The “new normal” is here to stay, at least for the workplace; now commonly referred to as the Modern Workspace.
The percentage of workers that will work from home permanently is projected to double in 2021 and 74% of organizations plan to permanently shift some employees to remote work. The need to support remote working and a digital workplace will be central to any digital transformation strategy in the coming years.
Any enterprise that wants to tap into the benefits of remote working, such as higher productivity and lower operating costs, needs to create a digital workplace equipped to optimize collaboration and the employee experience.
A collaboration ecosystem, built on a set of seamlessly integrated collaboration tools, is the centerpiece of a productive digital workplace. That’s why more enterprises are adopting the Microsoft Collaboration Suite -- a collection of tools that helps teams work together no matter where they are.
What’s in the Microsoft Collaboration Suite?
There are the main Microsoft applications that support team collaboration:
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OneDrive For Business: A cloud storage solution that allows employees to access, share, and collaborate on files and data from anywhere.
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Outlook: A communication application that allows users to send, receive, and organize emails, as well as manage their calendars and share files from the cloud.
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Office 365: A suite of popular tools including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Project. Your team can collaborate in real-time using these cloud-based applications.
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Microsoft Teams: A collaboration tool that supports real-time communication with instant messaging, file sharing, video conferencing, and more.
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SharePoint: A powerful application that allows you to build intranet sites, manage workflows and forms, as well as store, organize, share, and access files from any device via the internet.
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Office Delve: A collaboration application that allows users to create boards for collecting project documents and discovering content.
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Yammer: A social networking tool that helps employees across the organization connect and engage with each other.
How to Select and Implement the Best Microsoft Collaboration Tools For Your Business
With so many tools available, which one should you use? After all, more isn’t necessarily the merrier. Implementing the wrong tools, using applications with duplicated functions, having repetitive workflows, or not having your software set up property can be counterproductive.
We’re here to help you navigate this choppy IT water.
First, consider best practices in your vertical, your data storage policy, and your unique requirements. Then, you can curate these collaboration tools and seamlessly integrate, architect, and use them in a coordinated manner.
The good news is that Microsoft’s Collaboration Suite is designed to integrate all the functionalities you need to support a productive digital workplace. No matter how you mix and match the applications, you can be sure that they’ll play nice with each other now and through future updates.
When you work with a reputable Microsoft Partner, you can access the right expertise to help you get the most of your IT investment by selecting the best subscription plan, migrating your data, and managing your platform post-deployment.
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