Everything just a few clicks away

"Didn't know that!"

"I missed that news."

"I didn't hear about that."

Since the hybrid world of work has helped define the New Normal, statements like this from employees have become more frequent. We no longer feel as strongly integrated as part of a team as we once did. The employer has become more abstract.

While I used to catch the latest company gossip during my coffee break, nowadays a lot of things remain hidden from me. Partly even things that an employee needs to know to be efficient, to be innovative and to drive company growth.

EMPLOYER ENGAGEMENT MUST BE PUT BACK ON THE AGENDA

The virtual portion of cultural interaction between companies and employees and among employees, has become an much more important role.

With Viva Connections, Microsoft brings a technical solution - especially for mobile users - to strengthen the sense of togetherness.

We have integrated the new functionalities and benefits of Viva Connections into our Modern Workplace solution. So that employees can keep their finger on the pulse of what's happening every day, even if they're not always on site.    

PERSONALIZED NEWS FEED 

Using our Modern Workplace solution, employees can access their personalized news feed directly on the Microsoft Teams app. Posts can be liked, commented on, forwarded or even saved - just like you're used to on Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn.  

The news feed brings the latest or most relevant content directly into employees' field of sight - wherever they are. 

YOUR OWN WORK MANAGEMENT DASHBOARD

Especially when you're on the road, accessing your most important documents, communications, tasks, meetings, etc., can be complicated. Not with our Modern Workplace solution. Through Microsoft Teams, each employee has their own dashboard at their fingertips, with personalized quick links to everything they need day-to-day.

Linked items are:

• Tasks from Microsoft Planner that need to be completed,

• documents that have been recently edited,

• meetings that will take place soon,

• workspaces that have been visited frequently,

• approvals that are pending or that you want to record,

• and much more

GOODBYE BROWSER!

Another advantage of integrating all Microsoft technologies through our modern workplace solution is the elimination of the browser. Employees have the ability to manage their day-to-day work in a secure, regulated and uncomplicated way via the Microsoft Teams app. That way, nothing stands in the way of the hybrid work model.

Would you like to learn more? Arrange a meeting with us.

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Using TIME effectively

Our CEO Reto Meneghini writes about the past year in his blog post (German only):

"We had the opportunity this year to try out a lot of new things in the world of work. Using the learnings gained from this, the task now is to shape the 'future of work'."

ONE learning is being discussed very intensively at the moment: the downside of working from home. The blurring of the borders between work and private life and too much disconnection among work colleagues can have a negative impact on the well-being of employees as well as on the performance and innovation capacity of teams and organizations.

We have finally moved away from seeing remote working primarily as a feel-good issue for selected employees - and we are already learning about the limits of 'mass-scale working from home'.

The work model of the future is hybrid

Like so often, it's a matter of finding a middle ground. A combination of virtual and face-to-face collaboration, of home office and in the office - but with new rules (see blog post "Let's go hybrid") and with the help of the right tools. So that employees can work - and live - in a 'healthy' way. So that leaders can successfully manage their teams remotely and companies can make the best use of a hybrid work model.

We want to respond to the changing nature of modern collaboration: first and foremost by helping our clients to understand how the factor ‘time’ is dealt with. Based on this, it is important to set the right course for healthy modern working - in the hybrid model.

“Setting the course for healthy modern working - in the hybrid model.”

Workplace Analytics

For this purpose, two dimensions are important: that of the individual worker and that of the teams and the organization.

Employees should be able to access and use the right tools from anywhere to maintain healthy separation between work and private life. Microsoft has developed MyAnalytics for this purpose: With this tool, employees can better manage their working hours and increase their well-being at work based on individual data analysis. Among other things, MyAnalytics helps me to create important free spaces for my personal tasks in my tightly packed schedule.

Microsoft Workplace Analytics (WPA) extends the idea of MyAnalytics to the enterprise level, targeting decision makers rather than individual workers. Team leaders, department managers, and corporate CEOs can use WPA to more easily understand how the resource 'time' is generally used in the company:

• Time for individual work versus cross-team and cross-company collaboration.

• Time for innovation and creativity versus time for day-to-day tasks

• Time for meetings versus focus work

• Time for the team versus own work

• Time for oneself versus time for the community

Microsoft Workplace Analytics provides data-driven insights into work patterns that impact well-being, productivity and business performance. With this understanding, challenges of various kinds can be addressed in a targeted or preventative manner: Work patterns that increase the risk of burnout, reduce efficiency, or impact team performance can be identified. Resource-intensive activities can be examined even more specifically in terms of cost/benefit.

