Microsoft unveils powerful upgrades for Teams

What’s your favourite venue for a conference or event?

Crown? Hyatt? MCEC?

Or somewhere in Docklands?

Aside from the speakers and networking opportunities, many conference attendees will remember the food during the breaks.

It’s funny to think for all the time, effort and planning that goes into an industry event or conference, for many employees, it will come down to what’s on offer for lunch.

If you ask your team members and colleagues, you will probably find a complaint about how quickly the hot food is eaten, the sandwiches are soggy, and no one really wants to eat asparagus for lunch. 

And once the rush is over, everyone stands around in the foyer, holding a tiny plate with the goldilocks approach – just the right amount of curry, rice, wraps and maybe some sliders (of course, if the budget allows).

Perhaps you’re fortunate enough to go to more significant events, and if you’re like us, one event you’d be interested in attending is Microsoft Ignite. 

An annual event held to update all things Microsoft. 

Held every November, it generates many exciting updates in the Microsoft world.

If you didn’t see it, I wanted to share my takeaways with you and what’s on the horizon as we move into 2023.

It should be no surprise that Microsoft Teams continues to dominate the virtual workspace. Microsoft describes Teams as “the app at the centre of Microsoft 365”. With over 280 million users globally. 

And in the last twelve months alone, Microsoft has added over 450 new features to Teams.

So let’s dive into some of those features and other exciting announcements made at Ignite 2022.

You may take away some new ideas to upgrade your Melbourne business digital workflow in the new year. 

Introducing Teams Premium

This powerful new feature enhances the Teams experience by using AI to give the appearance you now have your virtual meeting assistance. Teams Premium can automatically generate chapters from a Teams meeting. It can even create personalised highlights for you saving you time by not having to watch the recorded session later.  

And if you’re meeting internationally, you can enjoy real-time translations for captions. Team Premium also includes meeting guides that help you hold an effective and inclusive meeting. For example, Team Premium can customise your meeting experience depending on your business needs. 

Conduct team meetings with a 360-Degree intelligent camera 

SmartVision 60 is the first 360-degree, centre-of-room intelligent camera that can track the speaker as they move. And coming soon, the camera will introduce facial recognition as people join the meeting. 

Finally, your team’s virtual meetings will feel much more like real in-person meetings using SmartVision 60. No longer will you see a small video feed of one person. Instead, the camera’s movement can capture the whole team.

Cisco is now a Certified Devices Partner for Teams Rooms

Microsoft announced that Cisco is now a Teams Room Certified Devices partner. So if you are a fan of Cisco-based meeting products, you’ll be delighted to know you have more options. 

Microsoft Places supports hybrid working

As you know, the pandemic has exponentially shifted the move to remote and hybrid working arrangements across Melbourne. With that in mind, Microsoft has launched a team management app called Microsoft Places. This new app integrates seamlessly with Microsoft 365 and helps people leaders manage their changing workforce. 

Australian workplaces(over 50%) lead the way internationally by introducing a permanent hybrid working model. 

Some of Microsoft Places features to help your digital office include:

• Manage and track where employees are located (at home or in the office)
• Track whether colleagues are absent or available
• Monitor physical room used to make strategic decisions

Microsoft Teams and Outlook now have hours and location schedulers

One of the challenges with managing a digital workplace is scheduling in-person meetings. Many of your employees are now working hybrid and may only be on site as TWT workers (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday). So knowing each employee’s working hours and location can now be more manageable with Microsoft introducing the capability to identify these features. 

Using this feature correctly will maintain team engagement and morale, as you will not have accidentally excluded someone from an in-person meeting. And you can confirm if they will be onsite for the meeting or if that is a day they work remotely. If you plan without checking, you’re bound to alienate someone. They wouldn’t be happy if they planned to work from home that day…no more guesswork or messaging back and forth to confirm availability. 

Loop App enters private preview for some businesses

Loop is a collaborative workspace app that helps your teams ideate in a virtual space. It’s a new way to collaborate and build ideas in a digital workplace. You can see all the files, links and data in one place from across a range of Microsoft 365 apps, and it syncs automatically to stay up to date. Some organisations will be able to have a private preview of the Loop app shortly.

Quick and easy video editor Clipchamp launches 

If you’re like us, you may have noticed an unfamiliar app on Windows called Clipchamp. Microsoft finally announced at Ignite 2022 that Clipchamp is a new simple video editor for Windows.

You’ve probably struggled to fix a video on your PC, as sometimes it’s more complex than your smartphone. Now with Clipchamp, you will have the tools on your desktop to get the job done quickly, and it’s very user intuitive. 

Do you need help with Microsoft 365?

With more features and apps joining the Microsoft 365 family, you may feel overwhelmed. Let us help you navigate the M365 experience and show you how to improve your business’s productivity. Schedule a worry-free IT consultation today