What exactly is a "modern workplace"?

What has long been standard in large companies is slowly but surely finding its way into small and medium-sized companies too: the modern workplace. But what exactly does the term "modern workplace" mean?

What exactly is a "modern workplace"?

Created on:

February 3, 2021

Created on:

February 3, 2021

For many, "the modern workplace" is a vague buzzword. It is, per se, if you don't define the term further. For us at itnetX, the modern workplace is a constantly changing collection of technologies, paradigms, approaches and products. They enable people to work together simply, efficiently and securely. The focus here is on simple and secure options for data exchange and the use of different devices, as well as time and location-independent access for all employees.

To make the whole thing a little more tangible, we have compiled a list of use cases. We show why the use cases are important and how they can be addressed with the help of Microsoft 365:

Collaborate and communicate freely. On the device of your choice.
Secure access to important business data. From anywhere and at any time.
Ensure that sensitive information remains within the organization.

Collaborate and communicate freely. On the device of your choice.

We are convinced that you need to be able to interact with employees, customers and suppliers as if they were sitting right next to you. Instant messaging and audio or video calls overcome physical distance and make it easy to connect with colleagues.

The Microsoft 365 apps, SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, OneDrive for Business and Teams enable seamless collaboration. With Teams as a hub for communication and collaboration, video and audio calls can be easily accepted or contacts established with employees, suppliers or customers via the chat function. Even phone calls via landline numbers are possible via Teams. In collaboration with Sharepoint and OneDrive for Business, Teams allows you to access, share and edit files or documents from a central point.

As the Microsoft 365 apps are available on all major platforms, users can be productive whenever their individual schedule allows. Always on the device of their choice, of course. There are many additional services that come with a Microsoft 365 subscription: Sway, Forms and Planner are just a few of these simple tools to make a big impact with little effort.

Secure access to important business data. From anywhere. At any time.

In a cloud-first world, the focus of IT protection measures shifts. In an on-prem world, you mainly focus on securing networks with segmentation, firewalls, VPNs and the like. But today, your main attack vectors are the digital identities of employees stored in Azure AD. The term "zero trust" was coined to describe this paradigm shift. No matter where someone wants to access company data from, you have to assume that the identity is compromised and appropriate measures must be taken to verify it. Even if they are accessing company data from a supposedly secure perimeter, such as the office network. "Never trust, always verify" is the overriding principle here.

Multi-factor authentication must be used to ensure that only employees really log in and not someone who has stolen the identity. During the login process, a second factor, such as an SMS passcode or similar, is defined and used. Using the Microsoft Authenticator app can simplify the process even further.

Ensure that sensitive information remains within the organization.

You want to make sure that your sensitive data remains under your control. It's easy for an employee to simply download all of your company's files without you even realizing it. Or share sensitive documents with people who shouldn't have access. This is where the security features of Microsoft 365 can unleash their true potential:

With Unified Labeling, you can classify your documents and emails with labels. Based on these labels, you can define and enforce policies to ensure that the document or email is handled according to your definition.

For example, you have a classification and label called "Internal". You want to ensure that all documents marked as "Internal" cannot be passed on or sent to external recipients and that they are encrypted and stored for at least ten years.

Unified labeling does exactly that for you. In this case, it prohibits a user from sharing or sending that particular document externally by any means. This is done by adding metadata to a document and/or a header to classified emails.

It also enables the automatic classification of documents based on keywords or content found in the document. Unified Labeling consists of the cloud-based, central instance and or the extension (iOS, Android) on all devices that access your apps and data.

Concentrate on the essentials

In our view, all companies, large and small, should benefit from modern, simple, efficient and secure IT infrastructures. However, the continuous management of workstations, peripherals, networks, servers and other components is a task that often takes up time that could be used for strategic issues.

That's why we offer a comprehensive service with our OneX Framework, which takes the pressure off you in your day-to-day work and allows you to handle your company's IT with ease.

OneX is a modular managed service for the outsourced operation of Microsoft Azure & Microsoft 365 environments. The model offers mandatory and several optional service modules that are dedicated to the operation of the various elements of your cloud infrastructure and can be optimally adapted to your needs.

Find out more about our Offer.