Up Your Collaboration Game with a Microsoft Teams Room System

With the unprecedented effects of the pandemic this past year, millions of office workers relocated to their homes to work. It may have been a completely new experience to many, but several companies discovered that remote work could be just as productive as working in an office if you have the right tools.

The right tools for the work-from-home revolution turned out to be intuitive and feature-rich video conferencing and collaboration platforms like Zoom and Microsoft Teams. These systems helped workers communicate virtually almost as well as if they were face to face, with voice, video, chat, screen sharing, and other options to make meetings digital.

This pandemic, hopefully, will be in the rear-view mirror at some point in the near future. We can’t predict when, but we can envision that work will never be the same. Professionals will return to offices, but many companies have benefited from a hybrid approach where employees can continue to work from home part-time or full time. What does this bode for the future of work? It means that you should have the right technology for an inclusive workforce – one that can work in the Phoenix, Arizona office or at home seamlessly. And one of those tools is a Microsoft Teams Room System. Read on to see how a Teams room can get everyone on the same page – literally and figuratively!

SEE ALSO: Two Easy Ways to Turn Any Meeting Space into a Zoom Room

The Hybrid Work Challenge

When people communicate and collaborate one on one, it’s not that difficult to go from in-person to virtual. With the aid of integrated video, audio, and content collaboration on a platform like Microsoft Teams, you have real-time tools for clear communication. But what happens when you have a meeting room full of office workers and some remote ones? The dynamic is different, as people physically in the room can communicate fluidly, but remote people may feel more distant, uneasy about interjecting, and potentially tuned out. Integration of Microsoft Teams capabilities with conference room audio and video tools can change that.

A few Microsoft Teams features can help bridge the gap between in-person attendance and participating via computer. As in-room participants speak, voice-to-text technology captures a live stream that everyone can follow on-screen, so nothing is missed. Anyone who has participated in video conferencing meetings knows that the slight lag in voice communication means it can be hard to interject or ask a question when someone is speaking continuously. The Teams Raise Hand feature lets a remote participant press a button to let everyone know they want to speak, visible on the conference room display so that the moment won't pass. With a Microsoft Surface Hub or another digital whiteboard, in-room attendees can collaborate, and remote participants can also join in with their touch and pen-capable devices for collective ideation and problem-solving. Intelligent capture can collect and enhance whiteboard images for distribution, and of course, the entire meeting can be recorded with the touch of a button.

Making Meetings Easier

With various Teams-integrated devices from conference room technology vendors like Crestron, Logitech, and Poly, meetings can be simple to schedule, start, and join. Meetings that require rooms with specific equipment can be coordinated with Microsoft Outlook, from smaller huddle rooms to multipurpose rooms for larger gatherings. Meetings can be started with one touch on a conference room system like Crestron's Flex or directly from the Teams app on a user device, ready to go on the room's display, cameras, and audio. For fully touch-free and accessible meetings, a voice command to Microsoft’s Cortana voice assistant can get the meeting launched. Teams will soon integrate a remote-control app that offers an intuitive way to manage the conference room display layout, microphones, captions, and other features.

NEXT STEPS

Is your company ready for the future of work and collaboration? To get started, reach out to us here or click the chat box below to connect instantly. We look forward to working with you.