Hybrid work has become the norm for numerous businesses, yet the journey towards refined work methods continues. Organizations are agilely responding to the dynamic demands of industries, businesses, and customers.
Urgency to Innovate: Vital for Financial Services
The need to modernize and innovate has gained unprecedented importance, especially for companies known for delivering impactful financial advice grounded in expertise.
Alexforbes: Driving Change through Technology
Recognizing this urgency, financial services firm Alexforbes took decisive steps. As part of an office revamp, they seized the opportunity to enhance meeting spaces at their Sandton head office, aligning with evolving workplace dynamics.
This initiative involved reassessing collaborative practices and finding advanced technological avenues for fostering collaboration.
Preserving Quality Interactions in a Hybrid Environment
Etienne Naude, head of technology at Alexforbes, emphasizes, “Expert advice, underpinned by deep insights, remains at the heart of our services to individuals, employers, and institutions. The quality of our interactions defines the client experience.
Operating in a hybrid environment doesn’t alter this.” He adds, “We sought a technology-based collaboration solution that facilitates the meaningful conversations our clients rely on.”
Microsoft Teams Rooms: A Catalyst for Interactive Meetings
Enter Microsoft Teams Rooms, the solution connecting individuals across the hybrid workplace, nurturing interactive team meetings irrespective of location.
These spaces are equipped with tools for real-time whiteboard collaboration accessible from any device. They also enable seamless wireless sharing of rich media and files.
Intelligent content capture and AI processing empower participants to enhance and digitally share physical objects, ensuring clarity and vibrancy.
Enhancing Engagement Through Intelligent Features
Moreover, multiple video streams and AI-powered active speaker tracking, using audio, facial cues, and gestures, identify the current speaker in the room. This approach ensures visibility, audibility, and engagement from any location, fostering inclusivity during meetings.
Naude notes, “The rooms, with all their features, have transformed our workspaces into relaxed, modern, and inviting environments. They are standardized, integrated, and user-friendly. We needed to trust that the solution would seamlessly enhance engagement.”
Expansion and Future Alignment
Alexforbes currently boasts five boardrooms equipped with Microsoft Teams Rooms at its Sandton offices, with plans to scale to 12 meeting rooms and five mobile units. Future expansion aims to cover branch offices across South Africa.
Strategic Alignment with Technological Excellence
Choosing the right tech solutions contributes to experiences in line with Alexforbes’s broader strategic and business objectives, including:
- Maximizing the value from tech investments and partnerships
- Fulfilling the purpose and outcomes of the company’s IT cost optimization strategies through more effective asset utilization.
A Prolonged Partnership for Value and Impact
Over nearly two decades, Microsoft and Alexforbes have nurtured a partnership of mutual influence, harnessing their brand strengths to enhance capabilities that deliver value and impact.
Naude concludes, “Beyond solutions, the partnership’s true value lies in Microsoft’s ecosystem and expertise. This positions Microsoft as the ideal partner to amplify IT’s business value. Leveraging technology’s power and collaborative solutions, we can continue delivering expert insights and financial guidance that genuinely impact lives.”
