The COVID-19 pandemic transformed the way we work, and technologies have been borne out of that shift. Globally, people have moved to remote work and – as the impact of the pandemic subsides – are generally moving into a hybrid pattern. Microsoft Places is a prime example of technology moving to meet the new normal.

Currently in public preview phase, MS Places is being trialed by companies including Symity in a bid to generate feedback for its next iteration as a stable, ready to deploy application. Symity is using Places in an internal “testing and pilot” phase, rather than a full rollout to the entire company. Places integrates office management, desk booking, and analytics into the Microsoft ecosystem and its full release is expected towards the end of 2024 or early next year.

Symity’s Motivation for MS Places Rollout

Symity is a Microsoft house and is using the public preview of Places to get hands-on experience before advising clients on its potential use in their environments. “We are primarily a Microsoft house, so for us, it’s important to be at the forefront of Places to understand how it works and how we can leverage it for our customers,” explained James Hammond, Symity’s Principal Microsoft AV Consultant. The team sees Places as a natural extension of their existing Microsoft-based solutions, from Teams to meeting room systems.

Their internal testing of the system shows great potential but has not been without its challenges. The team noted that the current public preview phase requires a significant amount of technical configuration, with changes needed to make the user experience more intuitive. “Everything is run through PowerShell at the moment, which means it’s your highest-level IT person making the changes,” James explained.

“But they’ve (Microsoft) said that going forward, it will be much simpler for dedicated admins to configure.”

Symity was selected as one of a few partners to provide direct feedback to the Places development team, which they have found very valuable. They were also one of three partners chosen for roundtable discussions with Microsoft on the platform. “They were really receptive to our input on things like making the home screen more visually engaging and surfacing colleague locations more prominently,” said James. Symity expects their feedback to be incorporated into updates they anticipate at Microsoft’s Ignite conference in November.

Aside from the initial challenge of technical configuration required, Symity have been impressed with Places and aim to replace their current desk booking system with it when it’s ready for public rollout. They envisage incorporating it into client ecosystems, where it will be invaluable for hybrid work environments and office space optimization.

James highlighted the key uses as:

MS Places Features and Benefits

  • Colleague location visibility and desk booking in office “pools”
  • Meeting room booking with detailed room information
  • Floor plan integration with interactive maps
  • Facilities management backend for office utilization insights
  • Potential integration with Copilot for advanced scheduling

James sees MS Places being a critical tool in a range of workplaces, with particularly valuable integrations in public services with civil servant employees. It supports hybrid work models and helps transform offices from administrative hubs to collaboration spaces. He pinpoints benefits including Places being able to provide a quick snapshot of where your colleagues are, what day/s of the week they will be in the office, so you can adjust your schedule accordingly to collaborate most effectively. “You can see all your meetings for that day down one side of the places app and there’s just a book button so you can just press that and it will show you available meeting rooms to book a room.”

A recent update is a map / floor plan integration where you can just see your office in a bird’s eye view and click on a space and it will tell you any information about that. This improves the meeting room booking process by quickly identifying the most appropriate area based on its capacity and technological set up – ensuring your premium rooms are not booked for small huddles etc.

Based on the feedback from Symity, Microsoft Places appears to be a promising addition to the Microsoft 365 suite that could provide significant value for organizations navigating the shift to hybrid work. While the initial configuration and setup may be complex, Symity’s experience as an early tester indicates Microsoft is actively soliciting partner input to refine the user experience.

As Microsoft continues to develop Places leading up to its general availability later this year, the tool’s ability to centralize desk booking, meeting management, and workspace analytics could make it an attractive option for companies looking to optimize their hybrid work environments. Symity’s plans to transition their own internal systems to Places underscore the product’s potential, and the anticipated updates coming out of Ignite will be worth watching closely.

Overall, Places seems poised to become a valuable piece of the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, helping organizations leverage the full capabilities of the platform to enhance productivity and collaboration, both in the office and remotely. The feedback from early adopters like Symity suggests Microsoft is on the right track in developing a comprehensive workspace management solution tailored to the needs of today’s hybrid workforce.

Find out more about Symity here: Symity – the Microsoft Teams Experts



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