Addressing the immediate priorities of telecommunications organizations
As the world continues to respond to the outbreak of COVID-19, our thoughts are with the people affected and the medical professionals working around the clock to help those most in need. At Microsoft, we’re working to do our part by ensuring the safety of our employees, striving to protect the health and well-being of the communities in which we operate, and providing technology, information, and resources to our customers to help them continue to do their best work.
We have heard from many of our Telecommunications customers around the world regarding the significant challenges of the moment—in particular regarding the ongoing collaboration and productivity needs of your technical and business operations teams and maintaining the performance and security of your network infrastructure.
To that end, I wanted to share key resources, solutions, and best practices to address some of the immediate priorities and needs of Telecommunications organizations.
To help you focus on the health and well-being of your employees and access the most current data, situation reports, and analysis:
- You can leverage this Crisis Communication App with steps to quickly build and implement an app for your organization to coordinate information-sharing and collaboration in response to evolving conditions.
- Use the Bing Coronavirus Tracker to monitor and share the latest fact-based information, statistics, and news on the current state of the virus.
To enable remote collaboration and productivity, for the C-suite and all employees:
- Your network and business operations teams are no doubt geographically dispersed, and those resources are likely now even more separated due to work-from-home requirements. What’s more, productivity and information-sharing within your field service organization has never been more important. Microsoft Teams allows your employees to chat, meet, call, and collaborate all in one place, across multiple devices, no matter where they are. We’ve made Microsoft Teams available for free through commercial offers with Fast Track as a free enablement for configuration and adoption for eligible customers. It’s also available through the freemium version.
- We are also working with service providers such as Rogers to accelerate the adoption of remote workplace services and solutions (including a Microsoft Teams offer) by their own customers.
- We have compiled expertise and guidance to optimize remote work environments from our first-hand experience over the last few weeks.
- We are also sharing the comprehensive work-from-home guide we created for our employees, which you can tailor for your own organization.
- Get connected with our Enabling Remote Work community to stay up-to-date on best practice sharing for all employees.
- Microsoft Stores are ready to train you and your employees. Leverage our global Store teams to virtually deliver tailored training across key Microsoft workloads. Reach out to your AE or Customer Success Manager to schedule a training.
For enhanced privacy and security due to the increase in remote workers:
- To support remote and mobile workers with enhanced security considerations, such as your network and field service teams, Windows Virtual Desktop provides a comprehensive desktop and app virtualization service running in the cloud, with built-in security and compliance features.
- Threats to data and network security are elevated due to the increase in information sharing and remote access by at-home and mobile workers, and Azure Sentinel makes threat detection and response smarter and faster with AI.
- As Telecommunications teams of every type are adjusting to full-time remote collaboration, here is advice for CISOs on keeping organizations secure.
As we continue to work on additional solutions, services, and support for Media & Entertainment organizations, you can find the latest information, updates, and resources from Microsoft here: Responding to COVID-19 together.
Also, for an update directly from Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella, read the recent post on LinkedIn with his current perspective and more on how Microsoft is working to support employees, customers, partners, and communities.
