Hybrid working is everywhere, and since the Covid-19 pandemic, the way we work has completely changed. Most organisations are not planning on a full return to the office, and it is clear that for most employees a combination of home and office work is desired.
This change compounds the challenges many organisations have faced in supporting home working by making it a long term problem. The better use of technology to support home workers the better your organisation will perform, recruit and engage your employees. In this article we discuss 5 key technologies to support hybrid working.
1 Collaborate with Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams is the leading collaboration, messaging and calling platform with over 250 million daily active users. For hybrid working the first port of call to collaboration and communication in your organisation will be Microsoft Teams.
The ability to also integrate your telephony system and access Teams on any device, anywhere makes it easier.
2 Document management with OneDrive/SharePoint
Documents are a key output for many, if not all your employees. Being able to effectively collaborate on documents while in different locations, with everyone working on a live version together is important
On top of supporting collaboration, OneDrive and SharePoint also provides a range of capability to keep your documents safe. All documents and files stored on OneDrive and SharePoint come with version control, document labelling and can be accessed anywhere on any device.
3 Access key applications and desktops with Azure Virtual Desktop
Azure Virtual Desktop is the new enhanced version of Windows Virtual Desktop. It allows you to provide access to your on-premise applications and desktops to your users.
Ideally you should be looking to move your on-premise applications to the cloud using one of the many different app services available from Azure but Azure Virtual Desktop provides a great interim solution.
4 Manage your devices with Microsoft Endpoint Manager
With more devices across your organisation accessing your data, documents and applications. With the rise of bring your own device the problem of security is compounded. Ensuring each of these endpoints is properly secure is a key security challenge for organisations. This is where Microsoft Endpoint Manager comes in.
Microsoft Endpoint Manager is a Microsoft Azure service that provides you with a wide range of features and services to manage and monitor a full range of devices including: mobile devices, desktop computers, virtual machines, embedded devices and servers.
Microsoft Endpoint Manager offers a seamless, end-to-end management solution without the complexity of a migration or disruption to productivity. It is perfect for organisations looking to provide greater security, monitoring and updates across a full range of devices.
5 Improve employee engagement with Microsoft Viva
Microsoft Viva is a new solution from Microsoft to help with a whole host of things. Viva provides new solutions embedded across the Microsoft 365 suite. Viva is designed to support hybrid working. It supports knowledge sharing, collaboration workload management as well as improving digital workspaces such as SharePoint Intranets in Microsoft Teams.
These are just some of the solutions available from Microsoft to help with hybrid working. Each of them supports home working, collaboration and productivity for your employees no matter where they are.
