Every crisis offers new learnings and the Covid-19 situation is no different. The lockdown and social distancing have made remote working and learning the new normal. “As we enter the eighth week of a nationwide lockdown, we have started embracing new ways to survive and thrive,” says Samik Roy, country head, Modern Workplace, Microsoft India. Teams is the fastest growing app from Microsoft, a unique communication and collaboration platform that provides the ability to work from anywhere, anytime and on any device. “In April, globally, we saw more than 200 million Microsoft Teams meeting participants in a single day, generating more than 4.1 billion meeting minutes. Thirty out of the country’s top 50 companies are working remotely on Microsoft Teams,” he tells Sudhir Chowdhary in an interview, while emphasising that ‘remote everything’ trend will sustain and tech intensity will continue to accelerate. Excerpts:
How is Microsoft supporting its customers across sectors in these challenging times?
The lockdown and social distancing have made remote working and learning the new normal. Technology is the enabler for almost all that we do, be it for work, communicating with friends and family or ordering your grocery. This has accelerated India’s organisations and individuals on the path of digital transformation.
Currently, Microsoft Teams is being used across various industries, including healthcare, education, information technology, manufacturing, banking and financial services and governments. Thirty out of the country’s top 50 companies are working remotely on Microsoft Teams. Organisations such as Wipro, Mindtree, Aditya Birla, educational institutions such as British School, Amity Institutions, Delhi Public School International and medical care companies such as Fortis and HealthCare Global are leveraging Microsoft Teams extensively every day. Many of the group companies of conglomerates such as Tata, Reliance, Mahindra and L&T are leveraging the Microsoft workplace suite of products.
What do the Teams usage numbers say?
Data trends and conversations with our customers highlight that the world is realising that we can effectively connect across distances in a way we have perhaps never thought was possible before. In April, globally, we saw more than 200 million Microsoft Teams meeting participants in a single day, generating more than 4.1 billion meeting minutes. Teams has more than 75 million daily active users and two-thirds of them have leveraged Teams beyond just communication (video/audio calling, chatting, meeting etc) and have used its collaboration features like co-authoring, co-editing, sharing of files and more.
How is Microsoft ensuring security and privacy of users of Teams?
We made Teams available to everyone for free and our productivity solutions have helped organisations in ensuring business, learning and healthcare continuity. At Microsoft, privacy and security are ingrained in the core design principles of every product. In Teams, we provide privacy and security controls for video conferences, safeguard user privacy, secure user identity and account information, as well as protect customer data and defend it against cybersecurity threats.
How do you see technology impacting the way we work even after this crisis is over?
It’s inspiring to see how our technology is helping organisations and individuals continue to work and learn amid the current global crisis. Every single day, we live our mission of empowering every person and every organisation to achieve more. And a moment comes, but rarely in history, when we rise beyond ourselves and keep more organisations up and running with secure tools. Although the way we work has changed, it is heartening when our customers tell us that our drive to connect with each other is often stronger than the circumstances that keep us apart. We are humbled and privileged to be able to serve the country and its people.
When we overcome the Covid-19 crisis, children will go back to their physical classrooms, and physical meetings will be reinstated in our calendars along with the virtual ones. But the “remote everything” trend will sustain, and tech intensity will continue to accelerate. Parents, students and teachers should continue to communicate and collaborate for newer learning approaches.
It’s encouraging to learn that the future operating model of Tata Consultancy Services will have 25% of their workforce at their facilities and they will continue to drive high productivity with anytime, anywhere, collaborative working.
Geographically dispersed teams should continue to connect and collaborate securely and efficiently virtually. That’s how we will be able to transform ourselves digitally and usher in a new era of higher efficiency and productivity.
