Microsoft has announced a new app designed to make it easier to coordinate remote-working and in-office staff.

Dubbed Microsoft Places, the app includes a number of features such as hybrid scheduling, intelligent booking, hot-desk reservation and way finding designed to support companies working in a more flexible way, where staff might only attend the office in person a few days each week.

Hybrid scheduling makes it easy for employees to signal to each other when they plan to work from home or the office, and this allows Microsoft Places to make intelligent recommendations about the best times to speak with people in person. The aim here is to avoid what has been dubbed ‘commute regret’ – visiting the office only to discover the person you need to see is working from home.

With many companies using less office space and more hot-desking arrangements, hot-desk booking allows users to visually map themselves onto a floorpan, picking the best space for their work or coordinating time with colleagues.

Wayfinding has been designed to help colleagues who might attend offices infrequently – guiding them to meeting rooms from their mobile and generally making it easier for companies to adopt shared work spaces.

Alongside the monitoring tools already rolled out to Teams & Viva, Microsoft Places also adds an extra reporting layer that helps companies monitor home and remote working trends, and make recommendations based on those insights.

 

For Microsoft expertise and IT Support, please contact our team today.

As more and more of us are starting to accept remote working as the new norm, it may still feel unnatural and difficult for those who have not experienced this before. Keep calm and carry on – Lineal are here to help.

Remote working out of the office or from home has increased by nearly a quarter of a million over a decade, according to the office of National Statistics.

We may have lost the face-to-face daily contact with our colleagues and friends, but this does not mean we cannot stay in touch easily and efficiently;

• Through phone calls
• Messaging
• Video calls
• Business platforms such as Teams

With the current global crisis, for most of us we may feel like we are in uncharted waters.   A lot of people have had to adapt to working from home, with no planning and little time to prepare for the change. There are many questions:

• How do you set up a space where you can focus?
• How do you stay connected when you can’t meet face-to-face?
• Why does it feel like it’s never the right moment to take a break?

It’s inevitable that some employees will have questions and may struggle adapt.

 

So what have we learnt so far?  

Microsoft’s article – Making the switch to remote work – is an interesting read, with 5 lessons on how they have approached working from home, and ideas of how best to overcome common hurdles.  The current situation has compelled Microsoft to take a new look at everything from scheduling meetings to the way teams are managed.

In particular, protecting your employers and employees mental health is very important:

• Check in regularly with your team members
• Colleagues
• Customers
• Suppliers

Also check out: https://www.forbes.com/sites/onemind/2020/03/17/when-home-becomes-the-workplace-mental-health-and-remote-work/ to see what some of the experts in the industry highlight could be the key concerns and how to manage them.

 

So how do we make the most of working from home?

Routine is Key:

• Wake up at your normal time, but enjoy a little longer to get ready.
• Have some breakfast an extra cup of coffee, as you don’t have to face the stress of the daily commute – No traffic jams, public transport or queuing, bonus!
• Then structure your day like you would if you were in the office.
• Organise meetings, speak to your colleagues, call your customers and suppliers, adapt your ways of working.

Be productive and proactive, there are many solutions available to you, and Lineal are here to help, if you need us.

There are also various positives for remote working, both for the employee and the employer:

• Increased productivity – working remotely increases productivity work that needs focus by 16 per cent
• Higher morale – a study showed that those who work from home love their job more than those who work in an office.
• Higher employee retention
• Less stress – one in five employees say that juggling their work and personal lives is the main cause of stress
• Some of us may be lucky enough to have some four-legged furry colleagues keeping us company instead on a day to day basis.

Keep calm and carry on, and if you have any IT concerns please contact the Team here at Lineal Software Solutions Ltd.

With growing numbers of employees out of the office in response to Coronavirus, we’ve assembled some great deals, discounts and freebies available online for home-workers, remote-workers, and many others.

 

• Discounted ESET Antivirus

You’ve started using your home laptop or PC for work so you can keep away from the office? You’re not alone.

Lineal are offering a special 15% discount to those who need ESET antivirus cover on their home desktop or laptop (both PC & Mac.) As your home computer becomes your work computer, it’s important it has the same level of antivirus protection.

 

• Free Microsoft Teams

For companies that don’t have Office 365 collaboration software already, Microsoft are offering a 6-month free trial of the freemium version of Microsoft Teams – permitting audio/video conferencing, document sharing, instant message and more across PC/Mac, tablet and smartphone.

Perfect for working from home, the freemium version does include low data limits (10GB shared, 2GB personal) but Microsoft have temporarily lifted the user-limits to accommodate more businesses.

 

 

• Discounted MacBook Air

This past week Apple have cut the price of their ultra-portable, highly popular MacBook Air model to £999 inc VAT.

Famously small enough to fit inside a Manila envelope and perfect for taking home, the latest lightweight model is made from 100% recycled aluminium, comes with a 13-inch Retina display, and boasts a 256GB solid-state hard-drive – twice the previous storage capacity. Extra discount is also now available for Education customers.

 

• Free Gamma Collaborate

For businesses and organisations using Gamma Horizon phone systems with us, Lineal are offering a minimum of two-months free trial of Gamma Collaborate for all users.

Gamma Collaborate extends your deskphone to the Horizon app on your mobile, PC or Mac, and includes instant-message, audio/video conferencing, screenshare, presence notification, extension dialling and more. If you have call-handling settings like hunt groups or number presentation set up, this will work automatically from the new devices.

To enrol your users in this promotion – fill in our form here.

 

• Audible Stories

As of last Thursday, audiobook giant Audible.com have launched a free service called ‘Stories’ to introduce free audiobooks to children (and indeed, re-introduce much-loved classics to adults.)

Available in multiple languages, you can discover Audible stories here.

 

• Adobe Creative Cloud for Students

Adobe are making Adobe Creative Cloud apps available to all existing higher education students and educators users free of charge, until at least 31st May 2020. Registered institutions must enrol for access beyond their existing campus desktop apps, but you can learn more about the opportunity here.

 

• Peloton

For the restless, exercise app company Peloton has extended its free trial to 90-days – the infamously expensive Peloton bike itself is not required, and classes incorporate yoga and other kinds of work-outs to take advantage of throughout the shutdown.

 

For technology assistance and IT support: please contact Lineal’s team today.