Ever since the introduction of the typewriter at the turn of the 20th century and up until the mid-1970's the office environment remained pretty much the same. It was with the Wang word processing systems that the office look began to change. Sometimes in the 1980's, personal computers became the primary tool for office work, exacerbating the change even further. And like with the introduction of these technologies of the past, so does modern technology influence the present and the new look of the modern workplace.
New and disruptive technologies don't only change the way we interact with each other or how companies do business. They can also change the look of the entire office environment. In a sense, the office environment was redesigned and reorganized around the PC and in more recent years, around all the digital and mobile devices as well as other similar technologies. And by extension, this change is also affecting how employees conduct their daily duties.
So, how does a modern workplace look like in this day and age? Here are two key elements that heavily influence the contemporary workplace.
Flexible Schedules
The so-called Internet of Things (IoT) and all the technologies that accompany it have made it possible for an increasing number of people to work remotely. Commonly known as telecommuting, it is a global phenomenon where around 70% of all professionals, worldwide, work from home at least once a week. Also, 53% telecommute at least half the week.
With a combination of mobile devices and cloud computing, many staff members are no longer obligated to come to work under a strict 9-to-5 schedule. As long as their job gets done on time, it doesn't matter exactly where they work. Since their work is mostly over the internet, many e-commerce businesses don't even have a physical office, to begin with, relying solely on telecommuting or virtual offices, if and when the situation calls for it.
For those companies that still require a permanent physical presence, offering their employees the benefits of work-life integration is the way to go. For those of us who don't know, work-life integration is a means by which people can integrate both their personal and professional lives in such a way that both can be achieved at the same time. Providing flexibility in the workplace was shown to increase employee morale, happiness, health, and productivity.
Efficiency and Automation
Did you know that the average office employee spends roughly 28% of their work time sending and receiving emails? Also, they spend another 20% of their time searching for relevant internal information or looking for colleagues who can help them with their tasks. Cloud computing and social technologies, however, can reduce this wasted time by as much as 35%, in some cases, and raise employee productivity by as much as 25%.
Automation also plays a crucial role in shaping the modern workplace. Numerous automation software can now eliminate much of the grunt work and tedious tasks that would otherwise fall onto the employees, themselves. Financial or medical institutions, for instance, will no longer have to spend countless hours looking through documents, trying to find relevant information. A piece of software can do it. It will free up your employees to spend their time on more meaningful tasks that require their attention.
Conclusion
It would be a mistake to look at a modern office today and think that it will remain the same in the future. As mentioned before, the workplace environment is highly susceptible to any technological developments, meaning that the office environment will also change with them. We are currently going through a technological revolution, after all. Are you ready for what’s next?
Tools are there to increase our productivity and overall effectiveness. Microsoft tools are no different. Some of these tools exist to ease communication between employees and teams, others to prioritize tasks, while others, still, live to delegate responsibilities. Depending on the size of your business or the nature of your industry, be it financial, healthcare, and so on, these Microsoft tools that will increase your productivity are among the premier applications of their type. If you'd like a hands-on complimentary demo of these products, request a Customer Immersion Experience.
Microsoft Azure
Microsoft Azure is a flexible cloud platform that allows users to rapidly build, deploy, and manage various applications across a global network of Microsoft-managed datacenters. Azure will enable you to create applications by using any language you desire, as well as any tool or framework. What's more, you can scale your apps to any size without having to focus on the infrastructure already in place.
Microsoft Enterprise Mobility Suite
Microsoft Enterprise Mobility Suite (EMS) is a set of tools that provide the user with everything they need to administer, provision, and secure the devices used in an enterprise. Among these, we have devices such as smartphones, laptops, or tablets, which can be managed from a single place.
It is a tool specifically designed for enterprises that want to have better control over their assets and intellectual property, all the while, minimizing the need for human resources.
Microsoft Office 365
Microsoft Office 365 is a wide variety of powerful features that improve your file sharing capabilities, online meetings, and email management, among several others. OneDrive, for instance, will provide a great cloud storage solution, while Skype for Business will enhance your internal communications. Microsoft Office has made a name for itself over the years and Office 365 is just a more versatile and all-encompassing version of that.
