The world is going through a difficult and bizarre time. State and local governments instituted stay-at-home orders to decrease the spread of COVID-19. As a result, various organizations are requiring their employees to work from home. Microsoft stayed ahead of this trend by offering cloud and mobile technologies that allow users to work out of the office and on any device.
Even before the COVID-19 crisis, forward-looking businesses used technology to enhance employee productivity. To achieve this goal, businesses need to encourage departments to engage in open communication throughout their operations. This requirement drove the increased use of online collaboration tools including Microsoft Teams.
On March 18th, 2020, Microsoft Teams had an average of 44 million daily active users. In contrast, Microsoft Teams had 20 million active users in November 2019. Also, from March 11th to March 18th, user adoption grew from 32 million to 44 million since most US-based businesses launched company-wide work-from-home policies. Many chose Microsoft Teams as their communication and collaboration solution for their workflow.
In these chaotic times, Microsoft Teams is acting as a game-changer in the professional world. Microsoft rolled out advanced workflow and communication features for people who are working remotely. Also, Microsoft adapted and modified the platform to facilitate the delivery of telemedicine. With these features, Microsoft Teams is adapting to new consumer demands.
For broad-spectrum businesses, there is a paid version of Microsoft Teams but individual consumers can use the free version. For instance, St. Luke’s University Health Network is using the Teams app to deliver video appointments with their patients instead of requiring in-person visits. As of April 2020, Microsoft is working on integrating artificial intelligence into Teams to automate mundane tasks and access information quickly.
What features did Microsoft Teams add?
The number of Teams users increased significantly during the pandemic outbreak. Microsoft is releasing new features to enhance productivity and improve functionality. Some features include noise filtration during video calls, virtual hand raises to ask questions during a video conference, and the ability to read, write, and share messages regardless of internet availability.
Microsoft Teams has a new calling feature designed for small businesses. Those employees can use their desk phones to handle incoming and outgoing calls with regular phone numbers. Zoom already integrated noise reduction and hand-raising features. However, the primary purpose of Zoom is for video conferencing, which creates a competitive advantage for Teams.
The leverage is available because Teams is a well-integrated tool that incorporates multiple features and capabilities into one interface, including video conferencing, collaboration, and chatting options. Compared to Slack and Zoom, Teams is offering an all-in-one solution.
Is Microsoft offering free trials of Teams during the COVID-19 outbreak?
Given the sudden increase in the amount of daily active users, Microsoft announced that it is offering six-month free trials for the Teams Premium version. This is to help work-from-home users continue to operate during the Coronavirus outbreak. Also, Teams is offering a free version of Office 365 to educational institutions and schools to allow them to perform learning and educational activities online with ease and convenience.
The use of Microsoft Teams was 500% higher in the early days of March since it was the start of the virus outbreak. However, by March 10th, Microsoft lifted all the restrictions to ensure users can schedule video conferences and meetings. Europe saw a similar pattern because the number of students attending school from home increased.
Does Microsoft have plans to integrate Artificial Intelligence into Teams?
Microsoft has a new vision to use technology to carry out intelligent human communication. To turn this dream into reality, they are working on developing a unified communication system that integrates proactive and intelligent features. This can streamline and sharpen the performance of existing communication and collaboration solutions.
How is Microsoft handling the user experience of Teams?
Despite increased user adoption, there have not been issues with the servers or connectivity, which ensures continued productivity. Microsoft integrated the systems behind Teams with a flexible design to enhance resilience. Through this feature, the platform disperses user requests to different global data centers. As the traffic comes from the front door, routing becomes easier.
For instance, Microsoft directs user complaints to the features data center to ensure robust solutions and a reduced impact on the customer’s experience. They also used fault isolation measures by setting up protective measures in the codebase. This will ensure that a fault in one area does not cascade into other operational streams.
Additionally, incident avoidance is the top priority during this time. With this notion, Microsoft is limiting the scope of incidents by creating secluded partitions in the services. Also, incident detection and response are robust since Microsoft installed automated monitoring for services.
With these steps taken by Microsoft, they have scaled up Teams’ performance and helped everyone stay productive and connected during this chaotic situation.
Do we offer Microsoft Teams consulting?
If you would like your company to migrate onto Microsoft Teams, SwiftTech Solutions can provide consultation services to ensure all components are properly planned for and implemented while ensuring a seamless process. After launch, we can set your users up with our Microsoft Teams HelpDesk.