Re-imagining the office of the future with Microsoft

Why should companies start thinking about transforming their workspaces with technology?

The workplace is core to the experience we give our workforce. Technology is pervasive and changing rapidly – and a key driver in rethinking the workplace.

Artificial intelligence, mixed reality and machine learning are enabling richer experiences that allow us to see and feel the world in new ways.

CEOs today are not asking “If” their companies should transform; they’re seeking answers to: “How quickly can we transform?” At Microsoft we see the most dynamic workplaces changing in three areas, culture, space and technology.

How people work, where they work and the tools people expect are changing.

Today, we get to pause and consider, what kind of workplace do we work in today, and what do we want to work in the future. This opportunity has implications on innovation and competition but also on how active we can be in shaping our workplace and the experiences we give our workforce.

Next week, we are hosting ‘Reimagine Office of the Future, here in Singapore at the Cocoon space. We give business leaders an insight into the changing trends in the modern workplace, the shifting expectations of the workforce and ultimately how organisations can transform by driving the right culture of empowerment with the right tools at their disposal.

How can such use of technology help to improve business outcomes?

The technology you put in the hands of your employees to tackle their workload is the glue that holds together your highly satisfied, engaged employees’ experience from one space to the next.

Employees are the key to any businesses’ future success. The tools you adapt in your company shows the investment you are making in your employees.

Companies today are using premium technology not just to help fuel great work, but as a major driver for hiring talent but also in retaining talent, making sure digital tools are meeting employees expectations.

With the right tools at your employees disposal, you can streamline your operations, transform your customer engagement and ultimately lead the way in the market for your Industry.

Technology shouldn’t be adopted for the sake of adopting technology, but for the capabilities and possibilities it allows your organisation to embrace. Couple of things to think about:

• Does your workplace culture support your employee’s desire for flexible work styles?
• Are your employees given the resources to best tackle their own to-do list?
• Do you have modern devices in place to protect your company’s data while your employees are on the move?
• Do you provide them with desktop capabilities away from their desks?
• Have you invested in technology that seamlessly facilitates brainstorming sessions in disparate locations?
• Are your conference rooms supplied with technology that allows for ideas to never be left behind in the room?
• Do you provide seamless, cloud-based connectivity for employees to move freely around the office without losing any work?

What are some recent tech developments in this area? 

As new form factors enable new ways of working, new hardware evolves to become more specific.  We focus on what commercial customers need and introduce new categories that infuse cutting-edge technology into the mainstream to elevate the entire industry.

[For example,] the Surface Hub is a large screen experience that has fundamentally changed the way groups of people work together by making meetings more engaging and productive, creating new ways to create and brainstorm, and bringing intelligence and data into the heart of teams and collaboration to help people make informed decisions.

With HoloLens we’ve pushed the boundaries of what we previously thought possible in augmented reality and the way it has captured people’s imaginations and applied to various industries and workplace scenarios has been amazing to see.