Microsoft Hyper-V
With Microsoft Hyper-V, you can create and run a software version of your computer. Known as a virtual machine; this software version will act like a complete computer with its own operating system and installed programs. Hyper-V will run each of the virtual machines that it creates in an isolated space, meaning that you can avoid crashes and other such problems affecting different workloads.
In short, Hyper-V can help you in establishing or expanding your private cloud environment. It will also use your hardware more effectively by consolidating servers and workloads onto fewer and more powerful computers that use less energy and space. Hyper-V will also improve your business continuity by minimizing the impact of downtime, be it scheduled or not. It will establish and expand your virtual desktop infrastructure, also making development and testing easier and more efficient.
Microsoft SharePoint
SharePoint is a web-based platform that integrates with Microsoft Office, enhancing collaboration between organizations. This tool is primarily used as a storage and document management system that can help companies solve various challenges such as disconnected teams and people, slow turnarounds, lost productivity, or outdated IT systems that are difficult to scale appropriately.
Managed Solution is an organization that provides IT managed services to various companies in the finance, healthcare, or biotech industries, among others. As part of the top 1% of Microsoft Cloud Service Providers worldwide, Managed Solution will help you leverage these technologies, provide the most up-to-date solutions that are sure to drive productivity and innovation, resulting in an overall increase in revenue.
With the new Office 365, it's much easier to collaborate with your colleagues. Here's how:
Co-author on projects in Word, PowerPoint, and OneNote
Keep your teams connect with Office 465 Groups and Office 365 Planner
Take your Office anywhere on any device
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Microsoft Teams has made major expansions regarding new capabilities and customer usage in the past year.
Within the last year, Microsoft Teams has progressed to become the ultimate hub for teamwork. Teams provides chat-based collaboration, calling, meetings, and soon, full enterprise voice features. As part of Office 365, Teams delivers all of these features along with enterprise-grade security and compliance standards making it fitting for businesses at all levels to implement.
New features in Teams:
Cloud recording - One-click meeting recordings with automatic transcription and time coding, allowing every team member to have the ability to read captions, search within the conversation, and playback the meeting. In the future, facial recognition capabilities will be added, so that things said can be attributed to certain meeting attendees.
Inline message translation - Communication in different languages will be translated in real time in order to fluidly allow for smooth communication.
Cortana voice interactions for Teams-enabled devices - You can easily make a call, join a meeting, or add people to a meeting in Teams using spoken, natural language. This feature will extend to IP phones and conference room devices.
Background blur on video - The ability to blur your background during video calls will enable other video meeting attendees to focus on you, not what’s behind you.
Proximity detection for Teams Meetings - This will make it easy for you to discover and add nearby and available Skype Room Systems to any meeting.
Mobile sharing in meetings - Meeting attendees will be equipped with screen-sharing, as well as the ability to share live vide streams and photos.
Inclusive communications for your devices
Hardware is extremely significant in order to deliver consistent, high-quality video and voice experiences. Teams is enabled for a full spectrum of calling and meeting room devices, including:
Microsoft collaboration devices - Microsoft Surface Hub is an all-in-one, large-screen team collaboration device. Microsoft Teams is natively supported by Surface Hub, extending the abilities of Teams in huddle spaces and meeting rooms equipped with Surface Hub.
Meeting room systems - Lenovo and HP join partners Logitech, Crestron, and Polycom to change the conference room experience with rich audio, HD video, center-of-room control, and one-touch join. All Skype Room Systems will support Teams meetings.
Connections to existing equipment - Microsoft Teams will certify new solutions from BlueJeans, Pexip, and Polycom to support interoperability for Teams meetings using existing hardware.
Desk and conference phones - New desk phones from AudioCodes and Yelling, as well as new conference room phones from Crestron, Polycom, and Yelling run a native Microsoft Teams application that provide consistent and streamlined communication experiences.
Mobile phone stations - New mobile phone stations from Plantronics enable mobile users to experience desk phone capabilities with Teams.
Globalization touches everyone. To learn from each other so we can work better together, communication and collaboration in real time are essential.
