New forms of collaboration through Microsoft Teams

Step by step to the digital workplaceArbeitsplatz

The digital transformation, changes in society, and not least COVID-19! are presenting many companies with new challenges. – Thomas Schneider, CEO of the company swr+ wants to invest in concepts of digital transformation and thus aims at the concept of the digital workplace in a straightforward and consistent way. In spring, swr+ reacted very quickly due to COVID-19! and introduced Microsoft Teams as a communication & collaboration platform.

To the digital workplace with teams

Customer

The company swr+ was founded in 1948 by Prof. Robert Sennhauser and has since been anchored in the Limmat Valley for over 70 years. Since 2020, swr+ has been operating under its current name and is led by CEO Thomas Schneider. The company employs around 50 people, who work in the fields of engineering and architecture. Its main customer is the public sector. In this context, swr+ acts as consultant, planner, engineer and service provider, and always also as trustee for the client’s assets. Each of the approximately 50 employees of swr+ handles projects interdisciplinary from acquisition to controlling individually and independently.

Initial situation

COVID-19! Arguably the 2020 challenge of all time. – “Quickly into the home office, now or never!” Thomas Schneider emphasizes that swr+ sees the change in IT infrastructure as positive and has taken a big step towards digitalization. However, for him it was not only the pandemic that was decisive for investing, but he also clearly mentioned the generation of “digital natives”. Workplace requirements and priorities have changed and demand new innovations from employers. – No sooner said than done! – swr+ looked for suitable solutions as well as rapid implementation.
The transformation to the “digital workplace” in cooperation with redIT can begin.

Solution: Teams from the M365 Portfolio

In order to take a first step towards a «digital workplace», swr+ found what it was looking for in the Microsoft portfolio: Microsoft Teams – a platform that centrally promotes modern, interdisciplinary teamwork and takes it to a new level. It not only brings people together, but also content. This was the start of the «digital transformation» journey. swr+ is aiming for internal communication, collaboration and also telephony to run exclusively via the Teams platform. Thomas Schneider compares Microsoft Teams to a workshop, where individual tools can be used flexibly and at will, or not. At swr+, he wants to prevent know-how losses, for example, through the «OneNote» feature, in which employees share their notebooks on customer projects. From 2021, swr+ wants to handle all project processing, including meetings, via teams. Not least to ensure efficiency gains for customers as well. Another major milestone on the digital journey will be the optimization of the existing IT infrastructure outside of Microsoft 365. Whether to Azure, to redIT in the data center or a hybrid solution with parts at the customer’s site, is currently still being worked out. In other words, the story will continue. – Do not miss the train while reading!

Conclusion: New way of thinking & working through Microsoft Teams

Digitization is not only changing the way we think, but also the way we work. Continuous observation seems unavoidable today.