In the last few months, the Coronavirus has progressed from a distant health problem to a pandemic. Social distancing seems to be the only way to get passed this situation. This has mandated the organizations to think beyond the daily office life and embrace remote working. While some businesses already have a remote working infrastructure in place, others are in search of technologies that can allow employees to stay connected and productive.
Microsoft 365 is a suite of solutions enabling remote working teams to communicate and collaborate seamlessly on daily tasks and projects. Its various solutions help organizations to replicate office-like settings for remote employees and make sure that it is business as usual.
Now, let us go through some of the powerful solutions included in Microsoft 365 and how they can help organizations stay connected and productive in the present situation.
1. Communicate seamlessly with Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams helps remote employees to do calls, chats, meetings, and much more online. You can start the day with a Teams meeting to plan the day, be in touch with fellow team members using the Group Chat, hold face-to-face virtual meetings with video calls, brainstorm on complex subjects by utilizing the screen share, and Whiteboard capabilities. Teams also let you record meetings and host live events.
2. Leverage SharePoint Online to access the information you need
SharePoint Online is the organization-wide sharing and collaboration platform holding a repository of documents employees can access instantly, securely, and remotely. It can be used as a medium to continue sharing company-specific news and updates, custom applications can be built to fetch insightful data, document libraries help employees to refer any information and calendars to ascertain the availability people before setting a meeting. It also allows co-authoring and versioning to make collaboration efficient. Furthermore, SharePoint Online with its stringent security features ensures that organizational data stays safe.
3. Use Microsoft Planner to plan and manage tasks
Microsoft Planner helps organizations manage, organize, and assign tasks. With the remote working scenario, millions of employees now have to balance daily chores, childcare, and other miscellaneous tasks with their professional assignments. Managers need to felicitate such a policy by setting clear expectations and assigning tasks with clear mention of expected turnaround time. Such an approach helps your employees plan their day out and stay productive on their preferred work hours.
4. Empower your remote workforce to stay productive with the Power Platform
The Power Platform allows organizations to rapidly innovate, update, and release new products and solutions, which can help your remote workforce stay productive and connected. It helps organizations to build powerful applications, automate repetitive processes, and gain meaningful insights from business data.
5. Collect quick feedbacks from the team with Microsoft Forms
Microsoft Forms can be leveraged by organizations to easily create organization-wide surveys, collect feedbacks from teams, and measure employee satisfaction during these times of remote working. It can also be utilized to run fun quizzes and organize team events.
While the ongoing crisis is a big challenge for every organization, but it also presents a chance to try a new way of working – remotely. Some of the challenges of remote working can be easily overcome by adopting Microsoft 365.