84 FEATURE areas such as warehouses, which improved efficiency and reduced costs by 30 per cent. The move also improved frontline employee productivity, with a reported 15 per cent time saved on routine tasks. Administrative staff also benefited from the shift due to their newfound ability to manage domestic and international calls via Teams. Power-up through partnership To ensure it can fulfil the requirements of different organisations and consistently deliver an efficient Teams experience, Microsoft works with key partners to provide a range of hardware and software solutions that can be integrated with, or added on to, the platform. For instance, organisations that require hardware such as audiovisual devices and displays or room-booking panels can obtain these from certified partners like Crestron, Epos, Jabra and Shure. “We work hard with industry leaders that build devices designed to meet stringent requirements in order to be certified for Teams,” says Bukshteyn. “This certification programme sets a high standard to assure customers that these devices offer excellent audio and video quality, as well as a seamless integration with Teams.” Meanwhile, partners such as CallCabinet, CallTower, Jamf, Spectralink and Tollring offer software solutions that support organisations with analytics, device management, regulatory compliance and more. “On the software side, Teams offers a powerful platform that allows our rich ecosystem of independent software vendors to build solutions that can enhance the platform,” says Bukshteyn. “These solutions focus on high-end contact centres, compliance recording and more, allowing customers to meet their business communication needs. Microsoft provides a certification programme in this area too.” Microsoft also works with its partners to discover potential use cases for Teams and test new features that can improve efficiency. For example, as part of its collaborative relationship with Microsoft, the EY Global Tax team had the opportunity to preview Copilot in its early stages to see how it could apply generative AI to its solutions. EY Global Tax collaborated with Microsoft to build a proof of concept for a Teams plugin that allows users to access data, generate reports and discover analytics through natural language queries. The EY Global Tax team expects to see timesaving benefits from the tool. For example, if an employee is in a meeting and a question comes up, they can ask Copilot and receive an answer immediately, rather than having to leave Teams and access the data elsewhere. Photo: iStock/AzmanL
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