Hybrid Workplace is about to get fun!
Highlights of the Microsoft 365 Conference
By Joël Vézina, M365 expert
I had the privilege to travel to Las Vegas for the Microsoft 365 Conference. I was pretty excited about this event. First of all, because it has been ages since I haven't attended an event in person, but also because it was the opportunity to learn and connect with Microsoft MVPs. Are you familiar with the concept of the most valuable player in sports? Well, it's the same thing but this recognition is for the knowledge and use of Microsoft technologies.
Let's go straight to the point: the Hybrid Workplace stole the show. Microsoft identifies it as the future of work, with many challenges to overcome for employees and companies.
By definition, Hybrid Workplace is a model that mixes in-office and remote work to offer flexibility and support to employees.
As we know, the pandemic forced organizations to rush the deployment of Microsoft Teams and it was one of the fastest-growing apps of the pandemic, with 95 million new users in 2020 alone! If you are now back in your office, you probably experienced the Hybrid Workplace challenges, like hosting a meeting with half the participants in a room and the other half behind their screen! It's a real struggle trying to assure a flow of discussion, to include everyone, and so on.
#PeopleFirst
Microsoft has anticipated those challenges and is working on adjusting Teams' experience and making it richer by adopting a people-centric approach and by focusing on meeting users where they already are. That's the #PeopleFirst approach! Teams is no longer only an app for meetings and direct messaging; it's becoming the Digital Hub of the Hybrid Workplace.
Here are 5 new features that are part of the roadmap to an ultimate Hybrid Workplace and that will make work and collaboration easier.
1. Teams is the place to be
Microsoft’s strategy is to create a working hub in Teams. We will save time by centralizing our collaboration and our business processes all in the same place. As of today, more than 700 apps are available on the Teams marketplace and meet most business units' specific needs, but only a few of them are used.
I'm sure that even on the diagram below, one app could resolve one or more of your business challenges.
If there isn't an app that responds to your business process, you don't need to be a professional developer to create complex custom applications by yourself using Microsoft's Power Platform. You can then simply directly integrate your apps into Teams and make them easily accessible on both desktop and mobile.
2.Viva Connections is the ally of your workdays
Viva Las Vegas: that might have been the best pun of the week.
As you may know, Microsoft Viva is powered by Microsoft 365 and experienced through Microsoft Teams. It fosters a culture that empowers people and teams to be their best from anywhere. Microsoft hinted that Viva will be enhanced with some new experiences products in the near future.
Can you imagine waking up in the morning and finding everything you need to start an effective workday gathered in Teams?
That's exactly what we can expect with Viva Connections, a gateway to employee experiences with quick access to data and tasks, relevant news, communications, people, and resources. That's a way to be in control, stay focused and be ahead of the game, wherever you are working from.
To be able to come to terms with this experience, you must make sure to set up a home Intranet site in SharePoint. Modern intranets are completely different then what you may have in mind from the 90s. This will be a subject for a future article.
3.Learning and growing are easier with Viva Learning
Other known challenges of the Hybrid Workplace are managing keys process while being in different environments. Whether it's onboarding new employees, deploying new software, beginning a project, or dealing with change management, it's often the same need for information that recurs.
Well, with Viva Learning you can literally gather this knowledge and make it accessible via a dedicated Teams app!
You can produce video content to help your teams learn and grow. It's a simple way to make sure that everyone benefits from the same information while giving them the opportunity to consume the content at their own pace.
4. Co-working seamlessly across Teams
Inviting external users to Teams is thing of the past. Microsoft Teams introduces Shared Channels, which allows you to share specific channels with collaborators outside of your organization. This is a powerful and game-changing feature that will enable better collaboration and communication while reducing the friction of tenant switching.
Let's take a moment to realize how many emails will be saved by this feature.
5.Taking collaboration a step further with Microsoft Loop
We finally got to play a bit more with Microsoft Loop during The Microsoft 365 Conference and it's easy to see its collaborative nature, which fits right in the #PeopleFirst approach. Loop is a new app that combines a powerful and flexible canvas with portable components that stay in sync and move freely across Microsoft 365 apps.
Loop will definitely transform our working habits. What makes it game-changing is that you will be able to work from the same Loop components integrated into emails or calendars and all changes will sync back to loop components in Teams conversations. Basically, no need to wonder where a document is saved, or which is the latest version. Don't even need to copy and share a link towards a document to co-create, the collaboration is instant via Teams conversations.
It's easy to use, lighthearted and fun. More importantly, it's a very flexible multiplayer approach to collaboration.
Isn't the future exciting?
Partnering with your teams
At Nexus Innovations, our experts’ mission is to endow your business units with the know-how they need to get the most out of Microsoft 365. If you would like to learn more on how to take full advantage of this technology solution to optimize your Hybrid Workplace, transform your organization and boost your employee impact, connect with us.