Microsoft
Office workers may be an obvious target audience for Microsoft Teams, but elements of the collaboration platform have also been tailored for front-line employees, such as retail workers, field technicians and hospital staff. On Wednesday, Microsoft unveiled a handful of new features aimed at supporting staff in these roles retail in particular including the ability to publish task lists to specific teams across an organization.
Often overlooked when it comes to spending on digital tools, front-line workers typically spend less time at a desk and their primary computing device is more likely to be a smartphone rather than a laptop. It is a large market: there are more than 2 billion such workers globally, Microsoft claims, and Teams has received several updates in recent years to cater to those at the edge of their organization.
What does the office of the future look like? Here are experts top 10 guesses Watch Now
For some, it will soon be a year since the last time they set foot in an office. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to sweep through countries, it is sometimes hard to remember that days were once punctuated by a daily commute, water cooler chats and afterwork drinks. But although the timeline is still unclear, offices will inevitably re-open in the future – leaving many wondering what kind of a workspace they will be stepping into on the day that they get to dust off their office shoes.
Extended reality software gets pandemic lift
Extended reality software is not new, but the Covid-19 public health crisis has seen it take on a new lease of life as organisations face up to virtuality
Share this item with your network: By Published: 22 Dec 2020
Although so-called extended reality (XR) software has been around in various shapes and forms for years, business interest in the technology has risen dramatically since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Many organisations that had previously been evaluating or doing proof-of-concept work with XR swiftly decided to roll out the technology as a means of conducting activities remotely. Rather than continuing to explore the possible transformational shifts it could generate, the focus moved to using the software to ensure that operations such as production lines could be kept working.
BBC News
By Will Smale
image captionAparna Bawa did not get much sleep back in April
Aparna Bawa says that she and fellow Zoom executives were so busy earlier this year that they had to take turns to go to bed. Our CMO [chief marketing officer] and I. I remember back in April we would take shifts to sleep, it was crazy, says Ms Bawa, who is chief operating officer at the US video calls and conferencing firm that this year became a household name. It has been insane, but there is a time and a place. And I personally feel a strong sense of obligation. We [at Zoom] are so lucky that we can provide this service.
Facebook eyes paid Workplace feature expansion, ends free tier
Facebook eyes paid Workplace feature expansion, ends free tier
Social media giant says EU regulations accelerated planned pricing changes and will allow resources to be used to build new features for paid users Credit: Facebook
Facebook launched Workplace in 2016 and has attracted five million paid users, according to data from May, up from three million in October 2019, though there is no information available on the number of free users. Workplace has proved popular among enterprise customers, with large organisations such as Nestle and Telefonica deploying the app company-wide.
Facebook introduced the Workplace Essential tier last year as part of a revamp of its pricing, though it has provided a free version of the application since launch. The Essential tier offers limited access to features such as single sign-on and analytics that are available in paid Advanced and Enterprise products.