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

Government

  • a group of people performing on stage in front of a crowd

    City of Liège: Facilitating decision making in difficult times

    For many organizations, social-distancing measures brought about by COVID-19 have drastically slowed day-to-day operations – and for some, even stopped them altogether. But for local governments across Europe, like the Belgian city of Liège, slowing down hasn’t been an option.  From supporting citizens and businesses to protecting frontline workers, Liège city had to quickly provide stability during this crisis and ensure important decisions could still be made in a democratic […]

  • a large old building with many windows

    Raad van State: Creating a virtual courtroom through a remote-working solution

    “This situation has proven that with the right means, support and trust, you can remove half of the desks in your building – and in that sense, I don’t think we’ll ever see 700 people at the same time in the office again.” Ron Lamers, Project Manager at Raad van State, is talking about the […]

Healthcare

Manufacturing

  • Etex

    Etex uses modern tools to unite its business and better focus on customers

    When it comes to construction, all components must come together in a timely manner in order to produce the optimum product. While Etex, a Belgian building solution manufacturing company, helps make this a reality on a day-to-day basis, it wanted to find a way to enhance productivity and collaboration internally. With locations across more than […]

  • Mais on a sunny day

    COFCO International: How cloud technologies ensured business continuity during challenging times

    “I have worked at COFCO for 12 years, always in an office. But I have spent the last 63 days working from home.” Marcus Seelbach, Chief HR Officer at global agribusiness COFCO International, is talking from his home via video call about the transition he and all his colleagues have undergone since COVID-19 led to the closure of the company’s offices worldwide. “But thanks to the preparation and […]

Retail

  • HeadBrands is ready for the future with Microsoft 365 Business

    HeadBrands is ready for the future with Microsoft 365 Business

    Since its creation in 2010, HeadBrands has continued to grow, rapidly becoming the leading retailer of hairdressing products in Scandinavia. HeadBrands needed a modern IT solution to increase its business productivity and improve collaboration, both within the company and externally. Its response to this challenge was to replace most of its previous services with Microsoft […]

  • GDPR and Retail: Four GDPR requirements and how Microsoft can help

    GDPR and Retail: Four GDPR requirements and how Microsoft can help

    Learn how we can help you meet GDPR requirements with solutions available today: Assessing your current risk profile “How do I understand where I am already compliant and where I need to focus next?” This is one of the most common questions from retailers in regard to the GDPR. It’s also one of the hardest to […]

Discover more related articles per dossier:

Customer Stories

  • a woman smiling for the camera

    Etex Group: Future-proofing employees to work anywhere across the world

    When COVID-19 spread across Europe in early 2020, businesses entered a new digitally-dependent age. Social distancing measures had asked offices of all shapes and sizes to close their doors, sparking organizations to quickly find other virtual ways for colleagues to meet and collaborate remotely. But for Belgium building material specialist Etex, this was a step they were ready for – having already implemented a cloud-based infrastructure and collaboration tools […]

Digital Transformation

Security & Privacy

Tips

  • a group of people sitting at a table

    A single collaboration hub to help sales soar

    Do you know Microsoft’s secret to sales success? Collaboration. It’s at the heart of its culture and solutions. Today, companies investing in teamwork are five times more likely to be high-performing, so collaboration could be the difference between profit and loss. When compared to five years ago, an average information worker spends 50% more time […]