With COVID-19 continuing to challenge the world at large, organisations have started making the move to full-time remote work for the safety and well-being of their employees. This has meant a huge reliance on cloud services.
Over the past several weeks, organisations like Microsoft have come together to battle the global health pandemic. During this time, companies around the world are adjusting the way they manage their daily work and how their workforce continues in the face of extraordinary changes to their professional and personal lives.
“With a new way of working now becoming a reality for businesses the world over, our customers are starting to realise the true power of the cloud more than before. As expected, there are many questions about what organisations are doing to ensure business continuity during this time, and we are ready to answer,” says Jared Spataro, corporate vice president for Microsoft 365.
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During this time, communication is key – the organisation aims to continue communicating regularly and openly, so customers can have insight into what is being seen, learnt and done. As companies operationalise to address new and unique challenges, Microsoft has mobilised its global response plan to help customers stay up and running during this critical time.
“We are actively monitoring performance and usage trends 24/7 to ensure we are optimising our services for customers worldwide, while accommodating new demand. We are working closely with first responder organisations and critical government agencies to ensure we are prioritising their unique needs and providing them our fullest support. We are also partnering with governments in Africa and around the globe to ensure our local data centres have on-site staffing and all functions are running properly,” Spataro notes.
In response to health authorities emphasising the importance of social distancing, the organisation is supporting many large-scale corporations, schools, and governments in the mobilisation of remote workforces. Solutions such as Microsoft Teams is helping millions of people adapt to remote work. Dynamics 365 Customer Service has been leveraged to help contact centre employees provide consistent, personalised support while working remotely. Ensuring government and organisational functions can continue while keeping safe distances is critical to our society today.
“As demand continues to grow, if we are faced with any capacity constraints in any region during this time a clear criterion has been established for the priority of new cloud capacity. Our top priority is going to first responders, health and emergency management services, critical government infrastructure organisational use, and ensuring remote workers stay up and running with the core functionality of Teams. We will also consider adjusting free offers, as necessary, to ensure support of existing customers,” Spataro says.
Communication with customers will continue proactively and transparently about their cloud policies through the Microsoft Trust Centre will be a commitment of continuous support during this period.
“These are certainly unprecedented and challenging times. It is not business as usual. But, together, we can and will get through this,” Spataro states further.
