In this new edition of Inspire, Microsoft shared three solutions that improve work experience in times of hybrid work. Dynamics 365 in Teams, Windows 365 Cloud PC and Microsoft Viva are some of this year’s releases.
Today began the virtual edition of Microsoft Inspire 2021, the annual conference that brings together thousands of Microsoft partners, where the latest news, business and marketing strategies and information on specific solutions are presented to the company’s partners.
This year, the focus was on Microsoft Teams. With 145 million daily active users (and growing), this platform has become the space where people start their day and work for a long time, sharing projects and holding meetings with their teams and customers. In the last 18 months, users used Microsoft Teams to meet, chat, call, collaborate and automate business processes. In other words: Teams became the new front-end to a new world of work.
In this new edition of Inspire, Microsoft shared three ways it is innovating to create categories that fit the new hybrid work scenario and empower its users and customers:
- Dynamics 365+ Microsoft Teams, a new experience that demonstrates the effectiveness of collaboration applications and allows organizations to activate this functionality at no additional licensing cost.
- Windows 365 brings the PC to the cloud, giving people the ability to connect to their content, applications, data and settings without limiting them to a single device.
- Microsoft Viva, introduced earlier this year, is an innovative platform to improve the employee experience, with different instances of communication and project management. At a time when hybrid work is taking shape, people will be able to improve their connection between co-workers and achieve greater insights.
Collaboration applications: empowering work with Dynamics 365 in Teams
Dynamics 365 and Teams redefine the way of working so that everyone in the same organization can exchange and implement ideas and projects in a more collaborative, dynamic and integrated environment. In this sense, Microsoft presented a new solution that brings together the best of Dynamics 365 and Teams. In addition, it announced the elimination of the licensing tax, guaranteeing the accessibility of this technology to any user, at no additional cost.
Some of the functionalities offered by this integration are:
- Viewing and reviewing Dynamics 365 records in Teams: Dynamics 365 users can now invite anyone in the organization to view and collaborate on customer records within any Teams channel.
- Add a Teams meeting to appointments and capture notes: in addition, Dynamics 365 users will now be able to add a Teams meeting when creating an appointment, allowing access to key customer information during a call.
- Automated notifications and connected workspaces: automatic notifications alert interested parties of the latest updates.
Windows 365 Cloud PC: Hybrid Windows for a Hybrid World
Also new from Microsoft is Windows 365, a cloud service that offers a new way to experience Windows 10 or Windows 11 (when it becomes available later this year). Windows 365 offers users the ability to connect to their applications, data and settings from any device and any connection point, through a new category called Cloud PC, which leverages the power of the cloud and device capabilities to provide a complete and personalized Windows experience.
Among other features, Windows 365 will enable users to:
– Log in to their PC from any device.
– Provision computers in the cloud in minutes and with no virtualization experience.
– Stay protected wherever they access their PC in the cloud.
Microsoft Viva: the employee experience in the workflow
According to a Josh Bersin Academy study, companies with best-in-class employee experience programs are 2.2 more likely than their peers to exceed financial goals and 5.1 more likely to engage and retain employees. That’s why Microsoft also introduced Microsoft Viva.
Powered by Microsoft 365, Viva is an employee experience platform designed to work with existing solutions. It’s all about putting people at the center, connecting them to company information, communications, workplace information, knowledge and learning to help them achieve their best. The platform can be easily customized and extended, integrating with companies and helping to drive their culture transformation.
To help its partners build and market apps for Teams and Viva, Microsoft introduced a new set of solutions for building Microsoft 365 apps. These benefits include access to Microsoft technology, one-on-one consultations with experts, marketing resources and technical support.
