Microsoft Places | Reinventing the Workplace

It’s hard to remember a time when everyone worked in-office, and we could just pop over to our work-bestie’s desk for a quick chat. The reality is our environment is now a hybrid-first world, and this new work experience is one that many of us are still trepidatiously navigating. 

Adjusting to this re-imagined work design has been quite challenging, but Microsoft has created a unique solution to help guide you as you create a meaningful and personalized work experience.  

Introducing Microsoft Places—the workplace of the future. 

The five “W’s” of Microsoft Places 

Who

This connected workplace of the future is available for all users who encounter a less traditional way of work, like the hybrid office style. Microsoft Places is for users who would like to gain a better insight as to what the office will look like and what impact it will have on them. It’s the idea that the more information they can receive, the better their hybrid work experience and, ultimately, the easier their life will be. Microsoft Places gives you one less thing to worry about with modernizing details, analytics, and critical decision-making information right at the tip of your fingers. 

 

Photo courtesy of Microsoft

What 

Microsoft Places is a tool that aims to improve the hybrid work experience. Users can better plan out, create, and schedule their hybrid work plan by collecting a wide array of information, like employee work habits, preferences, needs, and routines.  

Microsoft Places helps users make more informed decisions as it supports new ways of working and reshapes the office experience. 

Features of Microsoft Places 

Photo courtesy of Microsoft

Microsoft Places allows you to understand what your future work week(s) will look like based on external factors such as your coworkers, meetings, office spaces, and building locations. This is known as hybrid scheduling, and it ensures that you can adjust your schedule and decide which days to come in-office based on attendance levels. 

Photos courtesy of Microsoft

Intelligent Booking and Hot Desk booking help users find available meeting rooms based on the required technology and book their work desk in advance to ensure that they have the best spot based on their personal preferences and to secure a spot right beside their work-bestie. It’s a great way to collaborate and always take advantage of who’s where and when to perfect your work plan. 

 

Photos courtesy of Microsoft

When it comes to efficiency and time, wayfinding acts as a guide and GPS as it provides a map on your mobile device to bring you to the correct building and meeting locations as quickly as possible. Also, the commute feature works towards planning the best time for you to travel to and from work. These recommendations of the best time to leave according to traffic and other external factors save you time and energy. 

Photos courtesy of Microsoft

From an environmental perspective, Microsoft Places also considers energy insights and space optimizations. It provides recommendations for energy-saving opportunities, like buildings that suit your energy requirements with the least amount of waste. It also shares space optimization recommendations to move furniture around to optimize the amount of space and best suit the room for enhanced collaboration. 

Photos courtesy of Microsoft

Serendipitous meetups provide users with information about who’s in certain collaboration rooms, encouraging spontaneous encounters and connections. And last but not least, Microsoft Graph gathers all the gained insights, information, statistics, and facts into graphs to clearly present key findings about the people, place, and work. These reports give you the data you need to create a better work experience and an improved hybrid workforce based on data-driven decisions. 

Where  

Microsoft Places will be available through Microsoft 365 and will be just as easily accessible as Teams, Viva, and other Microsoft platforms and resources that customers use daily! 

When 

Microsoft Places is anticipated to be released in 2023, so stay tuned for more information and updates to ensure you’re the first to know when you can start utilizing this tool! In the meantime, you can check out resources such as Viva Sales, Mesh Avatars, and Viva Amplify, as these are three additional resources guaranteed to transform your hybrid work experience. 

Why 

The inspiration behind Microsoft Places is to create a platform that empowers organizations and employees to prioritize their time better, deliver higher quality work, and maximize connections both in person and remotely. It ensures that workplaces are more responsive to everyone’s needs while keeping employees engaged and in the loop of work events. As Microsoft says, “it’s an opportunity for technology to evolve alongside us,” and Microsoft Places does just that by allowing users to enhance the workplace, coordinate where work happens, utilize intelligent technology, elevate connections, improve interactions, and the list goes on. Optimizing the workplace and coordinating where work happens is a big challenge, but a goal made into reality thanks to the creation of Microsoft Places.