a group of people sitting at a table with a laptop

New report shares insights into making remote meetings more productive

Joakim  Grepperud

Joakim Grepperud

Senior Product Marketing Manager - Microsoft 365

Read Time, 2 min.

How are teams connecting when they need to work apart? That was the question asked by Microsoft’s new Work Trend Index. The answer makes fascinating reading.

The Work Trend Index uses surveys, interviews and data to explore trends in the way people interact with their Microsoft productivity tools and help customers plan for the future. And the findings of its Remote work trend report: meetings offer useful insights for improving collaboration while working remotely.

Video answers the need for connection

The way we work might have changed but our need for human connection hasn’t.

People are achieving that connection via video. In fact, they are turning on video in Microsoft Teams two-times more than usual. In March 2020 alone, video calls in Teams grew by over 1,000%.

The features in Teams that are helping to enhance the quality of that connection include its custom backgrounds; the ‘raise hand’ feature and AI-enabled background noise suppression.

Such quality is essential when offering video consultations to patients. Which is exactly what the Fondazione I.R.C.C.S. Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta in Milan offered when COVID-19 locked down Italy. With Microsoft Teams, clinicians can help patients – face-to-face – to safely continue treatment.

Escola Global, a Portuguese private schools group, made an equally swift transition to remote learning. Microsoft Teams is now the main channel for student-teacher communication. The teachers are even creating bespoke video content via Microsoft Stream.

People are connecting in new ways

Those teachers are part of a trend. The growth in pre-recorded Teams sessions, using Microsoft Stream to power live events and lead company meetings, is exponential. The number of Stream videos in Teams increased by 500% from March to April 2020.

And from February to March 2020, use of Teams Mobile also shot up by 300%, showing that people are liberating themselves from their desks – if only to roam their homes.

The forward-thinking Council of Lleida, a small town in northeastern Spain, has been using Live Events in Teams to hold ‘virtual town hall’ meetings. 1,600 of its civil servants now work remotely on Windows Virtual Desktop from where they can access all internal resources and ensure continuity of public services.

How we work together will change forever

An Italian winery outside Montalcino, Ciacci Piccolomini D’Aragona, was equally determined to conduct ‘business as unusual’ when their in-person wine tastings became impossible. It simply shipped bottles to buyers around the world and organized the tastings via Teams.

The customer response to these digital tastings has been so positive that what began as an emergency measure for business survival, is continuing after the end of lockdown.

It’s a prime example of how, with the right technology making the right human connections, businesses can continue to thrive in innovative ways.

And it makes you wonder, will such ingenious responses – borne of necessity in the face of adversity – change the way we work forever?

Read the report in full.

Stay productive with these remote working solutions

Find out how to keep your teams connected, productive and secure

Discover more related articles per industry:

Education

  • Pencil

    Hybrid learning and GDPR: maintaining security and compliance in disruptive times

    Like most areas of society, over the past six months the education sector has had to face challenges unlike any before. Students thrive when they have access to personalized learning. As schools have moved quickly to adapt to remote learning, using technology to create new experiences that meet students’ needs has become more important than […]

  • a person sitting at a table using a laptop computer

    Reimagining education: From remote to hybrid learning

    The COVID-19 pandemic has generated a torrent of individual and small-group responses as to how education could be transformed. We have found a groundswell of interest in the question, “How best to take advantage of the new opportunities arising from the disruption?” What people desperately need are opportunities to team up and find pathways of […]

Government

Healthcare

  • Healthcare professionals operating on a patient

    Maasstad Hospital: Working as one medical team during a crisis

    In times of crisis, an organization looks to its leadership for guidance. As COVID-19 spread through Europe in early 2020, Maasstad Ziekenhuis Hospital CEO Peter Langenbach had planned to lead his hospital’s crisis response as he would any other – being present and visible, leadership traits instilled in him during his time in the Dutch […]

  • Nurse and patient

    MOB: increasing healthcare workers’ time with their patients using cloud technology

    “Time is the most valuable currency in healthcare. That’s what this technology gives us: more time with our patients.” Fettah Erdal, Senior Administrator at Dutch healthcare provider MOB is talking about the impact that cloud-based technology is having on his organization’s ability to deliver more patient-centred healthcare. “All of our care workers are in the […]

Manufacturing

Retail

Discover more related articles per dossier:

Customer Stories

  • a person sitting in front of a laptop computer

    SSVOZ: Making distance learning a personalized experience

    When this period of remote learning is evaluated – without a doubt, some of the techniques we’ve used will have a more permanent place in the classrooms of the near future. Antoon Fens, IT Coordinator at Stichting Stedelijk Voortgezet Onderwijs Zoetermeer (SSVOZ), explains the critical role technology has played for education in the Netherlands, during […]

Digital Transformation

Security & Privacy

  • Woman with yellow hat stepping out of yellow cab with a Surface

    It’s time to make anywhere the safest place to create

    A permanent desk. At one office. In the same part of town. Those days are numbered. We’re moving on, quite literally. In today’s world, there’s a greater need to be flexible; to be able to think, create and share – anywhere and everywhere. To do it with complete peace of mind, too. Redefining teamwork  Companies are embracing new forms of collaboration. […]

Tips

  • a person sitting at a table using a laptop

    How to run the most successful and secure meetings with Microsoft Teams

    With so many people now working from home, it’s more important than ever to hone our remote working skills and stay productive. We have seen a huge spike in the number of people successfully and securely working together via Microsoft Teams. But whether you are brand new to the tool, or already conduct your meetings on Teams, […]