According to the data released by Harvard Business Review1, time spent by managers and employees in collaborative activities has inflated by 50% and upto 80% of the workers’ time is spent on collaborative activities like calls, meetings and mail responses.
Hence, modern workplaces need a proper business productivity tool to make collaboration smooth, efficient and quick. It should be secure, scalable, reliable, cost-effective and most importantly should be able to meet the demands of the mobile and global workforce.
The ultimate productivity suite by Microsoft – Office 365, offers a smart cloud-based tool for communication and collaboration, popularly known as Skype for Business.
Skype for Business – a quick introduction
Microsoft Skype for Business comes as an instant messaging platform with Skype for Business Online or Skype for Business server. Now also offered as a tool under Office 365 suite, it helps you add upto 250 people to an online meeting and comes with enterprise-grade security. With this, you can easily manage your employee accounts and connect with your teams and clients, quickly and efficiently.
Skype for Business comes with a host of features that can help your organization be more productive in 2019 and the years coming ahead and generate better results.
7 features of Skype for Business that can help your organization be more productive
Skype for Business features make it suitable for businesses of all sizes. From ability to conduct meeting on the go to recording the meetings on your mac or android, it offers amazing set of possibilities.
Let’s take a look at them:
1. Portability
Being based on the cloud technology, Skype for Business lets you connect with your workplace from anywhere, anytime and through any device. Thus, your office travels with you. You can dial in from anywhere through an internet connection and participate in video, audio and web-based conferencing.
2. Enhanced Accessibility
With Skype for Business, you have easy accessibility to meetings and calendars. This helps you stay updated with the latest tasks, schedule and track your meetings on the go and act quickly.
3. Online Meetings
Conduct meetings like you’re all in one room, when in reality you are not. It enables you to engage in audio, video and web conferencing on the go. You can schedule meetings in advance. Skype for Business can be easily integrated with Outlook, enabling you to schedule any meeting through Outlook within a few clicks.
Source: Skype for Business
4. Record Skype calls Mac, desktop and mobile devices
Skype for Business allows you to record important meetings with your colleagues. The call recording functionality is completely cloud based and is available on the latest version of Skype on most of the platforms.
You can record Skype calls for Mac too using various third-party software available in the market, like Movavi’s Screen Recorder Mac.
As soon as you begin recording, everyone in the call is notified. After the call, the recording can be saved and shared for the next 30 days.
5. Phone support
Move away from the proprietary telephone systems to more efficient way of making calls using Skype for Business. You can simply make, receive, and transfer calls using phone, Mac, PC and mobile.
Source: Microsoft/Office 365
6. Control Dashboard for participants
Skype for Business offers different meeting controls, like:
- Ability to mute all or some individual attendees
- Ability to hide names behind the display pictures
- Ability to block any attendee’s video
- Invite more participants to the meeting
7. Whiteboard tools
The whiteboard tool helps you illustrate ideas, take notes or capture any session on a virtual whiteboard. You can further conduct polls for audience and post Q&As.
Wrapping up:
Communication tools like IM, video calling, voice and recording helps organizations better organize team work and achieve higher results. Collaboration inefficiencies can discourage team members from working together. Skype for Business with its amazing capabilities is a great tool to meet the modern collaboration needs of a digital workplace.
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Sources: Collaborative Overload