At the Broadclyst School, the staff is strengthening bonds between students across geographies with help from Microsoft Office 365 featuring Skype for Business. Skype’s video-conferencing and group-calling features not only support the school’s curriculum and enhance pupil engagement, they enable parents to participate virtually in school meetings, connecting them with their children’s learning. Everyone benefits.
Managed Solution can help your business build stronger partnerships too. Contact us to find out how.
The Microsoft 365 Immersion Experience offers an interactive environment designed to be engaging, informative, and fun. You will test-drive best-in-class technologies -- Microsoft Office 365, SharePoint, Skype for Business, Teams, Flow, Delve and more.
You'll go beyond the familiar MS Office suite and explore solutions to your business challenges. You will get expert advice on using your current technology to strengthen productivity.
The workshop is led by a Microsoft-Certified Facilitator and customized to let attendees explore at their own pace and focus on first-hand experience with tools that address their business needs.
INTERACTIVE LEARNING:
Cutting-Edge Cross Departmental Communication Tactics with Microsoft Office365 Teams
Co-Authoring Documents and File Version Management in Office365
DIY Internal Process Automation through SharePoint & Microsoft's FREE "Flow" Product
New & Hidden Outlook Tips and Tricks your Team Never Knew Existed
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Complete the form to schedule a workshop with a trained facilitator.
*All "in YOUR office" experiences are for 6-10 executives and funded by Microsoft to include breakfast or lunch for your team.
Globe University is constantly looking for ways to improve student learning experiences and extend the reach of its instructors. Globe adopted Skype for Business Server 2015 for lecture delivery, staff communications, and voice capabilities across its 19 locations. Faculty and staff appreciate the product’s better cross-platform support, more intuitive interface, and integration with Microsoft Office 365, which will be used by the university’s students.
Business Needs
Teaching without borders
Globe University is as expansive as its name. People seeking careers in everything from business administration to veterinary technology turn to this family-owned system of five career colleges, universities, and training centers. With campus locations spread across five states, Globe looks for ways to share knowledge among its faculty and staff and to make it easier for students to take the classes they want without having to travel.
That’s why the university participated recently in the early adopter program for Skype for Business Server 2015, the successor to Microsoft Lync Server 2013. By upgrading its communications solution, Globe can make its instructors more available, streamline internal operations, and enable colleagues to work together more easily, whether they need to track down the right resource to answer a prospective student’s questions or solve an IT issue for a remote faculty member.
There’s plenty of communications and collaboration among the university’s colleges. “We have a common curriculum and a shared faculty, so we offer some of the same courses at multiple schools,” says Dave Hagel, Director of Technology Services at Globe University. “Instead of having to shuttle among multiple campuses to reach their many interested students, our instructors use Skype for Business as a powerful, convenient technology to teach and transfer knowledge. A seasoned instructor who is an expert in her field can teach a course from one of our campus classrooms, and students from all over our college system can watch her lectures. By using Skype for Business, we can make the best instructors available to the greatest number of students without inconveniencing either instructors or students. This gives the college the flexibility to teach more efficiently, reach students in remote locations, and increase the quality of educational opportunities.”
Solution
A tradition of advanced communications
Globe University has long been an early adopter of unified communications technologies, going back to its implementation of Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007. The university’s first step was to upgrade 10 Globe datacenter servers to Skype for Business, which is now used by 1,500 faculty and staff. “With the in-place upgrade path, we had an easy move to Skype for Business,” says Adam Hite, Director of IT at Globe University. Globe plans to set up a hybrid environment in which staff and faculty can use either Skype for Business on-premises if they need enterprise voice capabilities or the online version available with Microsoft Office 365.
The university plans to roll out Office 365 to approximately 15,000 students. The goal is for students using Office 365 to be able to use Skype for Business to collaborate on class projects, get help from classmates, and work more closely as a team, even if they don’t sit in the same classroom on a daily basis.
The university’s Skype for Business environment works with Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 and Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013, which means that employees can view each other’s presence information from within their messaging and collaboration systems. Globe also plans to have Skype for Business interoperate with its customer relationship management (CRM) solution, public-facing website, and learning management system.
