Imagine presenting to a large group of people, many of whom speak a different language, and that they all understand exactly what you’re saying in real-time. Imagine a virtual meeting with 10 people in 10 locations where you are able to physically see all of your colleagues, interact with them in real-time across various communication platforms, and share documents and files instantly. Imagine the most productive, efficient, and versatile workspace experience you’ve ever had the pleasure of immersing yourself in. What I’ve just described is not the workspace of tomorrow, it is the new world order of the modern workspace. And if you aren’t currently working this way, you should be. So, if you’re somebody who needs to get a feel for how the car handles before you drive it off the lot, you’re in luck. I can happily give you a test drive. The Modern Workspace Customer Immersion Experience One of my roles as a Microsoft solution specialist is to work with our customers to help them maximize their experience with Microsoft’s products. One of the more popular ways I do that is by running what we call the Customer Immersion Experience. This is a half-day session where we show Office 365 customers how to use all the tools in a simulated work environment. While many people are running the platform today, few fully understand all the powerful tools embedded within designed to increase productivity and simplify workflow. The session is really all designed around the personal experience so it’s very user-centric. What a lot of people tend to discover through the process is that there is so much more they can do than they had ever realized. Of course, today’s work experience is rapidly changing. It is becoming less about working from a fixed workstation and more about being able to work from anywhere on any device. The days of ‘I’ll get to that when I get back in the office’ are long gone. There is now an expectation of collaboration and productivity with colleagues on disparate devices all over the world. To help people navigate this new world order with maximum efficiency, we’ve recently introduced a new session which we call the Modern Workspace Customer Immersion Experience. Essentially people come in looking for answers to two fundamental questions – what product should I be using and how can I use it more effectively? To answer these questions, we start by talking about their impressions of the modern workspace. What defines the modern workspace and what have been their challenges working within it? One of the reoccurring themes from these discussions centres around the importance of collaboration. Often people in their workgroups are in different locations so connecting and sharing easily is critical to any kind of success. The power of Microsoft Teams This then provides a natural segue for me to walk them through Microsoft Teams which, in my opinion, is one of the strongest products Microsoft has produced - and is very likely to become the standard collaboration platform moving forward. Teams is a central hub for workgroup collaboration. For many years, email has been the tool that drove business. But with the flood of spam, always-on communication and multiple email branches on a single topic, keeping up and staying on track of conversation trails has become incredibly difficult. Teams provides an alternative mechanism where the topic and collaboration become the focus. One topic. One conversation. And every piece of content and discussion is all there for everyone to see. With a single repository for content, anything you post stays visible and available for everyone to access, so you don't have to go outside and search for it. When you add somebody new to the group, you just add their name and they can immediately look at the whole history of content and communication. Teams also allows people to work the way that is most convenient for them at the time. Through Teams, you open a single interface to see all of your colleagues, access their contact information through a pop-up contact card, and interact with them on email, instant message, phone, or video chat. Through the course of the session, I walk people through all the features and shortcuts that can help them be more efficient and productive in their workday. Things like creating a PowerPoint presentation that can be understood by recipients regardless of language. Or a simple trick to more effectively collaborate through email. Even our longest-tenured customers are genuinely blown away by how much they didn’t know about the tools they use every day. The bottom line is that in order to be successful in the modern workspace, you need to be proficient at working with team members instantly and efficiently regardless of location and device. If you can spare one Wednesday morning, I can help you become proficient in navigating the modern workspace and improving collaboration within your team. Feel free to contact me to reserve your spot in the next Modern Workspace Customer Immersion Experience. Visit our website to explore the possibilities of the modern workspace.