When we think of Microsoft, we usually think of Windows, Office, Azure, Xbox, and a range of well-known products that serve billions of users around the world, helping them use technology to change their lives and work. Previously, we have taken you to see Microsoft's Chengdu office, and Microsoft headquarters in Beijing, as the core base of the region, shoulders the important missions of basic scientific research, marketing, product operation, technological innovation, and new product development.
Thanks to Microsoft's invitation, the minority recently visited the Microsoft China headquarters office building in Zhongguancun, Haidian District, Beijing. And in what state are their employees working? In addition, we also had the honor to interview Lorraine Lu, product director (consumer) of Microsoft 365 Greater China, and talked to her about working at Microsoft and the recent situation of Microsoft 365.
The building consists of Tower 1 (Building 1) and Tower 2 (Building 2), of which Building 1 is mainly for marketing, sales and some research and development departments, while Building 2 is basically a researcher at Microsoft Research Asia. When it was established in 2001, thanks to the good policy support given by the Haidian District Municipal Government at that time, Microsoft got the current prime location at a very low cost. After inquiry, we learned that the R&D team is distributed in Beijing, Suzhou and Shanghai.
Many large companies have dedicated areas, similar to museum exhibition halls, to display company ideas and specific products, and Microsoft is no exception, in this area called "Microsoft China Center 1 (Microsoft New Horizons)", I saw some of the technologies I have heard but not used, and more are new technologies that I have not heard or used.
The first display area of the door is easy to remind you of the metro ui, and this rectangular design style has continued to many of Microsoft's current products. Floors, ceilings and walls are colorful squares, marked with different product logos, you can click and interact, Microsoft home is big, many products, is a quite intuitive way to display.
In addition to the consumer business we are familiar with, Microsoft also has a considerable part of the enterprise services, the showroom shows the Microsoft Research Asia and OOCL (OOCL) cooperation program, through AI scheduling of ships, the application of deep learning technology to shipping network operations, optimize port allocation, improve efficiency, to greatly help enterprises reduce operating costs.
But that still sounds a bit abstract, right? The following one can be widely used in real life, Microsoft AI voice team and visually impaired people public welfare organizations, through the neural network synthesis of audiobooks, provided to children in schools for the blind, greatly saving time and cost.
The production of traditional voice readings requires real people to record, time-consuming and requires a special venue, and ordinary tts (text to speech) although convenient, but the sentence break and tone will also appear extra blunt, based on the deep neural network text-to-speech service, now only need about 1 hour of voice intonation data, you can accurately imitate, you can also derive different languages (English, French, Japanese / dialect) of the voice, we listen to the scene Chinese the effect of reading aloud is smooth and natural, In the case that the original recording of the training was all based on Mandarin, it was even surprising to hear the wonderful combination of Zhou Xun speaking Japanese and Kang Hui speaking Shaanxi western dialect.
In addition, we also personally experienced hololens 2 on the spot, although we have experienced various AR applications through the mobile phone screen display, but the actual interaction feeling of wearing on the face is still very different.
The headquarters building is also a great example of Microsoft to show cloud computing / industry solutions, we watched a video about the intelligent management of the building park, mentioned that building 1 is mostly based on the market sales department, the power consumption is low, and the research and development department of building 2 due to the large number of equipment, computer room, high power consumption, these data can help them to carry out later infrastructure upgrades, combined with temperature and humidity and other data for intelligent adjustment.
Inside the content is very rich, unfortunately the time is limited, we did not fully detailed experience, with the staff he told us that the area is currently only for internal staff to make an appointment, lead the outside staff to visit, if you happen to have the opportunity to go in to experience, you must not miss it.
Came to the office area, unlike many Internet companies full of workstations, I found that a lot of desks are actually empty, it was about 5:30 p.m., I thought it was time for the end of work everyone left, but Microsoft employees told me that their office hours are flexible, in terms of employee management is results-oriented, if the results are good, it is not necessary to go to the company to be able to do, remote work is also OK. For example, as a multinational company, there will often be a meeting around seven or eight o'clock in the morning, and you can go to the company after the home is opened to avoid traffic congestion, which saves a lot of energy compared to the normal clock-in commuting.
Workstations and coffee break areas
As a Microsoft employee, the surface device provided by the company, Microsoft 365 enterprise subscription is naturally the standard for everyone, in addition to the relationship between the epidemic, in addition to providing a flexible way of working freely, there are also 5 days of vacation called "wellbeing days", which are additional on the basis of the annual leave of employees, mainly due to the serious global epidemic, facing a lot of pressure, I hope that everyone can relax through the extra vacation, accompany their families, Cultivate interests, travel... Enjoy your own time.
Eat well to work to have motivation, the canteen is also the embodiment of the company's good welfare treatment, we went to the canteen to simply turn around, to take care of different needs, the canteen is also divided into two, one is biased towards the traditional canteen "big pot dish", the other is a small stir-fried canteen. The canteen will send out regular questionnaires to collect opinions and rotate the dishes, while Microsoft has multiple offices across the country, and even kitchen chefs in different cities will even exchange dishes to bring regional flavor dishes, and many chefs are chefs who have reached the five-star level.
Waiting for meal staff
In terms of price, the staff meal card will have a subsidy amount every month, and the daily meal is completely sufficient, which is basically equal to free. And I also noticed the humanistic care of large enterprises, and the "mother-to-be seat" was set up in the canteen to take care of the special groups of employees. The dining area in the canteen is very sufficient, coupled with the flexibility of working hours, the pantry also provides a sufficient amount of snacks and drinks, and there will be no serious queuing and waiting during the peak period of dining.
