Each year, the Microsoft Inspire Conference showcases recent developments at Microsoft and lets people know what they intend to focus on in the near future. It’s an opportunity to learn about the latest ways technology has progressed, and what kind of technology we’ll be using in the coming months – some of which may be exactly what your business is looking for to boost productivity and communication.
This year’s two day long event (Tuesday & Wednesday) comes at the perfect time while there are some major changes in the Microsoft Partner Program. The highlights of this year’s events included new features for Teams, which will be useful if your business has embraced a hybrid model of working over the past few years.
The keynote speaker, Nadella urged partners to go beyond “talking about digital transformation to delivering on the digital imperative for every organization.”
Key Takeaways from the Microsoft Inspire Conference 2022
1. Microsoft Teams
At the conference, Microsoft acknowledged the growing prevalence of remote and hybrid working. They’re focusing on Teams as a way to make remote work more productive than ever and to maintain communication between home workers and the office. The Whiteboard feature enables meeting participants to easily share and discuss ideas, and add notes to points others have made. There’s also Excel Live, which allows everyone in the meeting to work on projects together in real time.
When it comes to getting the most out of your virtual meeting, Microsoft Teams Telephony is the new way of collaboration on Microsoft Teams. It’s effective and easy to use, so it’s a great solution for a remote workforce who need to stay in contact throughout the day. It’s also secure and reliable, so your business can start each meeting with confidence.
2. Microsoft Cloud For Sovereignty
This is a new feature aimed at the public sector. It will enable these organisations to use Microsoft Cloud to digitally develop and alter workloads in a way that aligns with their security requirements. This is useful for governments, who must adhere to strict rules regarding the classification of data, as Microsoft Cloud For Sovereignty protects this information from cyber-attacks while continuing to offer all the benefits of the Cloud.
3. Viva Engage
Viva Engage provides a new avenue for workplace communication. It’s not a replacement for Teams, but an application designed to be used alongside it in order to enhance communication. It can be described as a social networking platform for the office that lets you have conversations, ask and answer questions, share ideas and information, and make suggestions.
4. Microsoft Digital Contact Centre
The Digital Contact Centre offers businesses a new way to communicate with customers, combining elements of Teams, Dynamics 365, Azure and other Microsoft products. The aim of the platform is to establish communication with customers faster and make it quicker and simpler for service agents to understand and resolve issues. The nature of the Digital Contact Centre means there is more than one way to talk to a customer – examples include Teams-style video chats, voice calls, and text-based communication such as emails. This means that each customer’s experience is personalised depending on which communication style they prefer, leading them to develop a favourable impression of your business. Microsoft also intends the Contact Centre to boost workplace productivity by using AI to provide insights on customer interactions, and by collating customer data on one digital platform, so that relevant information is easily accessible.
5. Excel Live
Excel Live was also showcased by Microsoft at the Inspire event. Owners of the Excel sheet can collaborate on the sheets in real-time during team meetings. This lead to better collaboration and team-building practices.
There’s another feature that was highlighted in the event. The feature is called Live Share in Teams. Within a Teams meeting dashboard, members of the meeting can communicate with each other using Live Share.
Moreover, the new Teams will allow for DSK extensions, independent software vendors, and developers to build their Live Share Apps.
6. Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty
Microsoft has launched a never seen before feature named Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty. This solution offers rules, controls, and technologies that are catered towards improveing the internal operations of an organization.
The solution will allow businesses to comply with federal data, security, and privacy regulations. Users globally will be able to take advantage of agile, scalable solutions all thanks to cloud connectivity.
