to Outlook. (We covered email sharing above.)
lynes calendar & email
lynes syncs with Outlook or Google Calendar, including shared calendars, with week/month views. Book video meetings, edit, set recurring events, and invite externals — all standard.
The big difference: email. lynes lets you sync your mailbox too. Compose new emails, share incoming ones to chats or channels, and comment — all inside lynes. It’s an all-in-one flow with no app-hopping.
Telephony: calls, transfers & answer groups
No collaboration suite is complete without a capable phone system: inbound/outbound calls, IVR, queues, the lot — all to cut the number of separate apps you rely on.
Telephony in Microsoft Teams
You can call colleagues easily: click the handset in a chat or go to Calls and search Outlook contacts. For external calling and richer PBX features, you’re back to licensing:
You’ll need Microsoft Phone System plus a Call Plan (domestic or international), unless Phone System is included (e.g., in E5). With E3 or E1, add Phone System + Call Plan.
If you want to integrate existing telephony, that’s possible — again dependent on licenses (E3/E1 + Phone System or E5). Then comes configuration, typically requiring IT and PowerShell competence. If that’s not available in-house, you’ll need a partner.
Not simple, but doable.
Telephony in lynes
With lynes, choices are fewer and execution is simpler. The base package already includes full PBX functionality — no extra licenses. You simply choose which subscriptions to use. Want to keep your current mobile plans? No problem.
lynes is carrier-agnostic and works with several Swedish operators. You can also use subscriptions directly via lynes for a fully unified experience: manage numbers and plans in the app.
lynes works with, among others:
- lynes Subs
- Telenor
- Tele2
- Telia
- Tre
Out of the box, lynes is ready for calling, answer groups (queues), IVR trees, and other smart features — no fuss.
Best of all, telephony in lynes is dead simple. Administer queues and IVRs right from your phone. Need a new group or to tweak an existing one? A few taps. All queue calls are clearly marked for the recipient, and you get a dashboard with call data so you won’t miss a beat.
Other handy features you’ll love: number presentation and move call. Choose whether to show your mobile number or main company number. Move live calls between devices — run from desktop to mobile without the other party noticing.
Small, medium, or large? No thanks — we’ll take custom.
Both Microsoft and lynes let you tailor the experience — in very different ways.
Customizing Microsoft Teams
Microsoft offers extensive customization, but there’s a cost: IT workload. You can switch storage from SharePoint to a third-party service, restrict user capabilities (even disable GIFs — though why would you?), set themes, enable vetted integrations, and more.
You can set up and manage answer groups in Teams, but it’s not a quick task; it requires solid knowledge and patience — not recommended for casual admins.
In short: yes, Teams is customizable — but advanced changes take know-how and time.
Customizing lynes
lynes is built around how users actually work. The point is that lynes adapts to your company — not the other way around.
Both users and admins can make changes directly in the app, big and small. Users tweak themes, notifications, number presentation. Admins adjust everything from answer groups to IVR trees with just a few taps. Need a new audio file? Use the built-in Text-to-Speech.
Integrations are available from the start (Trello, Dropbox, etc.), and we continuously add more. If you need your favorite tool integrated, we’ll make it happen.
Summary
Both Microsoft Teams and lynes are easy to use, with solid onboarding resources. lynes offers two license types, while Microsoft has… many — making the start more complex and demanding more from you or IT.
Administration differs: Microsoft splits it between the app and the Admin Center (which requires more prior knowledge). In lynes, you manage everything in the client — users, answer groups, even mobile plans — in one place.
Both offer advanced features like chats, channels, and calendars. Microsoft has more integrations overall but lacks one vital piece inside Teams — email — so you’ll still jump between apps. lynes lets you keep email in the same app, streamlining your day.
The biggest difference is telephony. lynes is ready for it from the get-go, supports your existing subscriptions, and requires no extra licenses. It works with lynes Subs and major Swedish carriers (Telenor, Tele2, Telia, Tre).
As you’ve seen, lynes isn’t just a collaboration tool. Or just a powerful business phone system. It’s both.
Which “Teams” suits you?
