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Microsoft delves into the modern workplace

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26th May 2016
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Are you spending too long in meetings? Does your productivity dip under the modern work place strain?

Microsoft’s head of technology James Akrigg addressed these issues at Accountex, outlining how Mircrosoft will restore a more effective and collaborative workplace by focusing on collaboration, productivity, and data security.

Akrigg told AccountingWEB at Accountex, “People are no longer sat at a desk for the full working day. We are a lot more mobile.”

For this reason applications like Excel are now more mobile. “Whatever device I choose to use, I have the mobility to work with my data,” explained Akrigg.

Presenting an example of this in his Accountex session, ‘the modern way of working’, Akrigg correctly predicted that the majority of attendees read their first and last email of the day on their smart phones.

But it is not just a reliance on smart phones which affects the way organisations work. Microsoft has responded to the demands of modern working, ensuring businesses are prepared for the future, whether that’s data security or using technology to enhance the way businesses operate.

Collaboration

The reason solitaire existed was to enable users to use the mouse to interact with the computer, Akrigg explained. But Microsoft is now using natural ways – like voice and touch – to interact and collaborate. Akrigg unveiled Microsoft’s Surface Hub as an example of this, calling it “55 – 84 inches of touch and pen goodness”.

In action, the surface hub knows you have a meeting is scheduled. You tap it and it brings everyone into the meeting, you interact and share content, and when you’re finished, it resets and wipes the device and no information is left behind, explained Akrigg.

“This solves all the problem of the first 10 minutes of every meeting that you go to that has got remote people going: ‘can you hear me? Is it plugged in? Can you see me?’”

But you don’t need to invest in this expensive machinery in order to embrace collaboration in your office. Later this year Windows 10 will enable you to screen sketch and share your notes through email, rather than printing information, and then adding notes by pen.

Productivity

While these new technologies can assist in making you feel more productive, it is the Delve analytics that actually provides the data on how productive you have actually been. 

Using dashboards, this function monitors how you use your time and relays this for you to act upon. For example, it calculates how long you are spending in meetings. So it gives your insight on where your meetings have been productive, and how much time you’ve spent doing emails, or if you work late. Using this data, you can set goals in Delve Analytics to see how effective you have been. You can compare your analytics with other team members, and check on their progress.

Microsoft is wielding assistive technology beyond Cortana alerting you of upcoming traffic jams and your schedule. For example, this technology can overlook power point designs, and recognises your design skills, and suggests different ways to insert your picture.

Data security

As well as creating a platform that encourages productivity, data security remains a hot topic in the modern workplace. Responding to these data breaches, Akrigg assured that technology native to Windows will be released later this year which will ensure data leakage ‘will never be a problem for your business again’.

Soon, documents will be secured to an organisation, which will be illustrated by a padlock. This prevents people from outside the organisation copying this information to a USB key, and scrutinises attaching these files to an email, alerting the user that it will create an audit of this action.

Protecting these files, the sender can see how many times the document has been viewed, whether it has been forwarded on to another user, or see and locate anyone attempting to infiltrate the document. “Although it has left your organisation, you still have control of it,” says Akrigg.

And as more people are working remotely or using their own devices to do work, Akrigg says the segmentation between work files and personal files means that when you wipe that device, you will only wipe the corporate data, and personal data is left intact without being disrupted. 

 

Has your company used some of these new Windows features? How has it helped your business reclaim time and increase productivity? 

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