How to get more out of Persistent Chat and get remote working ready

Remote working has already seen a consistent upward trend, but for the past month, remote working has become the new norm. While organisations adjust working methods to accommodate the change, there are some unique communication challenges to overcome. With a surge in the number of remote workers, it is important to respond quickly to avoid disruption and keep productive. 

In this blog post, I will outline some of the communication challenges of remote working and how to get Skype for Business and Persistent Chat ready for remote working with MindLink Anywhere.

Remote Working Challenges

The challenges associated with large scale remote working exist at different levels, from software choices to IT policy and user experience to technical support.

Setting up the home work station for online communication

With more people working remotely than in the office now, most communication takes place online. Replacing in-person with online interaction means all staff needs to be equipped with the same tools as their office computer at home. Ensuring all users are correctly set up with the tools they need to stay in contact with their teams and colleagues can be difficult and time-consuming, particularly for IT staff.

Defining the right policies and protocols

Getting your remote users setup is the first step, next, each organisation or specific team will need to define a communication protocol that establishes which platforms, channels and lines of communications should be used and when. Without a well-defined protocol, communication can be chaotic. Some team members could be discussing a project over email where others are instant messaging using Skype for Business and Persistent Chat causing them to be out of sync.

When it comes to messaging communications, in this case, Skype for Business and Persistent Chat, there is more to consider. By leveraging Persistent Chat and employing the right chatroom strategy every department, team and even project workgroup can have an individual chatroom for a focused discussion. If this is not well structured, chatroom discussions can become diluted and inefficient.

Focus on the user experience

Assuming that users will become increasingly reliant on messaging to stay in touch with their teams, it is also important to note that online discussions may become more active and frequent. The question here is whether the current Skype for Business user experience is suited for high volume, real-time messaging.

MindLink Anywhere

To address some of the remote working challenges, MindLink offers MindLink Anywhere.

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Web access to Persistent Chat without installation

With MindLink Anywhere users can connect directly and securely to Skype for Business for Instant Messaging and Presence, and Persistent Chat for all their chatrooms through their preferred web browser. As a Skype for Business web client, users do not need to install MindLink Anywhere and can access all chat capabilities by pressing a web link and entering their usual username and password.

Single pane of glass user experience

The single pane of glass user experience enables users to monitor multiple conversations and chatroom discussions in real-time. Because all chat activity is visible within a single window, users can save screen real estate, this is especially useful when working on a laptop or desktop with a single monitor. It enables users to work in one application while still keeping an eye on the conversation.

Modern messaging features

MindLink Anywhere builds on top of the Skype for Business platform by adding a range of modern messaging features, commonly seen in consumer messaging applications, such as the following:

• #Hashtags, create threaded subtopics within a chatroom
• @Mentions, direct a message to a specific contact
• Individual user colours, easily distinguish messages from different users
• Group aliases (nicknames)
• Advanced notification options, individually enable sound or toast notifications per chatroom
• Customisable interface, expand/collapse frames and minimize whitespace between messages
• And more...

Remote Working Ready with MindLink Anywhere

Using MindLink Anywhere to connect to Skype for Business and Persistent Chat can help organisations shift communications online and empower remote workers to get the most out of Skype for Business and Persistent Chat.

MindLink Anywhere allows access to Skype for Business and Persistent Chat over the web and makes online communications easily accessible and more convenient, without users needing to install anything.

With the right chatroom strategy in place, MindLink Anywhere provides a platform for structured, focused discussions which are easy to monitor, even at high message volumes.

The combined result is a modern enterprise messaging solution for improved communication and productivity for remote working.

Want to find out more about MindLink Anywhere?

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