The Key to Collaboration: Mastering the Modern Workplace

The way in which people can work in office spaces today is changing in front of our eyes. Office culture has evolved; often people work away from the traditional office set-up and the immediate proximity of their colleagues. It becoming increasingly necessary for organisations invest in enablement of this 'modern workplace' in terms of attitudes – but the question now is, how can your team still work as a 'team' when there is no shared deskspace in sight?

To take advantage of changing market conditions, businesses must strive to be as agile as possible. This means taking advantage of flexible and remote working, enabling employees to remain productive from wherever they are. As a result, companies are also looking at innovative ways to support seamless communication, created digital workspaces, and facilitate collaboration – even when the workforce is spread over numerous locations on a range of devices.

To create this environment, companies need to create shared digital workplaces where employees can communicate and collaborate efficiently – and just as importantly, securely. Additionally, before initiating any kind of digital transformation, it’s imperative that companies understand the requirements the workforce has in order to provide the best technology for their needs.

Microsoft Office 365 is often the go-to suite of cloud-based business software for organisations, with over 60 million commercial customers worldwide. Furthermore, the more recent release of applications such as Microsoft Teams, Office 365 Groups, and Yammer, enables businesses to create their very own modern workplace – helping to boost productivity, and empowering employees to share information quickly and securely.

Greater teamwork, and the ability to work on projects simultaneously, is the key to reaching objectives. However in many organisations, documents can only be accessed by one user at a time. It seems a small matter, but it’s a common stumbling block to collaboration.

To make matters worse, documents then need to be shared as email attachments – going through round after isolated round of revision. With Office 365, entire teams can pool their ideas in real-time and work on documents in unison to complete tasks quicker.

This collaboration has been simplified even further through the introduction of Office 365 Groups. Based on SharePoint Online, Office 365 Groups brings together Microsoft Outlook features, such as email, calendar, and file directory functions, in a centralized location – enabling team members to work together on projects through a single, shared interface.

Social networks and chat applications have become the default option for sharing information quickly, especially for millennials – who are expected to make up 50% of the global workforce by 2020. As a result, Microsoft has developed Microsoft Teams and Yammer to enable users to not only share information quickly, but also securely.

Microsoft Teams is a chat-based solution that can be installed on a range of devices, so employees can communicate easily on the move, while Yammer enables workers to create a network with colleagues as well as partners from other organisations. This enables everyone involved in a project to remain consistently up to date and provides a platform to discuss ideas, regardless of company.