Microsoft’s flagship event, Microsoft Ignite, has provided the opportunity for the global tech giant to announce more news and updates for its platforms. One of the most popular has Microsoft Teams, their collaboration and communication application. Today Microsoft have announced that they are looking to extend the power of Teams to empower workers in all roles and across industries.
Collaboration applications have often been criticised for only suiting a particular type of worker. The traditional creative, technical, office based team have so often been the ones to benefit most from collaboration solutions. Microsoft are trying to change that with new information on Teams.
Microsoft have said they will be extending the power of Teams with new experiences that are tailored to industry-specific and role based workflows. For example, new capabilities in Teams will aim to help empower frontline workers to optimise their performance and use of technology. With new schedule management tools, managers can now create and share schedules, and employees can easily swap shifts, request time off, and see who else is working as well as important announcements. These new features will be available in October.
The new feature set are aimed at users who historically may have utilised other platforms to communicate and collaborate when based in the field. Engineers, and other job roles which require more practical features, will be able now to utilise the tool with its increased level of functionality aimed at improving their experience.
As an example of how Teams will soon enable secure workflows for regulated industries, Microsoft will be delivering a new patient care coordination solution that integrates with electronic health records (EHR) systems and leverages two new secure messaging features, image annotation and priority messaging. These new features will be available to all Teams customers but Microsoft believe they have particular relevance in healthcare settings. These are designed to allow doctors, nurses, and other clinicians to coordinate patient care while staying HIPAA-compliant and avoid the privacy risks that arise when healthcare professionals use consumer chat apps. The new healthcare solution is now in private preview.
Learn more about the Microsoft communication and collaboration platforms, including Teams, by listening to our regular Microsoft podcast.
UC Today are in attendance at Microsoft Ignite for the whole week to make sure you stay up to date with latest from the Microsoft world of communication and collaboration.
