Microsoft is nothing if not ambitious. The tech behemoth that revolutionised computing not once, but twice, with its MS-DOS and Windows operating systems, and then brought us Office, the granddaddy of all enterprise software, is at it again.
This time, Microsoft has its sights set on telecommunications, and in particular, how digital technology has the potential to transform the way people do business with each other.
Microsoft’s plan is simple – to fully integrate its Office 365 enterprise platforms with a comprehensive Unified Communications offering. The aim is to effectively place a complete office set up in the palm of people’s hands, whether it be on their laptop, their tablet or mobile phone. A virtual office people can use to work, plan, talk and share wherever they go.
Communication is key to this, because business is as much about talking, collaborating and negotiating as it is about doing. When Microsoft decided to ditch its Lync video conferencing app, it did so because it realised no one had yet fully integrated the demands to work and talk into a single piece of enterprise technology. There is no distinction between the two in how businesses operate, so why should there be in their software?
The Modern Meeting
Microsoft’s purchase of the Skype messaging app allowed it to develop and launch Skype for Business. Unlike Lync, Skype for Business is intended to run very much within Office 365, rather than alongside it. One of its key aims is to raise the game in how businesses use technology to conduct meetings.
In defining the ‘Modern Meeting’, Microsoft has argued the demands on technology are to ensure “that participants in any location can see, hear and collaborate within the meeting as easily as if everyone is sitting in the same room.”
Skype for Business is slowly evolving to remove barriers to large groups of people interacting in cyberspace as they would in a meeting room. Where in the past the number of users who could be added to a conference call was often a barrier, Skype for Business has increased capacity to a maximum of 10,000 simultaneous users – taking the concept of a ‘conference’ call quite literally!
Integration with Office 365 is advancing, with all meetings scheduled in Office automatically launched as Skype meetings, while calls can be launched from within Office 365 itself.
But two recent additions to the platform really point to the future of virtual meetings. Office 365 users can now pre-load attachments to a scheduled call or meeting and Skype will open them for all users automatically when the meeting starts – the virtual equivalent of document handouts.
In addition, Skype for Business now supports in-call co-authoring, so participants can work on the same documents as they talk during a Skype call.
Microsoft’s argument is simple – with this kind of technology available, who needs to be in the same place at the same time?
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