August 6, 2020: Microsoft has announced the general availability of its Power Platform Return to the Workplace solution across India. Introduced at its flagship partner summit Microsoft Inspire 2020, this pre-built solution will help organizations plan, coordinate and manage the return to physical workplaces with confidence. Designed for fast deployment and customization, the Power Platform Return to the Workplace solution is a comprehensive, end-to-end set of modules built on a secure and compliant platform. Together, the modules provide an end-to-end experience for executive leaders, facility managers, employees, managers, as well as health and safety leaders. The solution will be free to download and use for businesses of all sizes as an integral part of all existing and new paid Power Apps licenses.
Underlining its commitment to enable small and medium businesses (SMBs) in the country to bounce back, Microsoft is also offering the Power Platform Return to the Workplace solution with its Back2Business Solution Boxes for business continuity. Including offers on Microsoft Teams and Windows Virtual Desktop, these boxed packages are focused on providing immediate, secure and easy-to-deploy remote working solutions.
Reopening, or returning to the workplace, will be a phased process and it will be vital for organizations to be equipped to give their leaders and employees timely and accurate information. According to Rajiv Sodhi, COO – Microsoft India, “As the economic recovery begins, organizations are returning to their workplaces with stringent new guidelines for health and safety; stewardship of employees and customers; and rebuilding the business. The ability to be agile, react swiftly to changing conditions, and adapt will be core to the success of companies. Fast feedback loops and acting on data available within the organization will matter most for accurate and informed decision making. We believe the new Return to Workplace solution will help our customers reopen responsibly, monitor intelligently, and protect continuously with solutions for the rapidly evolving needs of the workplace.”
The Power Platform Return to the Workplace solution comprises
- Location Readiness: allows facility managers and task force leaders to determine the readiness of their facilities and efficiently manage their safe reopening. Facility managers and task force leaders can use the Location Readiness dashboard to quickly make informed decisions by using critical factors like COVID-19 infection rates and the availability of supplies.
- Employee Health and Safety Management: empowers employees with self-service tools that help them work safely, confidently and productively. They can check into work remotely, self-screen before entering the building, reserve a meeting room virtually and more – including from a mobile app.
- Workplace Care Management: gives health and safety leaders the tools to actively manage COVID-19 cases, identify hotspots for safety improvement, and import data from third party systems to determine possible exposure. Executive dashboards enable monitoring of all Workplace Care Management data for a consolidated view.
- Location Management: gives facility managers the tools they need to keep their locations open safely. Location Management helps maintain a safe environment with tools for monitoring occupancy, health supplies, safety procedures and other facility-related best practices.
The Power Platform Return to the Workplace solution provides an opportunity for Microsoft partners to help and support customers with customizations and deployment. It offers a foundation that partners can integrate and extend to meet unique customer requirements, with the solution available at no additional cost. Designed to accelerate workplace readiness for stores, factories, offices or even schools, this pre-built solution can help organizations save time and money by reducing risk and streamlining their workplace reopening process.
About Microsoft Power Platform and Power Apps
Microsoft Power Platform is a low code platform that allows organizations to analyze data, build solutions, automate processes, and create virtual agents, to meet business challenges effectively.
Power Apps is Microsoft’s low code application development platform that spans Azure, M365 and D365 as well as stand-alone applications, empowering everyone, whether a citizen developer, an IT admin or a Pro Dev to collaborate and solve business problems and innovate faster.
Low-code platforms enable a visual approach to building apps and workflows. They reduce the time and effort to build apps, automate workflows and derive value from data. They also bridge the gap between IT, professional developers and the business, driving a collaborative approach to problem solving, lowering the technical barrier to solving business challenges with technology.
About Microsoft India:
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) is the leading platform and productivity company for the mobile-first, cloud-first world, and its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Microsoft set up its India operations in 1990. Today, Microsoft entities in India have over 11,000 employees, engaged in sales and marketing, research, development and customer services and support, across 11 Indian cities – Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, New Delhi, Gurugram, Noida, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune. Microsoft offers its global cloud services from local data centers to accelerate digital transformation across Indian start-ups, businesses, and government organizations.
