Microsoft Teams rolls out to Office 365 customers to better empower their employees

Microsoft today unveiled findings of its Asia Workplace 2020[1] Study, where it found that employees in Hong Kong do not feel empowered to embrace the demands of the digital workplace.

While 70% of Hong Kong respondents consider themselves to be mobile workers and spend at least 20% of their time working outside of their offices, only 38% feel empowered by their organization's culture and managers to be able to work together productively and collaboratively. In addition, only 20% of respondents agree that their organization is committed at a leadership level to ensure every employee is included in closing the digital skills gaps within the workforce.

'As Asia primes itself to become the most connected market[2] with more than half of all mobile connections originating from the region by 2021, organizations need to rethink how they empower their workforce with the right culture, policy, infrastructure and tools to maximise their potential. This means enabling collaboration from anywhere, on any device. However, it is also critical for business leaders to evaluate and implement changes to counter cultural and management challenges that are hindering employees to work seamlessly from wherever they are, which will in turn, hinder an organization's growth and progress in the digital age,' said Constantin Stahlknecht, Office 365 Business Group Lead of Microsoft Hong Kong.

Office 365 is designed to meet the unique workstyle with purpose-built, integrated applications: Outlook for enterprise-grade email; SharePoint for intelligent content management; Yammer for networking across the organization; Skype for Business as the backbone for enterprise voice and video; and now, Microsoft Teams. The officially launched Microsoft Teams brings together people, conversations and content, along with the tools that teams need. It's integrated with familiar Office applications and is built from the ground up on Office 365 and Microsoft's global, secured cloud.

Strong momentum in using Microsoft Teams globally and locally

Customers worldwide are choosing Microsoft Teams to enable collaboration within their organizations. Since announcing the preview in November, more than 50,000 organizations have started using Microsoft Teams, including Alaska Airlines, ConocoPhillips, Deloitte, Expedia, J.B. Hunt, J. Walter Thompson, Hendrick Motorsports, Sage, Trek Bicycle and Three UK. In Hong Kong, many companies have also started using Microsoft Teams, now benefitting from this new chat-based workspace for instant collaboration.

Esquel, a global textile and apparel company, is one of Hong Kong companies that has started using Microsoft Teams. 'Esquel operates in a fast-paced environment to meet our customers' needs. Microsoft Teams help us efficiently establish a strong collaborative environment amongst our employees,' said Billie Yeung, Head of IT Infrastructure, Esquel Group. 'The real-time chat, document sharing, team calendar and meeting notes, along with the Teams Mobile App, enable every member within a team workspace to be aligned and connected with each other, anytime, anywhere. The conversations history allows new members to get up-to-date at any project stage for complete context and provides good support for all the decisions made. Microsoft Teams will become a key part of Esquel's fast moving culture to drive the business forward.'

With Microsoft Teams, CMRS colleagues have gained limitless access to their workspace around the clock. They can now easily share documents, schedule tasks, track a task status and arrange calls and meetings. 'As a digital and social media communication agency group in Hong Kong, CMRS Group needs to communicate efficiently and effectively with clients, internal teams and external partners every day. This is essential to guarantee the prompt management of daily tasks.' Ralph Szeto, Group Director of CMRS Group. 'The ability to effortlessly archive communications has enhanced the consistency of projects and has reduced confusion, mistakes and misunderstandings between internal and external parties. Best of all, Microsoft Teams works across screens and integrates seamlessly with the dynamic workflows of CMRS Group, thereby helping to achieve operational excellence.'

Microsoft Teams is built on four core promises

• Chat for today's teams. Microsoft Teams provides a modern conversations experience, with threaded, persistent chat to keep everyone engaged. Team conversations can be either private or visible to the entire team, and users can access multiple teams, making it easy to switch between projects.
• A hub for teamwork. The Office applications and services that teams use every day - Word, Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint, OneNote and PowerBI- are all built-in, so people have the information and tools they need.
• Customization for every team. Microsoft Teams offers the ability to customize work spaces with tabs, connectors and bots from third-party partners as well as familiar Microsoft tools like Microsoft Planner and Visual Studio Team Services. Today, more than 150 integrations are available or coming soon, with companies like SAP, Trello, Hipmunk, Growbot and ModuleQ building on the platform.
• Security teams trust. Microsoft Teams is built on the hyper-scale, enterprise-grade Office 365 cloud, delivering the advanced security and compliance capabilities our customers expect. Teams supports global standards including SOC 1, SOC 2, EU Model Clauses, ISO27001 and HIPAA.

Microsoft has introduced more than 100 new features to Teams since November, including an enhanced meeting experience, with scheduling capabilities; mobile audio calling, with video calling on Android now and coming soon to iOS and Windows Phone; email integration; and new security and compliance capabilities. The company has also delivered new features to make Microsoft Teams more accessible, such as support for screen readers, and high contrast and keyboard-only navigation. Guest access capabilities and deeper integration with Outlook, and a richer developer platform, are targeted for June of this year. For more details on the new features, go to the Office Blog.