The analytics app supports companies in developing a deeper understanding of their internal organization and deriving opportunities for improvement from this - which can be particularly helpful for healthy, modern work in the hybrid model.

No conclusions about individuals

Important to know: Protective measures such as anonymization, aggregation and 'differential privacy' are integrated in the tool by default to protect personal data. Thus, no conclusions can be drawn about individuals. WPA can be used in compliance with legal regulations such as the GDPR.

Where to start?

Microsoft Workplace Analytics opens up many new possibilities. The question that comes up is thus, which are the objectives to be pursued.

We recommend that companies start with small steps: gain initial experience in teams before taking a closer look at the organization as a whole. One example is the sales team: based on behavioral patterns, successful sales teams can be compared with less successful ones. Based on this comparison, data-driven action plans for optimization can be recommended and implemented. Changes in behavioral patterns can be made visible through regular measurement and analysis.

This is just one example of many. As a certified WPA Microsoft partner (see box), we can support companies in the use of WPA - from initial analysis, configuration and monitoring to evaluation and consulting for improvement programs.

Interested in what opportunities WPA offers your organization? We are happy to talk about it with you.

Get in touch

Contact form - Workplace Analytics

Andreas Hänni is Partner and COO at MondayCoffee AG.

FEINTOOL: An essential step towards the digital workplace

Feintool is an internationally operating technology and market leader in the technologies of fineblanking, forming and e-sheet stamping for processing steel sheets. These technologies are characterized by cost-effectiveness, quality and productivity. Founded in 1959, the company has around 2700 employees in Europe, the USA, China and Japan.

Starting point

The Feintool Group wanted to renew its intranet platform with the help of Microsoft tools. Collaboration was only possible to a limited extent in the historically grown system landscape. Collaboration across the group was to be standardized, simplified and made more transparent - on any device, anywhere and at any time.

Approach

With the implementation of the collaboration platform CoffeeNet 365, the use of Microsoft 365 technologies was simplified and the right mix was found for the Feintool Group - based on everyday use cases.

Results

On the new platform, Feintool employees can now communicate via the start page, find important information on the intranet on a daily basis and find out group-wide news. At the same time, users can collaborate easily and efficiently on projects or topics across departments with the enterprise solution.

Download Case Study

FEINTOOL: Case Study Download

Jump-start for Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is currently used wherever possible to facilitate teamwork in the home office. Not everyone is familiar with the tool and needs help, especially in the beginning. 

We are happy to provide some training videos prepared by Microsoft to help you get started: 

Teams Beginner Videos

• How to create teams and channels 

• Overview of teams and channels 

• Create a post 

• Save posts or messages 

• Upload and share files 

• Working together on a file  

Chat, Calls & Meetings 

•  Start chats and make calls 

• Create Instant Meetings 

• Create a meeting in a channel 

• Attend a team meeting   

• Attending a meeting on the road   

Content sharing 

• Sharing a screen during a meeting     

• Share PowerPoint slides during a meeting

Would you like to learn more about Microsoft Teams to realize the full potential for your team or your company? Our specialists will be happy to support you. 

With its expertise MondayCoffee is one of the leading Microsoft Gold Partners for teamwork. 

• We tackle the various challenges together with you: 

• How to use the tool? 

• How do you organize yourself as a team with this software? 

• How to ensure effective collaboration and leadership? 

• How can Microsoft Teams be integrated in your existing infrastructure? 

Get in touch

Get in touch

SERAFE: Introduction of a state-of-the-art communication solution in no time

In January 2019, SERAFE AG replaced Billag to collect radio and television charges from Swiss households. 

SERAFE contacted MondayCoffee in the autumn of 2018 for support. They needed a telephone system and a contact center in order to efficiently handle inquiries by phone and later also via chat. 

MondayCoffee designed in no time an Enterprise Skype for Business environment in the data centers of SERAFE AG and integrated the contact center solution LUCS from Luware to ensure easy and efficient communication among employees as well as with partners and customers. 

Download Case Study (German only)

Serafe: Case Study Download

Microsoft rolls out Office 365 in Switzerland: What can you expect?

Whether private or business - we all live in the cloud. But what does it mean in concrete terms to leave your business data completely in the hands of Microsoft? And what will change when Microsoft offers its Office 365 on its own data centers in Switzerland, which provide local and geo-redundant data residency? 

Back in the summer, we reported that the Microsoft Cloud will move into Switzerland in 2019. Recently, we were able to hold an exciting event with customers and prospects where everything revolved around this topic - with a focus on Office 365, which has been available for a few days now. 

Our conclusion: Whether in terms of productivity, efficiency or innovation, data management using cloud technology is the future. According to our CEO and founder Reto Meneghini, the infrastructure and organization behind the MS Azure and Office 365 Cloud is beyond all doubt. The security offered - the combination of confidentiality, integrity and resilient availability - is significantly higher than companies can achieve on their own. From now on, Swiss companies will also benefit from the cloud solution – with Swiss data centers. Find out about the most important changes here.  

Primo Amrein, Cloud Lead, Microsoft Switzerland

Your advantages with the Swiss Office 365 

More productivity, efficiency, security - or simply put flexible scalability? The benefits of the functions that are gradually being rolled out in the Swiss Microsoft Cloud are many. Primo Amrein, Cloud Lead of Microsoft Switzerland, tells us directly about the latest developments. 

As in other countries, Microsoft is building a cloud setup in Switzerland - with two geo-redundant data centers in Zurich and Geneva, where customer data is mirrored. The concept is that customers can store their data in the Microsoft cloud without leaving the country. The various services are currently being rolled out step by step. This will be of particular benefit to regulated industries that want to take advantage from Microsoft 365 security and compliance standards while at the same time rely on local data residency. Office 365 is now available. Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform will follow in the course of the next few months. 

Your advantages with the Swiss Microsoft Cloud: 

• Contractual obligation that customer data ‘at rest’ remain securely in Switzerland 

• Faster server access due to lower latency values (the actual speed boost depends on the actual network situation) 

• Office 365 pricing will continue to be offered by EU data centres (higher prices will be charged for Azure services) 

• The same compliance standards as Microsoft worldwide 

Up in the Sky is down to Earth! 

Where data is involved, there is also the potential for legal conflict. Klaus Krohmann, lawyer at BDO AG, shares his views on the legal aspects of this topic for Swiss companies and authorities: Basically, it is striking how unproblematic the Swiss Cloud is from a legal point of view - and that significant advantages can result from it. 

1. Retention regulations: A Swiss cloud offers the advantage that data can be delivered to Swiss authorities at any time and the functions of the cloud technology can be used. This is of particular benefit to government agencies, which can now also store sensitive data in the cloud. 

2. Data protection: The more sensitive the personal data, the more risky it is to store data abroad. This is a major advantage for a Swiss data residence. It also eliminates the need to inform people where their data is stored. 

3. Disclosure obligations: Local data storage has advantages, particularly in administrative proceedings, civil disputes and criminal proceedings. Access is easier and cheaper within Switzerland. 

Klaus Krohmann, Lawyer, BDO AG

CLOUD Act & Data Cloud: What does the law mean for the cloud? 

In European countries like Switzerland, different legal norms apply than in the United States. What is new is the potential for conflict that every new transnational technology brings with it on the subject of data protection. One example is the so-called CLOUD Act ("Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data"). This is an American law of 23 March 2018, which, despite its abbreviation, has nothing to do with the data cloud, but is aimed at the handling of data overseas. According to this law, IT service providers such as Microsoft are subject to an obligation to surrender data and must give US authorities access to stored data - even if the data is located outside the USA. The enforceability of this US law in other countries such as Switzerland, where in some cases contradictory legal norms apply, is highly controversial. This means that it is unclear how corresponding US criminal threats would result - regardless of whether the data is stored in the cloud or on an on-premise server. 

Ultimately, each company must decide for itself how to deal with such legal uncertainties. 

Would you like to learn more about Microsoft Swiss Cloud with Office 365? We would be happy to talk to you. 

Get in touch

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SWICA: Implementation of a flexible and efficient modern work environment with CoffeeNet

SWICA is one of the leading health and accident insurance companies in Switzerland. 

In order to provide SWICA employees with a flexible and efficient modern work environment, the outdated SharePoint platform was replaced and SWICAnet was introduced. Today, SWICA employees can communicate and collaborate in a more productive way. 

Download Case Study (German only)

SWICA: Case Study Download

GENERALI: Improve staff mobility and collaboration and simplify customer service

The Swiss subsidiary of the Italian insurance group Generali, with around 1,800 employees and 63 agencies, has put out a tender for the restructuring of its IT infrastructure in 2016. The general contractor Avectris won the overall tender and was looking for the right partner in the areas of Unified Communication & Collaboration (UCC) and call center solutions. 

MondayCoffee designed an Enterprise Skype for Business environment for Generali in the data centers of Avectris. We seamlessly integrated into Skype for Business the contact center solution LUCS and an audit-compliant voice recording solution from the market leader Verint/Verba. The mobility of the Generali employees and customer service via phone has been significantly improved. 

Download Case Study (German only)

GENERAI: Case Study Download