Three ways Microsoft 365 works with workspace scheduling technology

The ways in which we all work may be changing like never before – but that doesn’t necessarily mean things are going to get simpler. It’s becoming increasingly clear that the way forward for many businesses will be a ‘hybrid’ model, where employees work some of the time from home, and book workstations or meeting rooms in advance for the times when they need to come into the office. This delivers big benefits in terms of flexibility and scalability for business and workforce alike, but it also needs a strong and comprehensive management system to make it all work smoothly.

It’s for this reason that Condeco has developed a comprehensive workspace scheduling solution. The solution is mindful that employees already have enough different applications filling their day-to-day duties, and adding another one won’t necessarily help matters. That’s why Condeco is designed with a range of integrations with Microsoft 365 functions, so that users all over the world can manage their working arrangements in perfect harmony with their email, calendar, address book and other everyday business solutions.

In an uncertain business climate, Condeco’s integrated workspace technology solutions are helping employees move forward in three vitally important ways:

Bringing schedules together

Microsoft Outlook is where the vast majority of Microsoft 365 users manage their day-to-day duties. It’s the place where employees should be able to access every important piece of information about their upcoming schedules, whether that be meetings, video calls, work-from-home days or specific time blocked off for research or other specific duties.

Workspace bookings, whether that be a shared workstation in the office or a meeting room, are no exception to this. Condeco’s Microsoft Outlook Add-In means that bookings made within Condeco automatically update information in a user’s Outlook calendar. The same applies the other way around: users can book workspaces directly from their Outlook calendar, and the Condeco system is instantly updated with that information.

This integration works far beyond user schedules, too: Condeco gives each workspace its own schedule in the same way as individual employees. So when a user wants to book a space for a certain time, they can check availability within that space’s schedule and then block that time off when the booking is made. All this information is then instantly synchronized through Exchange Sync.

Bringing people together

Having employees working in different places at different times adds an extra layer of complexity to organising collaboration. But navigating through this complexity is critically important, so that the business can still operate smoothly and so employees can enjoy the flexible working models they desire.

The starting point on most businesses’ journey to effective flexible collaboration is Microsoft Teams. However, Teams on its own can’t be used for booking the physical meeting spaces – along with the video conferencing equipment – needed for meetings containing both physical and virtual attendees.

To enable this, Condeco’s Exchange Sync can also be applied to Teams, meaning meetings can be arranged for both types of users, in the right space and with all the right equipment to hand, all within one platform. All this information is then synced to the Condeco and Microsoft accounts of every relevant user, which includes meeting invitations for every attendee.

Bringing technology together

Of course, enabling all this integration from a user experience perspective doesn’t mean very much if the technology isn’t there to support it. Condeco is therefore hosted on Microsoft’s Azure Cloud, so the platform not only runs reliably, but can be scaled to any number of buildings, employees or workspaces within an organisation.

But the technological capabilities don’t stop there. Condeco collects a huge amount of workspace utilisation and occupancy data which can be integrated with the analytical force that is Microsoft Power BI. This helps businesses gain accurate, data-driven insights about how workspaces are really used, so that they can make informed decisions about reshaping workplaces, or even scaling real estate up or down. In a fast-evolving business landscape, being able to make the right responses could be absolutely crucial.