How to start transforming your business
As the workforce changes and working patterns shift how can your organisation begin the transformation into a digital business? Microsoft New Zealand’s Cloud Productivity Business Leader, Mark Walton, explains.
Why does Microsoft see collaboration as so important in the new culture of work?
Today professionals work in twice the number of teams compared to five years ago and we’ve seen a 50 percent increase in “collaborative” work. In addition, organisations that embrace collaboration are five times more likely to be high performing.
The workforce is diverse and expectations, preferences, and tool demands have evolved. The workforce is also fragmented geographically and people need different tools to connect across locations and time zones. There are internal and external members involved in collaboration, with external members sitting outside the firewall who need unfettered access, while the organisation needs to maintain control of the IP and keep its teams secure and protected.
Collaboration drives and supports diversity and inclusion, which is important to create products and services that have impact and relevance for your target audience.
By 2020, over 50 percent of the workforce will be millennials and we are seeing five generations in the workforce all with different collaboration styles.
Attracting new skilled workers and retaining key talent will be based on the organisation’s new culture of work, flexible working, modern devices, easy collaboration and the leadership getting behind digital transformation. With New Zealand struggling to secure skilled workers, you don’t want your out-of-date systems and ways of working to limit who you will be able to employ and attract.
A recent Microsoft study found that only 31 percent of respondents are spending all of their work hours in the office so as the desire for more flexible work options rises, what can organisations do to make sure they can meet this demand?
Start planning what a digital transformation journey will mean to the organisation and start now. Don’t wait for your competitors to disrupt the market and eat your lunch.
There are Microsoft Partners that specialise in helping customers with their DX (digital transformation), providing change management workshops, implementing modern workplace solutions based on Microsoft 365 (Windows 10, Office 365, Enterprise, Mobility & Security/Intune, Modern Devices) so engage with them to help you with your transformation strategy. They also provide monthly per user costs, which could make moving to a new culture of work more affordable than anticipated.
Could you outline the type of tools that will enable this flexibility and collaboration?
Surface Pro LTE, Surface Pro, Surface Hub and Surface Studio with Microsoft 365. This will enable flexibility, collaboration and with security wrapped around.
Surface devices light up mobile experiences with LTE, an extension to your corporate network without the need to worry about trying to join a third party WIFI hotspot, or tethering to your mobile phone. You turn on and it is securely connected to the organisation’s Corp network and Office 365 with additional security through enterprise, mobility and security that manages ‘identify and access management’, helping to protect your IP and employees from cyber security threats.
Microsoft Teams, our intelligent communications and collaboration Hub, Yammer for organisations, town hall/CEO/product announcements, Skype for Business for IM, Video and Chat, SharePoint Online & OneDrive For Business for document sharing and storage, Exchange Online for email and our Office client tools, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc., provide the collaborations tools that will meet the needs of the diverse workforce.
Microsoft 365 with modern devices will provide the tools that will enable this flexibility and collaboration.
What computing tools do you personally use that work best for you?
I love my Surface Pro LTE device with Microsoft Teams as I am able to do everything I need to do to collaborate and communicate with my colleagues with always-on secure connectivity with LTE when I’m at the airport, in an Uber or sitting in a café.
Through Microsoft Teams I have a centralised intelligent communication and collaboration hub, where everything I need from documents, files, images, reports, BOTs, external connectors are all in one place for each project I’m working on.