Microsoft Modern Workplace Drives Optimal Collaboration

The Future of Digital Work is in the Cloud, AI, and Seamless Integration

 

Giving your employees tools like Zoom, Box, Slack, etc., is no longer enough to inspire effective collaborative work practices. Relying on a best-of-breed strategy is inefficient because those tools are not integrated. An optimal “modern collaborative workplace” must come from an ecosystem serving those purposes and more.

It’s an approach that works for companies of all sizes, regardless of their ratio of in-office workers, those with hybrid schedules, or those who are fully remote from anywhere in the world. A rightful ecosystem will drive consistent work experiences for employees in commercial real estate and all industries, whether at home or in the office.

In recent years, companies have tried to break down the barriers in work-from-home scenarios. An employee working from home or a Starbucks might need to log in through a VPN corporate network, and that connection ends up being slower than what they’re used to, causing frustration and a decline in productivity. Sometimes, apps work and sometimes they don’t work at all.

 

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The Cloud Takes Over

Technological advancements, coincidentally, were revived during the pandemic when “cloud” infrastructure matured. Office collaboration used to be device-focused, and now it’s data-focused.

The cloud enables companies to better focus on the three Ds: document, dialogue, and data. They have moved toward creating documents in digital formats that are accessible to all and not stored in disparate locations. Besides, you don’t want a particular employee or employees to have that information because when they leave, you lose it.

Microsoft is the ideal solution: The vast majority have access to Microsoft Outlook and regularly use Microsoft Office. But it’s more than just the familiarity of those longstanding products. Microsoft Modern Workplace includes Teams, a cloud-based, real-time collaboration tool, that operates with Microsoft’s primary cloud document repository, SharePoint. Teams allows its users to:

What’s more, Microsoft Teams, a messaging platform and major component of the Microsoft Modern Workplace ecosystem, is not just a chat and meeting tool – it sits on top of your data repository.

At RealFoundations we’ve adopted Microsoft-developed tools to seamlessly transition internal and customer processes, creating a holistic workspace for all operations. These tools help companies discover, share, and create digital artifacts and support security management.

 

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CRE Follows the Pack

Commercial real estate generally moves in a pack, and lately, there has been a drive to digital knowledge with everything moving to the cloud. As a result, Data Lifecycle Management will be a significant initiative over the next few years.

It’s not just about technology. It’s about how these tools fit into your culture and business processes. It comes down to having clean data; it’s become a necessity for businesses as they work towards achieving different use cases. Digital, modern workplace tools are making this easier through automation.

 

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Make Room for AI

The next big thing will be artificial intelligence (AI) applications through familiar generative forms such as Microsoft’s Copilot.

Microsoft Copilot is an AI-powered digital assistant that can help with a variety of tasks, including: