The workspace explosion

How we can avoid it with life cycle management

In the cross-linked organization, everyone and everything is connected with each other. Employees participate and shape in a wide variety of constellations. New teams, workgroups or communities of purpose are formed every day.

They organize themselves digitally, independently, in virtual workspaces that can be opened quickly and easily with a click.

And when the team is finished with the project, the workgroup dissolves or the community of purpose has fulfilled its purpose, then...

...the digital workspaces are left behind. Many have the potential to become productivity hogs. If it weren't for the functionality of lifecycle management (LCM).

Workspaces have a lifecycle

Our Modern Work solution for Microsoft 365 enables decentralized self-organization for employees and teams. Depending on the situation, standardized, virtual workspaces - in Microsoft Teams or SharePoint - can be created for teamwork.

As Microsoft 365 gets adoption throughout the organization, the number of workspaces increases. Many are used for just a short time, some are created for testing purposes only, and others serve a longer-term purpose.

All workspaces have a lifecycle. In MondayCoffee's Modern Work solution CoffeeNet 365, lifecycle management of workspaces is already integrated to reduce the risk of losing overview and productivity.

Open with a click, close automatically

Microsoft Teams workspaces can be archived manually (which no one does), but there is no automatic mechanism available. Moreover, the associated SharePoint sites remain unaffected.

The LCM of CoffeeNet 365 enables the archiving of Microsoft Teams workspaces AND associated SharePoint sites at the same time to ensure overview and orientation:

• Archived workspaces have corresponding labels in Microsoft Teams and in SharePoint. That way, users immediately understand that an archived workspace no longer functions the same as it did before, in its "active" state.

• Functionally, this means that users have read-only rights in the archived workspace.

• Optionally, archived workspaces can also be hidden from M365 search so that users have less need to search irrelevant items.

Friendly Reminder

CoffeeNet 365's LCM works with automations to reliably remind workspace owners that they should archive or delete virtual spaces according to predefined criteria:

• So-called LCM policies (automatic guidelines) determine after how many days of inactivity workspace archiving should take place. This ensures automatic sorting out of unused workspaces and relieves their owners.

• LCM policies can also be based on more sophisticated criteria, e.g. based on a date field defined in the workspace (e.g. 1 year after the "project end date").

• CoffeeNet 365's LCM also allows multi-level actions, e.g. deletion 2 years after the workspace has been archived. There are countless options available.

• In case workspace owners do not respond to the request to archive, this is taken care of: a time-delayed escalation ensures that necessary action will be taken, e.g. if the owner has left the organization meanwhile.

For more productivity

Complexity and fast pace will continue to shape our working world. At MondayCoffee we want to make working life as easy as possible for employees. Our feature LCM pays off on our promise - with the following benefits:

• Increased user productivity when dealing with many workspaces, as those that are inactive are automatically archived or deleted.

• Valuable additions to existing Microsoft functionality - at no additional licensing cost - for a more comprehensive, multi-level and versatile LCM of Teams Workspaces and SharePoint Sites.

Would you like to learn more about this topic or our Modern Work Solution? We look forward to hearing from you.

Get in touch

Contact: LCM

Let’s go hybrid

Working in homely confinement with nothing but virtual connections to our colleagues, customers and business partners has left us longing for more.  

Since the pandemic forced us into home office, only few real in-person meetings took place – and the most fun ones are still missing: the informal chat by the coffee corner or at a colleague’s desk. Or an afterwork beer. Or the yearly office dinner.  

The question that is popping up increasingly is: Will the old office culture come back? Do we want to go back?  

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ONLY NOW, WE KNOW 

While some industries such as media, telco, IT and energy practiced remote work for decades already, most of us hardly ever worked from home at all. Many of us weren’t even sure if it was such a good idea. I remember discussions about all the downsides of letting employees work from home: how impossible it would be to manage them. How unproductive it would get outside of the office. 

“The biggest challenge: maintaining personal relations.”

Today, the perception of remote work as a feel-good perk for selected employees is gone. One year into the pandemic the advantages have stood the test - and the real challenges have emerged. The biggest one, in my opinion: maintaining personal relations. Yes, we’ve tried the virtual coffee break and the virtual afterwork beer. But - don’t you think it is kind of awkward?  

DISCOVERING A NEW HYBRID 

So, what’s next?  As we get out of the pandemic-inflicted lockdowns, some of our remote work behavior will be here to stay. In fact, a BCG-survey with thousands of managers and employees across Europe, foresees a much higher share of remote work than before. It also says that this will come with several advantages: higher productivity, lower office costs, and higher employee benefits.  
Survey participants were also asked about the challenges of remote work - the answer: maintaining work culture, ensuring team engagement, innovating, controlling and driving productivity will no longer work the same way. 

Some of our old office behavior must and will come back - but in a new form, called hybrid.  A combination of in-person with virtual collaboration. A combination of at-home and in-the-office - but with different parameters or rules. We won’t necessarily go to the office to just sit there at our personal desk. But because we want to meet a specific group of people to collaborate in a specific format. We don’t work from home, just because it gives us more flexibility, or because we belong to the lucky ones who are allowed to do so. But because we are more productive at home for specific activities.  

“Our old office behavior must and will come back - but in a new form, called hybrid.”

At MondayCoffee, where I work, we have moved our information infrastructure to the Microsoft cloud as soon as it became possible about seven years ago. Even before the pandemic, I can’t remember office meetings without remote contributors, digital whiteboards or video conferencing.
And even in our company we are longing to get back into the office, especially for certain collaboration scenarios. Innovation workshops, training sessions and team building just are much more effective, when taking place in-person. And if these are the key reasons for being in the office, this will question the current room layout there: Less individual workplaces, more and new formats of meeting spaces that take into account the specific collaboration requirements.

“Employees have to manage the blurry line between personal and professional lives as well as the difference between – and the combination of – physical and digital work.”

WE NEED NEW RULES  

How to organize ‘hybrid work’ should be openly discussed in companies. New rules need to be established. First and foremost, to ensure the health of our employees.  

Employees have to manage the blurry line between personal and professional lives as well as the difference between – and the combination of – physical and digital work. Companies and their managers need to give employees the right tools and set the suitable rules to keep a healthy balance. Employees need to resist the temptation of checking company posts and notifications when they should be enjoying their personal time instead. But not just the employees; managers also need support in how to lead teams in a hybrid world. 

There is a whole new ground to be discovered. And I’m looking forward, together with my colleagues at MondayCoffee to go and determine the best way of working in this emerging hybrid environment. I’m confident that this time of change will bring us many innovations and opportunities to make work more effective, efficient and healthy at the same time.

Mark Albrecht is Director Corporate Development at MondayCoffee AG..

Source illustrations: vecteezy.com

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

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

Contact us

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

Simple, fast and sustainable – the way we do business, the way we communicate!

Planzer is an international transport and logistics company.  

Already at the age of 3 years Andreas Pfister loved to play with trucks. Later came the trains. He is still at home in this world today. At the family business Planzer. A Swiss transport and logistics company with around 4,800 employees, 50 locations in Switzerland and 5 abroad. Every day, around 1,400 vehicles, 350 rail cars and 3 cargo bikes transport goods for small and large companies from A to B in a sustainable way.

Employees in the office as well as truck drivers on the road benefit from the 'Work Smart' environment.

Andreas started as an apprentice in the dispatch department - one of the most important departments in a transport company! "It is the linchpin between customers and truck drivers. Many people who work in this department used to transport the goods in the past: a helpful experience or rather a prerequisite for being able to do a good job when planning the tours," says Andreas.

Today, Andreas is responsible for project management at Planzer Support National, develops transport concepts for large companies, prepares offers and takes care of customer support. "It's always exciting when the theory is put into practice - in the go-live of the transport concept," explains Andreas. Will it work properly on the rails and roads?

But how is such a transport concept developed today? "Experts from several Planzer locations and customers must be involved. We used to send the documents back and forth by email, but now we use our online FamilyTable. There we also find all the documents relating to Planzer's own quality management," explains Andreas.

With its standardized structure CoffeeNet 365 provides the necessary orientation. 

The FamilyTable is MondayCoffee's out-of-the-box collaboration software. It replaced Planzer's existing SharePoint environment with the aim of creating a platform that combines intranet functionalities, communication and company-wide collaboration in a standardized tool. Furthermore, the solution aimed at a stronger integration and engagement of the employees, especially the drivers on the road.

"With the FamilyTable, I can set up my workrooms on my own, without spending hours on it. Project members can be easily invited, and if I need information from other projects, I have my pages that I follow just a click away. I like that," says Andreas. The tool with its predefined structure also provides the necessary orientation. "This used to be more difficult with SharePoint," adds Andreas. With his sleeves rolled back and a mischievous smile, he adds: "I have to admit, in the document libraries we still occasionally find ourselves using our old-famous file folder structure, even though that wouldn't be necessary anymore thanks to tags and the powerful search function."

It takes time, patience and practice to change the way we work. But it's worth it. "Our truck drivers post pictures on the road today via the integrated Yammer News Feed directly in the FamilyTable. "This reminds me of my time in the dispatch department," says Andreas. Or maybe of his childhood, when he dreamed of driving a big truck!   

Today, Planzer has a forward-looking working and communication environment.

Future Teamwork and Collaboration

Entrepreneur magazine about change in teamwork and collaboration:

The new work era with diversity, distribution, timezones and cultural differences demands better collaboration to embrace team productivity. Productivity experts and futurists say collaboration needs to become a priority to unleash the potential of teams. 

Find the full article here

Millennials want more flexibility at work

Forbes Magazine about flexibility at work: 

A FlexJobs report found that 82 % of millennials said they are more loyal to their employer if they have flexible work options. Even though half of our workforce is able to arrange for flexible work policies, it's taking too long to make this a norm. Part of the reason is simply that change is seen as hard. The initiative "1 Million for Work Flexibility" is advocating for broader adoption of work flexibility. Their goal is to expand awerness around work flexibility policy and proposals nationwide.

Find the full article here