Creativity is like a living organism. It requires the right conditions to appear, careful nurturing to become more capable, and a diverse ecosystem to thrive. However, just like any organism, it can disappear in an instant if its environment doesn’t provide the conditions it needs to grow and reach its full potential.

Ironically, nothing generates the mass extinction of creative ideas faster than alienating cubicles. So organizations quickly began to change from the inside to create environments that foster innovation and dynamic work methodologies. With the advent of digital, they realized that not only did physical spaces need to change, but also their digital counterparts. Let’s face it—when was the last time you read a company-wide email reply and thought it was a good thing?

In this video, you’ll learn the inspiring example of how J. Walter Thompson—one of the largest communication agencies in the world—has mastered the art of digital collaboration thanks to Microsoft Teams. From collaborating with the world’s leading experts in prosthetics to give a veteran the ability to once again swim with his family, to simply networking and having fun, you’ll see how Teams is much more than a work tool—it’s a hub for inspiration and creativity.

So far, we’ve extensively covered the topic of how digital transformation enables governments to become more efficient and increase the scope of their services. We’ve learned how digital allows them on a general level to better manage their budgets, protect their taxpayers’ data, increase their productivity, integrate siloed information to gain accurate insights, and eliminate paperwork.

But what about the people who use these digital collaboration tools on a daily basis?

In this video, you’ll step into the shoes of Raymond, a social worker who spends most of his time in the field solving complex cases that require careful analysis to make the right choices for the city’s most vulnerable citizens. You’ll also learn how the New York Administration for Children’s Services office uses Microsoft Dynamics 365 to give their workers access to accurate insights that allow them to successfully care for the wellbeing of the city’s children.

TGI Friday’s popular and rapidly growing restaurant franchise in the UK wanted a more scalable, flexible platform for core business processes. To support its ambitious growth, the franchise is consolidating business operations starting with financial management on Microsoft Dynamics 365. Built-in functionality and ease-of-use mean that TGI Friday’s can continue to onboard more business processes while expanding its franchise. Benefits include lower costs, easier access to data, and better insight.

Thanks to cloud technology, researchers can take advantage of faster, more advanced and more scalable resources that enable them to perform tasks that they can’t manage using in-house resources. The cloud also enables scientists to quickly run tests across a variety of platforms and virtual machines with different specifications, which can aid rapid prototyping, interoperability testing, and performance testing. A cloud solution can also provide researchers with ways to augment their existing resources by handling peaks in demand and reducing competition for local resources, when multiple teams are working toward an upcoming deadline. By reducing dependence on on-site computing, research projects can increase efficiency and scalability, and deliver greater results faster.

Watch this video to learn how Australian National University (ANU) is using Microsoft Azure to help decode more than 7 billion base pairs of DNA in the human genome and take its research further than ever before.

Customer experiences are everything. Here’s the thing: it doesn’t matter what you think they are, it matters what the customer perceives them to be. This means that accurately obtaining feedback from them is vital to keeping your business alive and consistently delivering the service that your clients expect from you.

In theory, this is what customer services is for. But your customer services teams are only as effective as the data you give them to work with. You could have the best resources in the world, but if they can’t quickly and accurately access your clients’ data the moment they need it, they’re dead in the water. And so, too, is your business in the long run.

In this article, you’ll learn 5 ways in which CRM software can empower your customer-facing teams with tools to better address client issues and draw insights to create a more empathic service. You’ll also learn how it lowers the cost of each customer interaction by lowering the need to address recurring issues, and how it can become crucial to other departments such as sales, marketing, and development.

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