Modernise your workplace with Microsoft Teams Rooms

Remote work is no longer business unusual. Where virtual meetings, cloud-based collaboration and other seamless work-from-anywhere solutions were previously nice-to-haves, they are now the hallmarks of doing business. In early 2020, just 5.7% of workers in the UK reported working mainly at home.¹ This proportion skyrocketed to 43.1% in April 2020.² And the enthusiasm for remote work has not waned. Of the workers who had to work from home because of the pandemic, 84% plan to use a hybrid work model in the future. Now more than ever, it’s crucial for your organisation to have systems in place that ensure your employees are able to collaborate effectively, whether they are communicating in person or virtually.  

Remote work: the tools and the challenges

The modern worker spends 80% of their time collaborating.³ Whether interacting with one another, clients or partners, your employees need effective remote tools to successfully execute projects. A major challenge presented by the hybrid model is meeting equity. Interactions with an in-person and virtual component often fail to engage online participants adequately, leading to inferior outcomes. Communication tools like instant messaging applications and video conferencing software that enable real-time interactions are crucial for this purpose. As are cloud-based productivity applications that allow real-time collaboration on documents, workbooks and presentations. However, many third-party applications don’t provide continuity between the in-room and online experience. Inconsistency across all devices, rooms, meeting scenarios and locations is likely to cause room abandonment and affect the usefulness of your collaboration software. In addition to the implications that this has for engagement, toggling between third-party apps is also a drain on employees’ time. Approximately 68% of workers waste 30 minutes a day switching back and forth between different collaboration tools.⁴ To overcome these challenges, your organisation needs to have a strategy for continuing to support a hybrid workforce. Your business must implement modern workplace solutions that provide end users with a seamless work-from-anywhere experience.  

Streamlining communications for business success

Increased problem-solving capacity and higher engagement are two of the most valuable outcomes that flow from creating an environment where everyone can contribute, regardless of time and location. Which means it’s now more important than ever for businesses to provide best-in-class collaborative tools that simplify hybrid work. Microsoft Teams Rooms bridges the gap between people working remotely and those who are in the office. This meeting room solution allows everyone to be seen, heard and fully participate from anywhere. It removes barriers between people and places, delivering the optimal hybrid meeting experience through:

• Inclusivity: Everyone is able to sit at the same virtual table, no matter where they’re working.
• Ease of use: Anyone familiar with Microsoft tools will easily be able to schedule, join and participate in meetings.
• Flexibility: Teams of any size in any place are able to work across devices and Microsoft applications.
• Security: Virtual meeting spaces have multi-layer security and are automatically updated to prevent vulnerabilities.
• Management: Rich reporting, automatic updates and enhanced telemetry ensure optimal performance at all times.

By using a combination of high-quality video and audio, collaborative whiteboarding and cross-device functionality, Microsoft Teams Rooms brings together the digital workspace of Microsoft Teams. This modern meeting space solution connects your people across the hybrid workspace to foster inclusive and interactive meetings, regardless of where participants are. Built by Microsoft for Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Teams Rooms is integrated into the world’s most ubiquitous operating system. Which helps to keep your operational costs to a minimum. Plus, the millions of users worldwide who already use Microsoft products will immediately feel confident navigating the intuitive, easy-to-use platform; which reduces the time your people need to spend on training as well as scheduling, joining and participating in meetings. Regardless of the size or location of your team, Teams Rooms help participants to stay focused and engaged during meetings. Visual layouts and contextual components enable people to interact seamlessly, while interoperability between Teams Rooms and other Microsoft productivity apps streamlines and simplifies collaboration. To add to this, you can rest assured that all of your collaborative efforts are kept safe by Microsoft’s trusted security protocols. A default secure state as well as multi-layer security measures work together to ensure your meetings and ideas remain private. At the same time, automatic updates mean that your protocols remain up to date and your software always functions optimally. What’s more, enhancing your team’s collaboration capabilities is beneficial for your bottom line. Businesses that switched to Microsoft Teams Rooms reported a three-year return on investment of 273%.⁵  

Make the most of Microsoft Teams Rooms

Our Rooms as a Service offering turns your CapEx investment into an OpEx model. Flexible finance options bring scale to your collaboration strategy and enable fixed, predictable costs to make your investment in Microsoft Teams Rooms easy. We have worked with Microsoft for more than 30 years and are one of the leading Gold Partners in several competencies. Our expertise and years of experience ensure we are able to create a solution that’s tailored to your business. Request a virtual demo to find out how we can help you transform the way your team works using technology as the enabler. ¹“Home working in the UK: Before and during the 2020 lockdown”, Wales Instituted of Social and Economic Research and Data. https://wiserd.ac.uk/publication/homeworking-in-the-uk-before-and-during-the-2020-lockdown/ ²As above. ³“Empower your workforce to thrive in the hybrid work world”, Microsoft ⁴“The new app era is here: Now to optimize for it”, Slack. https://slack.com/blog/transformation/the-app-era-is-here ⁵The Total Economic Impact™️ Of Microsoft Teams Devices, Forrester, 2021.