Why has Microsoft Places Taken So Long to Come Out?

Places was first announced as a concept in 2022, since which time Microsoft has been quietly ‘laying’ the foundations needed to make Places a reality. These include:

• A new workspace resource mailbox that includes the ability to book from a ‘pool’ of desks
• A Hybrid RSVP that lets you indicate whether you plan to attend a meeting remotely or in person,
• The ability to set your ‘typical’ schedule for the week, and, of course,
• AI (Copilot).

We’ve been anticipating the release of Microsoft Places, and it’s no surprise that it has taken a while to develop.

Consider this: Pre-booking a meeting room and an available workspace for an office visit is straightforward. However, co-ordinating this for when your co-workers also plan to be in the office is difficult.

The biggest challenge to date has been having a way to reliably establish the future whereabouts of co-workers.

• Accurately tracking intended locations: The new Outlook feature that lets you set your typical working week is OK(ish) BUT it’s not currently dynamic. E.g., it doesn’t automatically update to reflect an ‘RSVP – Yes in Person’ on a day you wouldn’t normally come in.
• Overcoming human nature: Anything that tracks planned locations has to be super-easy or automated. Without this, people will simply forget to change their location status, or it just won’t be a priority for them.

Microsoft Places is set to address such issues.

For example, Places will make it easier to adjust your ‘location plans’ directly from Outlook calendar and Teams. You will also be able to ask Copilot to adjust your schedule based on your in-person meetings.

At the point of scheduling a meeting in Outlook you can also access something called the peek card, which shows your closest collaborators who plan to come into the office and allows quick access to space booking. Copilot will also recommend the best days for you to go into the office for maximum collaboration opportunities!

The option to add a Teams ‘presence signal’ to indicate when you’re in the office will also help colleagues and team members to meet up and socialise spontaneously.

Can we Roll Out Microsoft Places now?

Microsoft Places is currently in public preview and it’s already looking good.

• If you’ve set up your office locations, office floors and the workspaces available to book, you can start to select workspaces based on your requirements.

• If everyone has configured their work locations in Outlook (by selecting a specific office, and not just ‘office’)- you’ll also be able to see who’s in the office for an ‘in-person’ meeting.

The reality is, however, that it’s going to be a little while before the full capabilities of Microsoft Places can be taken advantage of.

For example, future capabilities in Microsoft Places include:

• Auto-release policies: The ability to automatically release a workspace if it is unoccupied.
• Places Finder: The ability to book desks or rooms via interactive maps.
• Analytics: Access to intended and actual occupancy and utilisation data.

Achieving the features listed above will require additional hardware (such as room panels and occupancy sensors), not to mention office space mapping, equipment inventories and more.

And, dare we say, it might take a bit longer for Microsoft Places to match and surpass some of the basic features currently that you might be used to if you’re currently using a third-party workspace booking systems in this area.

You may also encounter some practical roadblocks. For example:

• You might need to keep using the Classic Outlook client because it lacks some features you need for business applications, or
• You may have an incumbent third-party room and desk booking system.

There’s also the inevitable disconnect between how a technical solution is implemented and maintained, and the practical needs of your facilities teams or office managers, such as the ability to easily change resource attributes and move bookings around.

And finally, and this may be a total roadblock: From what we can see, Microsoft Places will require each user to have a Teams Premium licence, which starts at £5.80 per person, Monthly.

Our advice is therefore to start exploring the early release within a small team of designated stakeholders that includes your facilities team, to see what it delivers.

Get Ready to Go Microsoft Places With Essential.

As a long-term Microsoft Partner, Essential has been delivering workspace and resource booking solutions to Microsoft enterprises for over 15 years.

As strong advocates of leveraging native Microsoft functionality where it makes sense (such as using Microsoft resource mailboxes), we recognise the introduction of Microsoft Places as a significant opportunity for organisations.

We are now poised to help organisations reassess their current workspace needs, explore, and implement new possibilities with Microsoft Places – or even a system that builds on the existing ‘Room Finder’ capability in Outlook and Teams, Teams Rooms and Bookable Desks in Teams.

Our value add services include:

• Migration from third-party workspace booking solutions to one that takes advantage of native Microsoft workspace booking (using Room Finder or the future Microsoft Places)
• Digital signage that works with the workspaces you have in Places
  (e.g., Teams Rooms, regular Meeting Rooms, desks devices & QR codes)
• Indoor mapping services
• Visitor management that works with regular Outlook and Teams workspace bookings
• Catering and other facilities requests (e.g. seating layouts)
• Advanced reporting and analytics on workspace utilisation.