Hybrid work put 320 million+ Microsoft Teams users¹ in always‑on conversation mode, yet many organisations still rely on static SharePoint lists to find people. Native employee directories surface real‑time presence, dynamic org‑charts, and one‑click chat—all inside Teams—cutting look‑up time by 80 % and onboarding by 40 %. This post contrasts the two approaches and shows how TeamConnect delivers measurable ROI while keeping data inside your Microsoft 365 tenant.

When SharePoint lists arrived in 2001, they were revolutionary—HR or IT could publish an internal “phone book” without writing any code. Two decades later, the workplace looks very different:

• Scale & speed Microsoft Teams now serves over 320 million monthly active users worldwide¹. Colleagues expect answers where they already chat, call, and meet—not in another app or browser tab.

• Hybrid schedules Desk‑less, remote, and flexible workers need to know who is online, where they work today, and when it is polite to call.

• Data‑privacy pressure Regulations, such as GDPR and CCPA, penalize exporting employee data outside the tenant.

• Mobile first More than half of message traffic now happens on phones or tablets; filtering long columns on a 6‑inch screen is painful.

Traditional SharePoint lists struggle in this new context:

• They demand page navigation away from Teams.

• They expose no real‑time presence or time‑zone cues.

• Mobile usability is limited; pinch‑zoom grids invite errors.

• They rely on manual updates, spawning tickets for stale titles and numbers.

Native directories, by contrast, live inside Microsoft Teams (Outlook and Microsoft 365 Copilot). TeamConnect deploys in under five minutes, syncs bi‑directionally with Azure Entra ID, and surfaces rich, actionable profiles without leaving Microsoft 365. The rest of this article digs deeper and quantifies the upside.

A list shows columns; a directory shows relationships. TeamConnect overlays both solid‑line (manager) and dotted‑line (functional) reporting paths, so matrix teams see the bigger picture instantly.

SharePoint filters rely on left‑to‑right matches. TeamConnect indexes names, job titles, skills, languages, functions, roles, workplaces, and keywords. In a recent pilot, average lookup time fell from 25 seconds to 5 seconds—an 80 % improvement.

Each profile embeds “Chat”, “Call”, “Email”, “Phone numbers”, and “Schedule” buttons. Users act in context instead of copying names back into Teams chat.

Because TeamConnect inherits Teams’ responsive canvas, employees get the same search‑and‑act flow on iOS and Android—no extra mobile development, no separate app store approval.

Data lives in a dedicated SharePoint Online site collection inside the customer tenant; Cubeet has zero standing access. Architecture aligns with ISO 27001, SOC 2, and Microsoft 365 certification.

Upcoming License and Application Catalogs let IT map job‑role metadata to licenses. When HR flags a “joiner”, “mover”, or “leaver”, TeamConnect triggers automatic provisioning or revocation—something a plain list cannot do.

• Five‑minute deployment Install straight from the Teams Store—no servers, no configuration, no CSV uploads.

• 45 languages UI picks up each user’s Teams theme, language, and regional settings.

• Matrix‑aware hierarchy Shows dual solid‑ and dotted‑line relationships for consulting or agile squads.

• Time‑zone intelligence Flags local hours and public holidays to avoid 3 a.m. pings.

• Conversational search (Cubeet AI) Ask “Who in Munich speaks Japanese and knows Power BI?” and get a ready‑to‑chat shortlist.

• Microsoft 365 Certified Independent security review assures CIOs that data never leaves the tenant.

Behind the scenes, TeamConnect uses the Microsoft Graph API.²

High engagement correlates with 23 % higher profitability³. By eliminating “app‑switch friction” and surfacing context in a single click, TeamConnect directly fuels that engagement.

Visit the Microsoft Teams Store or Microsoft AppSource to locate TeamConnect.

1. Business of Apps, Microsoft Teams statistics, March 2025. businessofapps.com

2. Microsoft Learn, Get presence with Graph API, 2023. Microsoft Learn

3. Firstup, Employee engagement key to company success, 2024. firstup.io