Benefits
Flexibility and collaboration
Many of the university’s faculty and staff have already embraced Skype for Business instant messaging, presence, and conferencing functionality, and some employees also opt for its voice capabilities instead of using the university’s PBX telephony system. Elaine Settergren, Online Librarian at Globe University, relies on Skype for Business to curate electronic resources, support instructors and other colleagues, and help students with research. “I use Skype for Business all day, every day, to help faculty figure out the best ways to incorporate digital library content into their courses, coordinate the efforts of our dispersed library staff, and respond to calls from students,” says Settergren. “If another librarian or faculty member needs help finding information for a student, she checks to see if I’m available; then we both can put on headsets for an audio call, share our screens, or quickly exchange instant messages.”
Globe also uses Skype for Business to conduct virtual faculty and staff meetings to minimize travel. Settergren, who works at home—more than an hour away from many of her campus-based colleagues—uses Skype for Business to participate in nearly all her meetings, from weekly team check-ins to faculty conferences with more than 100 attendees. “We share presentations right from Microsoft PowerPoint as well as share desktops, which helps us work more consistently as a team, advise on best practices, and resolve issues quickly,” says Settergren. “Without Skype for Business, I wouldn’t be as responsive to my colleagues, and our team couldn’t provide the same level of student and faculty support.”
Enhanced community interactions
Globe University has noted significant improvements in Skype for Business, particularly on Apple iOS devices—important because every student and faculty member at the university is given an iPad. “We considered the cross-platform capabilities good in Lync Server 2013, but they’re even better in Skype for Business,” says Hite. “It’s more reliable, the web interface is cleaner and more intuitive, and we get a richer experience for presentations. Because Skype for Business is so much more compatible with our devices, I expect its adoption to rise quickly among faculty.”
University employees also appreciate the flexibility to choose the right communication mechanism for each interaction. “For example, a member of our IT help desk may start by instant messaging with an instructor who’s having trouble, then decide to share desktops to get a better sense of the problem,” says Hagel. “The freedom to shift among modes of communication also helps faculty members assist students effectively during online office hours.”
Faster service and responsiveness
Globe uses Skype for Business to care for prospective students, as well as current ones. At the university’s call center, an agent receives a call, learns the caller’s areas of interest, and uses presence to identify a colleague with relevant expertise who’s available to speak to the caller. “We consider presence through Skype for Business an integral part of our business,” says Hagel. “Calls can be transferred to the right person right away, so prospective students get information immediately. If they had to leave a message and wait for a call back, they might lose interest. We want to capture their attention and keep it by being responsive to all their needs, and Skype for Business helps us do that.” In fact, the university’s international recruiting team plans to take advantage of Skype for Business to interview prospective students from other countries, who can easily participate using the Skype consumer product.
With its upgraded platform in place, Globe is poised to run even more cohesively across its 30 locations, increasing the quality and convenience of its educational experience. “From online and remote learning to connected faculty members to recruiting, we’ve made Skype for Business absolutely critical to our business,” says Hite. “Not only does everyone use it, but they’re using it in new, creative ways to serve our students.”
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Here’s what’s new in the latest update to Skype on Windows 10
Today, we’re excited to roll out an update to the Skype app on Windows 10 which makes it easier for you to stay in touch with friends from your Windows 10 devices.
With the new update, you can easily share your files to Skype, react to messages, and get to your calls and conversations faster than ever. Let’s take a look at what’s new in this update:
Get to your calls and conversations faster
In the first in a set of updates we’ll be making, the new look helps you get to your calls and conversations faster – you can now start new conversations, see your profile and visit the dial pad from the top of your recent conversations.
Share photos, videos and more directly to Skype
Now you can easily share files, videos, photos, links and more directly to Skype from your Windows 10 PC – just click on the Windows share charm, and select Skype.
New message reactions
By simply tapping on the reaction icon next to any message or video call, you can now easily express how you feel at any time.
We’re excited to share these new features to make it easier than ever for you to stay in touch with friends from your Windows 10 devices. To learn more about the new Skype, check out the Skype blog!
Managed Solution is in the top 1% of Microsoft Cloud Service Providers worldwide, and a premier partner aligned with Microsoft’s mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
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