The rise of remote work is transforming how and where work is done.
Technology enables seamless collaboration across geographies, allowing for greater flexibility and work-life balance. Organizations are rethinking traditional office setups and embracing remote work as a permanent feature.
This is explored and documented by Microsoft in their research paper: “The New Future of Work“. They describe how Covid-19 forced a reevaluation of what work is, and where it is conducted.
The research has focused on two major trends of change in office working: Remote, hybrid working and Artificial Intelligence. They identified that an organization’s culture is a key enabler for change (McKinsey & Company, 2021) and it must support virtual teams, where employees should be encouraged to work collaboratively, even when geographically dispersed.
Future Work Architecture
It is further explored in detail across a series of videos from the research team, which defines the series of components to realize a Future Work strategy:
- Team Collaboration – Great collaboration requires thoughtful choices that improve (or eliminate) meetings. Discover how we can use technology like video and AR/VR more intentionally—reducing employee stress and security challenges.
- Hybrid Workspaces – By one rule of thumb, workspace expenses equal 10% of wage costs, which means well-crafted workplaces that boost productivity can pay for themselves. Discover how blended spaces can optimize teamwork and efficiency.
- Asynchronous collaboration – People spend 250% more time in meetings than before the remote work transition. Discover how asynchronous collaboration can help workers get what they need to stay productive—even when they choose to skip a meeting.
- Individual Productivity and Well-Being – Many people feel more productive working remotely, but nearly as many prefer working onsite. There’s no one-size-fits-all answer. Discover how a hybrid approach can boost productivity.
- Organizational Well-Being – People who feel valued at work are less likely to suffer burnout or quit. Discover how enthusiastic workers in a strong workplace culture can help an organization flourish.
- AI-powered Social Platforms – AI-curated online communities can break down workplace siloes and improve knowledge sharing—leading to happier employees. Discover how enterprise social platforms can jumpstart innovation and boost the bottom line.
Empowering the Hybrid Workforce
As Lloyds Bank describes the key motivation for virtual desktops is this new normal of a highly distributed workforce, with the primary motivations being enabling a distributed hybrid workforce, and providing them access to tools like Microsoft Teams.
Lloyds has staff and partners all over the world who need to access their business applications, but their previous Citrix-based VDI platform was centralized and on-premise, causing them performance and cost issues.
Moving to a Cloud native approach with Azure Virtual Desktop has streamlined the cost base and also enhanced performance for all global users, and furthermore integrates naturally with their very popular use of Microsoft 365 across the enterprise.
