- Microsoft Teams hits a new milestone this week with more than 75 million daily active users recorded.
- Dialog Group Berhad, Mah Sing Group and Sunway Group have all succeeded in transitioning to remote work using Teams thus allowing them to maintain business momentum amidst the MCO.
- Teams are also available to all organisations for free for six months, to help aid businesses affected by the MCO and equip themselves for remote work in the future.
As Microsoft Teams hits a new milestone this week with more than 75 million daily active users recorded, Microsoft continues their efforts to empower Malaysian organisations to embrace the digital shift and enhance their remote working experience. Since the announcement of the nationwide Movement Control Order (MCO), businesses across the nation have sped up their digital transformation process using Teams, modernising their workplace with digital solutions that allow them to achieve more while working from home.
“Having made the shift to Office 365 a few years ago, Teams was on our Digital Initiative roadmap from early on and we envisioned it being fully incorporated in due course,” said Edwin Choy, Senior Manager of Group IT Services, Dialog Group Berhad (Dialog). “However, when the MCO was announced, we fast-tracked our plans and migrated the whole organisation in just one day, effectively shifting our entire business to the platform. In doing so, we managed to ensure business continuity as we embrace this new normal of remote working.”
As a leading integrated technical service provider in the energy sector with operations in ten countries, Dialog required a secure platform that would allow effective communication and collaboration amongst its employees and customers. They managed to achieve this with the use of SharePoint as their platform for crisis communication and Teams, where meetings were conducted securely and collaboration was made easy. Within a month, over 900 meetings involving 1,800 users took place, including 11,000 calls and 700,000 messages, exemplifying how Teams has greatly supported the shift in work culture within Dialog.
Similarly, Malaysia’s leading property developer – Mah Sing Group (Mah Sing), also looked to Teams in their efforts to make the shift to the digital work environment. As a traditional brick and mortar business, remote working was a relatively new concept to Mah Sing, but one that they were keen to explore as part of their digitalisation process. To enhance collaboration within the business, Mah Sing initially adopted Teams to overcome operational gaps and enhance work efficiency. This adoption proved invaluable following the MCO announcement, as it helped make the transition to remote work smooth – swiftly allowing them to continue business from the safety of their homes.
“Microsoft Teams is more than just a tool which changes the way we communicate; it has transformed the way we think about work. A big challenge that large organisations tend to face is keeping everyone in the loop. However, this technology has increased transparency across all our job functions and job grades, fostering high collaboration and trust,” said Rachel Leong, Director of Group Strategy & Operations, Mah Sing Group.
Another Malaysian business that has benefited greatly from the adoption of Teams is Sunway. As an organisation with a diverse range of offerings in various industries, Sunway needed a robust collaboration and productivity tool that can align and scale well with their dynamic workforce. Having already adopted Office 365, Sunway was able to take full advantage of their access to Teams and succeeded in minimising the disruption caused by the MCO and Conditional MCO (CMCO).
“The key to sustaining business momentum amidst the MCO and CMCO is indeed collaboration,” said Evan Cheah, Sunway Group Executive Vice President for the President’s Office. “We need to ensure that our workforce has the tools needed to continue working from home, thereby ensuring that our clients are receiving the service that they require. Teams enabled us to not only engage with our clients, but with one another. It kept us closer, broke down silos and facilitated the sharing of information and knowledge – all whilst ensuring the safety of our employees.”
Since making the transition to remote working on Teams, Sunway saw an average of 100,000 instant messages exchanged on a normal working day. Over 1,500 online meetings were held in a single week on Teams across multiple devices, which is perfect for Sunway’s diverse and mobile workforce.
Sharing his thoughts on the need for Malaysian organisations to embrace remote working is K. Raman, Managing Director, Microsoft Malaysia, “The world is currently entering the era of remote everything. Be it business, leisure, or commerce – everything we do today is done remotely, and with the right solution, organisations can certainly sustain themselves even during disruption. With the current shift to remote work, the entire world has seen two years’ worth of digital transformation take place in the span of just two months. Even here in Malaysia, we are seeing digital transformation accelerate at a pace that is unprecedented, a positive sign that will undoubtedly help boost our nation’s economy well beyond the MCO.”
Microsoft encourages businesses in Malaysia to leverage Teams, which is available for free for six-months under Office 365 E1 trial. To leverage this opportunity during the MCO and beyond, please find out more by visiting here.
Microsoft Malaysia is also offering its solutions to SMEs in partnership with Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) via the #DigitalVsCovid movement. More information on this can be found here.
