Microsoft Teams is a Microsoft 365 collaborative workspace that serves as a single center for workplace interactions, collaborative teamwork, web conferencing, and content sharing, all in ONE unified set of tools. Microsoft’s approach to collaboration, group chat, and video is still expanding

We can say that this tool is the true hero while we work during the Covid-19 era. Without Teams, pretty sure all our meetings and tasks will not be same without it. In this article, we will attempt to share some insights how Microsoft Teams integrates into the ever expanding productivity tech world.

Microsoft Teams : New Functionality To Endorse Hybrid Work

Almost 2 years after the pandemic, businesses all over the world have been adapting effectively online for the past few years. The shift to hybrid work, where some workers work in the office and some work from home, brings new challenges. As shown in the latest article by Francesca Valente, Global Corporate Communication Director at Frost & Sullivan, video conferencing devices will grow six by 2025 times throughout the world and are suitable to manage virtual meetings in the office.

These days most of us depend on live stream for collaboration and engagement to assist hybrid work, so it’s no surprise that Microsoft Teams is putting a lot of effort into improving collaboration experiences that enable not only virtual meetings, but also greater integration and hybrid work.

Microsoft Teams has made a number of improvements, including the establishment of a new segment of sophisticated camera systems for Teams Rooms. One of these improvements include AI-powered speaker tracking to recognize which person in the room is speaking.

Another improvement is on the video feeds for in-room participants to be in their own window on the screen rather than in one group. And finally on people recognition, which uses AI face recognition software to correctly name in-room participants.

Microsoft Teams : Connect Mode Brings Your Devices Together

Real-time collaboration has been a primary target area especially when using whiteboards. That’s where Companion Mode for Microsoft Teams Whiteboard comes in, it’s meant to combat the issue of whiteboard access problems in the past.

Microsoft Teams’ Whiteboard has been entirely redesigned to create a rich visual collaborative workspace. You can bring people together in a rich visual collaborative workspace with 40+ new customizable templates, the ability to include pictures and shapes, and 8 new responses.

To innovate together and bring your ideas to life, other tools such as PowerPoint presentations allows your to mark with 15 new pens and highlighter colors.

In-room, employees may now participate in meetings from their personal devices, including posting reactions, leveraging the chat function, and collaborating and/or managing the Microsoft Whiteboard, this is Microsoft’s Companion Mode innovation.

Employees may also use their smartphones to manage in-room hardware like cameras and microphones, ensuring the utmost collaboration experience. It’s as if everyone has a wireless remote (their phones) on their hands, allowing anyone to hop in and contribute and engage in a more significant way than the person in charge of the whiteboard at any particular time.

According to Microsoft’s April 2020 statistics, the use of Teams increased to 75 million daily active users during the COVID-19 pandemic spread. Teams are also the fastest-growing business application in the firm’s history, according to the corporation.

Teams have risen to prominence as a crucial aspect of Microsoft’s  productivity and collaboration strategy since its introduction, fueled by the desire for work-from-home connection.

Additional Hybrid Work Updates

Microsoft also unveiled a few additional improvements that We believe are quite nice. The first is AI that detects interruptions. 

When two individuals start talking at the same time, it’s one of the most annoying aspects of virtual meetings. Do you agree? With this new feature, the main speaker will receive a notification when someone else is attempting to speak. 

Hopefully, this will reduce the amount of uncomfortable crosstalk that so many of us encounter.

Outside of Teams, Microsoft announced an upgrade to its calendar scheduling that allows employees to indicate whether they will be present in person or online, which is useful if you need to reserve a meeting room depending on attendance.

Microsoft acknowledges the realities of hybrid work with its hot-desking experience on Teams display, which lets employees discover and reserve a workstation beforehand.

Another cool feature in Microsoft Teams is the new Teams-Apple CarPlay connectivity, where individuals on the run will benefit even more. Teams users can make audio calls or find information using Siri voice commands. 

As more people conduct business on the move, this is a clever connection that sure we’ll see from additional collaboration technologies soon.

Microsoft is researching employees and analyzing everything from social charts to employee traffic patterns to figure out how to provide teams with the places they want, while also keeping in mind that those requirements will change over time.

Sales teams with occasional visits to the office can hire desks by the day or hour, whereas engineering teams may require specialized collaborative areas and workstations. 

Microsoft is looking at offshore co-working centers to accommodate remote employees. Microsoft built flexibility into every environment they create because they believe how we work will continue to grow.

All in all, over the last year, Microsoft has added over 100 new capabilities to Teams, all built with maximum relatively easy to work there are plenty more in the future. However, Microsoft must go further to support the new remote working practices that is still growing.

Introducing Microsoft Viva is the world’s first hybrid-workplace employee experience platform. When Teams and Viva combined together, it will provide a technological platform that will link your employees and assist them in navigating the new normal.

Hybrid Work: What’s Next?

Hybrid work is set to continue on, and while plenty of us have learned working from home, we still have a long way to go. 

Businesses must grasp the complexities of ideal collaboration and rise to the challenge of providing the technology that will support successful collaboration in an increasingly hybrid environment.

The main collaboration platform suppliers, like Microsoft, are all stepping up their updates swiftly, and Microsoft’s improvements are well-timed and will tackle several real-world collaboration challenges.

Thus far, the industry is growing rapidly, and there’s no reason to believe it will ever slow down. It’s exciting to see Microsoft make progress in this area, and we’re looking forward to trying out the new and better Teams experience.

While we’re all constantly studying as we go, it’s apparent that every company will require three things: new regulations, re-configured physical locations, and technology to tie everything together. 

There will be obstacles to overcome, but  Microsoft is enthusiastic about a future in which people may connect from anywhere, at any time, and be and bring their best every day.

If you want to find out, how can your business be more productive with Microsoft Teams and transform your business to digital era. We do provide free consultation, Click here to know more.

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