Use Video Collaboration to enhance your digital workplace

The digital workplace was always a ‘thing’. Long before the pandemic, organisations were looking at digital transformation strategies and how they could leverage technology to enhance their working practices and enjoy increased business efficiencies and cost savings.

Then along came a worldwide pandemic, and suddenly these transformations accelerated at full speed. But, how has the pandemic shifted original plans?

As life returns to normal, organisations are assessing the impact it has had on original digital transformation plans. Although there are core principles that underpin those plans, the landscape looks different from what we originally envisaged, and now organisations are having to adapt.

Many organisations are turning to Microsoft Teams to underpin their hybrid working and digital workplace strategies. But, deciding on Microsoft Teams is just the beginning. Working out how to implement and deploy Microsoft Teams into the Video Collaboration landscape needs careful planning and execution.

New challenges

The core challenges remain the same; how do you ensure your users can seamlessly collaborate from home or office, and how do you ensure that remote participants have the same opportunity to contribute and collaborate regardless of where they are? However, organisations now have a more complex user portfolio. They will have office-based users, fully remote users, hybrid users who switch between home and office and external users who need to join from different platforms and locations. But, one thing is constant, these users expect the same level of experience regardless. Not only that but there are higher expectations for joining meetings on multiple platforms without issue or delay.

The key to success

If your organisation is implementing or planning to implement Microsoft Teams or any other platform for your video collaboration you need to map out what you want the ‘end result’ to be. What are you trying to achieve? The technology will help you get there but unless you know where you are going then how do you find out the best route.

Keep your users at the forefront. User adoption will only be achieved by making a consistent and seamless experience for everyone. They want the ability to walk into a meeting space and connect to their meeting from any device and without delay or issues.

Interoperability

If you have invested in legacy VC equipment, allow us to work out how you can leverage this investment to enable your video rooms to join Microsoft Teams meetings. Many partners, including New Era Technology, offer an interoperability service, which makes this possible. Ensure that your rooms allow users to connect with others on different platforms through a simple workflow. Your users do not want a complex process for joining meetings outside of Microsoft Teams.

Deployment is only the start

Working with a partner who can provide enhanced management services for all your Microsoft Rooms and devices is paramount. With proactive monitoring, issues can be fixed before they become an issue for your meeting – which keeps your users happy and engaged. If users do not get the service they require they will creep out to alternative means, which negatively impacts the success of your program.

Our previous post gives further tips for ensuring a successful Microsoft Teams program.

Our solution

We have installed hundreds of Microsoft Teams Rooms for our clients. From room design and planning to end-to-end management of rooms and endpoints, we have you covered.

Contact our team to find out how we can help on your Microsoft Teams journey.