Top Spot of the Week: McCann NY, Microsoft Bring Us "The Power of Teams"

As self-quarantining and social distancing become the new normal, people have had to find new ways to connect and communicate. And some vital services have had to find new ways to keep going, to help out, to make a difference. As a result, lots of people, companies and organizations are using Microsoft Teams. St. Luke’s Health is saving lives. The London Metropolitan Police are keeping people safe. L’Oreal is making much needed hand sanitizer. And Università di Bologna continues to educate. And there are many more inspiring stories as well.

There’s a growing belief that this sudden, globe-spanning move to remote work will be a turning point in how we all work and learn. Already, we are seeing how solutions that enable remote work and learning across chat, video, and file collaboration have become central to the way we work. We have seen an unprecedented spike in Teams usage, and now have more than 44 million daily users. All the while keeping people’s information in Microsoft Teams safe and secure.

Microsoft is sharing the inspiring and encouraging stories of the people, companies and organizations using Teams to make a difference in the world.

This series of films was created entirely on Teams. There was no director, no crew and no traditional video shoot. With the help of these real people using Microsoft Teams, the entire “production” was captured on Teams, during real Teams meetings. In the end, it’s an inside look at how people everywhere are connecting, contributing and working through these extraordinary times.

This film show us how: 

• The Metropolitan Police Service is running its London COVID-19 technology response on Teams. Across uniform police patrol officers and forensic teams, up through command teams and including specialists and operational support, this vital organization is now keeping London safe by “living on Teams.”
• Founded in 1088, Università di Bologna is the oldest university in the world. “Unibo,” as insiders refer to it, first reached out to Microsoft at the end of February to ask for support in bringing their classes online to help create learning continuity for the students. In its first week, the university went live with 50 percent of the classes, and by the second week they were at 100 percent, educating 87,000 students with more than 3,600 courses online, with positive feedback from IT, faculty, department, the professors and students.
• St. Luke’s University Health Network serves approximately one million people across 10 counties in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Since March 15, when staff began virtual visits with patients via Teams, the network has completed over 19,000 patient visits this way, averaging about 5,000 a day. This allowed them to continue critical outpatient visits while protecting both patients and physicians from COVID-19 exposure and preserving valuable resources like masks and gloves. Tablets have also been installed in patient rooms so providers could engage with infected patients via Teams, minimizing exposure while still allowing for face-to-face connections between patients and caregivers. This nationally recognized network with over 15,000 employees in Pennsylvania and New Jersey is using Teams for videoconferencing and telemedicine, especially with older patients who most vulnerable to COVID-19.
• In response to COVID-19 L’Oréal quickly converted a facility in France to produce hand sanitizer and has expanded the effort to 28 facilities across the globe. Microsoft Teams allowed this to happen rapidly with efficient and effective coordination and communication. L’Oréal has now donated more than 10 million liters of hand sanitizer to hospitals and companies around the world who need it to operate. “It is clear that Teams is the backbone of our organization with over 55,000 employees using it across the globe,” said Jean Claude Le Grande, EVP Human Relations. “Teams has made this transition to remote work seamless,” added Barbara Lavernos, EVP of Operations.

The series of films will run in Microsoft’s core markets (U.S., U.K., France, Germany), and will also roll out in eleven additional countries: China, South Korea, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Australia, Japan, and Hong Kong.