How Microsoft is revolutionizing everyday hybrid work

If you can get anything great from last year, it’s because it has shown that digital work is possible. If you just want to. And when the tools are ready.

From Office to Microsoft 365

a word. Excel. Power point. Access. Prospects. The five programs listed are common synonyms for digital office work. Manufacturer Microsoft started offering the Office suite as a subscription led by CEO Satya Nadella. In April 2020, the trademark is changed to Microsoft 365 and the restrictions of previous applications are relaxed. This is where Teams comes in, which will be a key part of Microsoft’s ecosystem going forward.

How is Microsoft’s approach different?

At this year’s Microsoft Build Developer Expo, the Windows group showcased a new approach to Office 365 / Microsoft 365. As the central point of contact for everyday digital work, the company is raising the bar for its office service team, which has sprung up during the Crown Era as it makes digital collaboration appropriate, beyond national platforms and borders . 145 million users are already using Teams, making it the largest collaboration platform.

Instead of continuing to be a largely closed work and development environment, Microsoft releases most of the interfaces and reduces barriers to integration for third-party suppliers who want to offer their services and functionality.

Does this mean Microsoft 365 or Office 365 is history?

Not at this time and in the long run. Microsoft continues to introduce the subscription office under the brand name and is upgrading its teams with collaborative apps, as the company calls them. This new type of app should collaborate with each other without having to switch from one app to another to interrupt the business process.

This means that instead of typing text in Word, you can call the corresponding word processor in Teams and no longer hack into tables in Excel, but directly in Teams at Keys. Who do these additions and modifications come from? From Microsoft, from well-known manufacturers like SAP – or by yourself.

Who can develop these collaborative applications?

Actually everyone. So if you want to include some self-written program code in Teams, you can do so. The Developer portal, formerly known as App Studio, is the point of contact for programming, recording, and management.

If you want to create Teams apps in familiar frameworks, then you need to download Microsoft Teams Toolkit Extension for Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code for free in preview.

Okay, but where can I get Teams extensions?

You don’t want scheduling, you just want to grow teams and adapt them to your workflow. Then, the team store is the central contact point.

As an administrator, you can add individual modules to your individual team app, subscribe to or unsubscribe services, and purchase additional content. The store can also be accessed through the Microsoft Teams admin center.

And all this now … Good?

Microsoft Build is a developer conference – you can read all the news on the Microsoft Press portal. As a result, this is an important code generation event, but only an IT fringe event for private and commercial applications.

However, the ads released here are almost revolutionary. One central app that can be adapted to work tasks and workflows? This refines the user interface, strengthens organization, and avoids formatting irritation (“PDF, Doc, or ODT?”).

Since teams are particularly interesting for the tasks that many collaborators have to collaborate on, the new exchange options via live chat and video conferencing are interesting. You can access the content through Shared Scene. So not only do you comment, but actively write on the board, change your design and write comments in real time in order to together plan the next steps of the project.

Microsoft Teams is evolving into a true collaborative meeting room in the digital age.

Will there be any changes to the terms of participation?

not now. The change is not excluded, but it has not been announced either. Microsoft Teams is free in the basic version, but then offers the ability to “only” communicate during video conferencing, exchange text chats and manage online storage. If you want more functionality, Microsoft 365 costs a month. You can find out the amount on Microsoft’s website.