In 2019, Igloo conducted a global Digital Workplace Study which surveyed hundreds of companies on their digital workplace strategy, tools and technologies in an effort to help us shape our corporate strategy moving forward. As the results trickled in, one significant trend emerged: Microsoft tools and technologies are now dominating the new modern digital workplace landscape. From Azure cloud hosting to O365 productivity tools and the emergence of Microsoft Teams for employee messaging and team collaboration.

Here are some quick facts: 

• There are now over 155 million Office 365 business users (2018).
• 1 in 5 corporate employees now use an Office 365 cloud service. 
• There are now 500,000 businesses using Microsoft Teams, including 91% of the Fortune 100 (2019).
• Outlook mobile app users reached 90 million in 2017.
• Microsoft office has been downloaded on Android over 1 billion times (2018).

A modern digital workplace strategy

It's an undeniable fact that Microsoft is playing and will continue to play a significant role in shaping the new modern workplace. So, how can Igloo partner with Microsoft to create a digital workplace that employees want to use - not just because they have to? By providing a digital environment that drives employee productivity, engagement and innovation because it's easy to use and works seamlessly with the tools and technologies employees use daily such as email, messaging, file sharing and meeting calendars.

To achieve this lofty goal, Igloo and Microsoft have joined forces to deliver a "Better Together" strategy for the modern digital workplace, bringing new and innovative solutions, apps and technologies together into a single digital destination. Our goal is to help organizations with their digital transformation initiatives and address the systemic issues impacting workplace productivity and employee engagement.

Screenshot - the modern digital workplace

Going beyond the "SharePoint Overlay"

Our "Better Together" strategy takes old SharePoint Overlay implementations to a whole new level. It's about bringing together the right tools and creating solutions in your digital workplace which solve real business challenges. Every digital workplace solution offered by Igloo will seamlessly integrate (where applicable of course) with the Office 365 suite, making it easy to take advantage of the benefits these applications offer, and the investment made by your organization. Employees can easily access O365 content and apps all within their Igloo digital workplace. Plus, Igloo is 100% hosted on Microsoft Azure so you can benefit from robust standards for security, privacy, compliance, and performance.

In the very near future, Igloo will be offering a series of integrations and functionality enhancements with Microsoft Teams. Our goal is to unify corporate and team-level communication and collaboration to greatly enhance productivity by enabling organizations to finally deliver a single holistic digital destination for their employees.

Not sure how to leverage Microsoft integrations? 

To help you better understand how to leverage Microsoft integrations within your Igloo-powered digital workplace, we’ll be releasing a Microsoft Handbook as part of the Digital Workplace Playbook.

Stay tuned for an announcement about the release of this new Handbook that will explore:

• How to identify which integrations address your unique business challenges
• How to identify which integrations meet the needs of your employees
• How to weave these integrations into your mission-critical digital destinations