As hybrid paint arrangements become more common, it can be difficult to bring colleagues together in the same position at the same time. With that in mind, Microsoft hopes to make it less complicated to coordinate in-person collaboration with the launch of Places, an app with features for scheduling the time painters spend in the office.
“Microsoft Places seems well-suited for organizations to meet the demanding situations of supporting a hybrid workspace,” said Raul Castañon, principal research analyst at 451 Research, S component
With Places, workers can set their own proposed location schedule and view it for others to see. The data can be set up in the Places app itself or in the Outlook calendar. They can also view the schedules of colleagues and managers, while managers can specify days when staff members are expected to be in the office.
Microsoft plans to integrate Places’ knowledge into its generative AI assistant Copilot (genAI) later this year, the company announced in a blog post on Monday. This will recommend maximum days for Americans to come to the office, highlighting in-person meetings and planned presence of managers and colleagues.
An electronic booking feature called “Location Search,” also available in Outlook, allows users to search for available rooms and desks. Here, photographs of office rooms or equipment are displayed on a map of the office, with the main points of the rooms. They had generation and other equipment. Users will receive reminders if they haven’t e-booked a room on the day they need to be in the office. The upcoming Copilot integration will automatically locate and book meeting spaces on behalf of users.
Places is designed so that hybrid staff can connect with their colleagues while they are in the office.
Microsoft
AI features are the pinnacle of Places, said Jack Gold, founder and principal analyst at J. Gold Associates.
“The ability to have an assisted intelligence officer who may not complicate peer-to-peer programming and connectivity issues will be welcome, if it works as intended,” he said. “Most of us have too many confusing interactions than days and raising the mandatory flags for notable obligations is a welcome feature. “
An “extended presence” feature enabled through Places is available in Microsoft 365 apps. It provides users with a review of who’s in the workplace at the same time, making it less difficult for colleagues to arrange a quick face-to-face discussion. Microsoft said all location awareness adheres to its privacy standards, with opt-in and opt-out controls available to principals and users.
Knowledge of “expanded presence” is “aggregated and anonymized in reports on occupancy trends,” Microsoft said in the blog post.
Places will also provide facility directors and managers with analytics on workplace usage, allowing them to see what space is available and what is needed. Copilot, once onboarded to Places, will provide advice on how to best manage and adapt spaces to meet requirements. demand.
Adapting to new career tactics is a challenge many companies face, Gold said. “Although the pendulum has begun to swing back towards workplace work for some organizations, after an immediate increase in remote work led to workplace closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the truth is that in most cases they will help at some point in the future. ” Said. “I don’t expect that to replace them anytime soon. ”
A recent report by 451 Research indicated that organizations are investing in a variety of technologies to enable a hybrid workplace, adding contactless technologies such as biometrics and voice user interfaces (28%) and workplace area control generation (35%) that includes hot information. -Desk reservations, IoT sensors, and AI-based analytics to optimize workplace capacity.
“We expect those trends to continue in 2024, as a significant number of organizations surveyed say they will continue to invest in those technologies over the next 12 months,” Castañón said.
Microsoft Places competes with a variety of products, adding hybrid work control features available in Zoom and Google’s productivity and collaboration software suites. The Places app can be useful for users who want to remain Microsoft apps.
“There are a number of teams that offer features equivalent to those of Places,” Gold said, but integrating features into Microsoft 365 makes it “easier for businesses to focus on maintaining the Office environment than to find piecemeal approaches or move around. ” basically to some other productivity package.
Microsoft Places is now available in public preview for Teams Premium subscribers.
Matthew Finnegan covers Microsoft, collaboration and productivity software, AR/VR, and other enterprise IT topics. He joined IDG in January 2013 and is based in Sweden.