Mother-to-be seat
The gym also offers free training sessions
After learning about the tour of some of the office buildings, we were also honored to communicate with Lorraine Lu, product director (consumer category) of Microsoft 365 Greater China, and asked a series of questions about Microsoft itself and Microsoft 365.
with Lu Lin Lorraine Lu (right)
π: Can you introduce yourself first?
Lu Lin: I am in charge of the consumer Microsoft 365 product strategy at Microsoft, our team is mainly responsible for greater China, so that Microsoft 365 and office office software product strategy landing, to assist our sales team and marketing team, so that this product can go to market, serve users.
π: Briefly introduce the situation of Microsoft's Headquarters in Beijing.
Lu Lin: Microsoft Beijing headquarters is a total of two buildings, called Microsoft Research Asia, then Building 1 is based on the sales team and marketing team, the task is to sell and serve users, small and medium-sized enterprises, large enterprises belong to business customers, and we also have individual and family users who belong to consumer customers. So we are targeting sales teams, marketing teams and product teams for different customer types, as well as functional departments, including financial and legal departments.
Building 2 is a research institute, which is mainly based on research and development, so the research and development team is mainly responsible for the future research direction of some of Microsoft's science and technology, and they are doing relatively long-term research and strategy.
π: In addition to a better working environment and treatment, do Microsoft employees have any "Microsoft features" benefits?
Lu Lin: I think the first thing should be to experience Microsoft's high-tech products at any time, like Surface, and our software, Windows 10, Microsoft 365, these software are enterprise versions, but also a manifestation of the best productivity, which is actually very natural, after all, it is the company's products.
In addition, in terms of benefits, it is worth introducing the holiday, due to the relationship between the epidemic, Microsoft employees can take flexible office work during the epidemic, you can work from home, you can also work in any city, choose the most suitable time and place, is very free and flexible.
At the same time, Microsoft also provides employees with a 5-day vacation called wellbeing days, which is added on top of the annual leave, in order to let employees relax and relieve stress during the epidemic, these 5 days of vacation is a special time to enjoy, study, develop hobbies, sports, recharge or travel leave can be. Wellbeing days is also a special benefit of Microsoft, giving employees more time to relax and learn during the pandemic.
π: Many domestic Internet work intensity is high, for foreign companies such as Microsoft, how do employees usually balance work and life?
Lu Lin: Microsoft's way of working is that there is no punch card system, and performance appraisal allows you to arrange work and life according to your own time and work during your work. For example, a mother with children can work remotely at home through the Internet, through our surface, microsoft 365 and microsoft teams, video calls with colleagues at headquarters, and domestic teams, collaborative office, and at the same time take care of children at home. Microsoft employees have different ways of working to take care of family and life.
π: This year Office 365 was renamed Microsoft 365, can you explain why?
Lu Lin: Office 365 was officially renamed Microsoft 365 in April this year, what does this mean? One is the brand, from a product "office" to a company "Microsoft" brand, it represents Microsoft's most advanced technology content and productivity improvement, including the implantation of artificial intelligence and cloud services, as well as our data security and privacy protection, it is not only an office software service, including more brand value meaning.
π: How do you use Microsoft 365 to telecommute internally, can you give us an example?
Lu Lin: Yes, Microsoft 365 is a cloud-based office software service. Our team is responsible for Greater China, often need to fight side by side with the team in a different place, then in the team collaboration process, efficiency is very important, usually there may be a lot of communication methods, you need documents to continuously transmit to each other, but with microsoft 365, the document can have a collaborative editing function, teams in different regions can edit multiple people on the same document, so that this document is always updated in real time, you can also see each other's changes, We can get the same document from the entire Greater China team, which is a result of multiple edits, and it's a very effective way to collaborate.
π: Most ordinary users mention office or will think of local independent versions of applications such as word and powerpoint, what do you think is the biggest difference between Microsoft 365 services?
Lu Lin: I think Microsoft 365, compared to the independent word, powerpoint, excel, etc. you mentioned, is a big sublimation. Our original product is actually a product, I sell you whatever it is, but Microsoft 365 is a service. The concept of service is a constant update with the times, so the original word, powerpoint and excel its functions are constantly innovating, you can always use the latest features, such as the addition of AI related functions, so that your charting, as well as some typography can have better efficiency and beauty.
At the same time, using onedrive's core cloud service, users are no longer limited by the environment of the device and office, whether it is at home, office or on the road, cloud storage can let you use any device for office document editing, use and collaboration, making the office more flexible.
π: Now that you mentioned the features of Microsoft 365 as a service that is continuously updated, what are the features of the recent update that can be described separately?
Lu Lin: Our recent Microsoft 365 update, one is the "design inspiration" function, then in the past, it will automatically carry out some creative typography design, support different typography styles of pictures, and this year's new features are not only able to typeset pictures, but also can dynamically demonstrate the text, making powerpoint more vivid.
Another new feature is the support for Apple m1 devices, we also previously adapted to "continuity", pictures taken directly on the iPhone can be converted into text or tables, directly in the Mac computer powerpoint / excel for editing and browsing.
We usually think that to create world-class products and serve global users, the process may be painful, the work must be hard, but after visiting Microsoft, it is a favorable condition, a free working environment, attracting talents from all walks of life, bringing more ideal results, forming a healthy and open corporate culture, so that employees feel happy and more efficient.
Since the emergence of Microsoft Office in the early 90s, it has carried people's simplest pursuit of efficiency: using digital methods to make the office simpler, and the core concept of office use has not changed with the change of multiple versions. Whether you're an individual or a small or medium-sized team with the need to work productively and manage your life, try the more modern, convenient, and intelligent Microsoft 365 services.