The modern workplace is defined by the way that technology and work practices intersect. Below are some examples of how Microsoft 365 supports this principle.
Microsoft 365 has been a popular solution for businesses for over 12 years now. Starting off as Office 365, which itself was a development of the original Microsoft Office suite, Microsoft 365 has evolved into a powerful, cloud-based ecosystem for productivity. Many businesses are using it as a means of supporting their hybrid working practices. We discussed this with a London-based Microsoft Solutions Partner, TechQuarters. For over a decade, TechQuarters has been providing outsourcedIT support financial servicesorganisations, and many other types of organisations, have relied on – and within their own organisation, they rely on Microsoft 365. Having also helped many clients migrate to Microsoft 365 themselves, we asked TechQuarters about some of the ways that the platform supports modern ways of working.
- Microsoft Teams
Most businesses that were forced to go remote during the COVID-19 pandemic will be familiar with Microsoft Teams. For those who are not, it is a cloud-based communications platform that combined chat, internet telephony, and video meetings into a single platform. The benefit of combing communications into a single platform as simple – it makes it much more unlikely that users will miss a message or correspondence.
Furthermore, Microsoft Teams has a wealth of collaboration features to support people’s work. Firstly, it integrates with SharePoint and OneDrive to give users easier access to files and other content. It also has a range of meeting features – such as Microsoft Whiteboard and PowerPoint integrations.
- Microsoft Loop
Information sharing is of massive importance in a work context. According to TechQuarters, a common nuisance for businesses is having to re-send information as it changes. In fact, some of their work providing IT support Croydon businesses use has been dedicated to helping them manage versioning of information, and Microsoft Loop is an innovative new way to support this. Microsoft Loop leverages what are known as Loop Components – these are containers of information that can be shared out to Teams chats and Outlook emails.
The interesting thing about Loop Components is that they remain connected, no matter where and how many times they are shared. So, if a Component gets shared to a Teams chat and an Outlook email, and the one that was shared to Teams gets edited in some way, the changes will be automatically synced to the one in the Outlook email.
- Microsoft Viva
A big part of the modern workplaceinvolves empowering employee experiences through hard data and actions. This is exactly what Microsoft Viva does. It is a platform within Microsoft Teams that is divided into four different applications:
- Connections – This application curates news, conversations, and tools from the company to nurture the company experience.
- Learning – This is application is used to curate learning courses for the company. Managers can assign courses in Viva Learning to employees.
- Insights – This application analyses data relating to employees in order to draw insights for performance.
- Topics – This application curates content from the organisation, making it easier for employees to find information relevant to their work.
- Microsoft Places
Hybrid working has been in the business headlines a lot over the last few years. Based on their experiences providing small business IT support London companies have relied on over the last three years, TechQuarters was able to confirm the increase in demand for flexible working solutions like hybrid work. The modern workplace is often linked with hybrid working, and this is why Microsoft Places was developed. This is a platform specifically designed for managing workplaces that have been embedded with certain technologies – such as hot-desks, and hybrid meeting rooms. It enables organisations to manage the allocation of office resources based on the schedules of their hybrid workforce, making for a more seamless rota.
