The COVID-19 pandemic transformed the way we work, and technologies have been borne out of that shift. Globally, people have moved to remote work and – as the impact of the pandemic subsides – are generally moving into a hybrid pattern. Microsoft Places is a prime example of technology moving to meet the new normal.
Currently in public preview phase, MS Places is being trialed by companies including Symity in a bid to generate feedback for its next iteration as a stable, ready to deploy application. Symity is using Places in an internal "testing and pilot" phase, rather than a full rollout to the entire company. Places integrates office management, desk booking, and analytics into the Microsoft ecosystem and its full release is expected towards the end of 2024 or early next year.
Symity's Motivation for MS Places Rollout
Symity is a Microsoft house and is using the public preview of Places to get hands-on experience before advising clients on its potential use in their environments. "We are primarily a Microsoft house, so for us, it's important to be at the forefront of Places to understand how it works and how we can leverage it for our customers," explained James Hammond, Symity’s Principal Microsoft AV Consultant. The team sees Places as a natural extension of their existing Microsoft-based solutions, from Teams to meeting room systems.
Their internal testing of the system shows great potential but has not been without its challenges. The team noted that the current public preview phase requires a significant amount of technical configuration, with changes needed to make the user experience more intuitive. "Everything is run through PowerShell at the moment, which means it's your highest-level IT person making the changes," James explained.
"But they've (Microsoft) said that going forward, it will be much simpler for dedicated admins to configure."
Symity was selected as one of a few partners to provide direct feedback to the Places development team, which they have found very valuable. They were also one of three partners chosen for roundtable discussions with Microsoft on the platform. "They were really receptive to our input on things like making the home screen more visually engaging and surfacing colleague locations more prominently," said James. Symity expects their feedback to be incorporated into updates they anticipate at Microsoft's Ignite conference in November.
Aside from the initial challenge of technical configuration required, Symity have been impressed with Places and aim to replace their current desk booking system with it when it’s ready for public rollout. They envisage incorporating it into client ecosystems, where it will be invaluable for hybrid work environments and office space optimization.
James highlighted the key uses as:
