The exceptional situation has had a significant impact on the use of remote work tools at the university. Teams—the instant messaging and meeting application used widely by university staff and students—has become extremely popular due to the significant increase in remote work.
During the first couple of weeks of the coronavirus pandemic, the use of Teams increased globally to the degree that Microsoft had occasional difficulties in guaranteeing the service’s operation. This was also reflected at the university for some time as intermittent service breaks in Teams as well as changes in its functionalities, as Microsoft was adjusting the service to meet demand.
The use of soon-to-be obsolete Skype for Business, on the other hand, has been on a downward spiral since the increased use of Teams. The number of new Teams accounts is also increasing rapidly. When the Covid-19 situation began, there were approximately 2,750 Teams accounts at the university. By 12 May, this number had increased to as many as 5,130. The quick adoption of Teams shows that university staff have adjusted exceptionally well to the situation in order to work efficiently from home.
In the graphic above, the orange line shows the increased use of Teams at the university over a period of three months.
University staff have moved from Skype for Business to Teams in earnest. The blue line shows the number of Skype sessions over a period of three months.
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