bLync and you know: Using data analysis to determine work pattern of an organization.

Does your organization use a communicator for internal communication? If yes and if the communicator is  Microsoft Lync( formerly known as OCS ), here is a product idea for you and your organization.


As we all know Microsoft Lync’ status best tells our availability to our colleagues at any given point in time. Lync automatically looks into our calendars, and updates the status when we are in a meeting, or on a call, or working away on our machines. We sometimes update this on our own when we are in our deep thinking mode and update this to ‘Do not disturb’. Don’t we?

If we think about it, this little jelly-bean like thing is pretty much an indicator of how our day is progressing – when were are available, when we are busy. I have used this to understand when I work best without interruptions or when I take my lunch and coffee breaks.

And this has proven the case with fellow colleagues as well. With almost an 85-90% accuracy, it’s fair to say that we can tell how the organization is doing in a day.

This is my proposition: When and how often is your organization bLync-ing in a day.

Organizations will know:
1. How many employees are early starters, against late night workers. Should we delay our stand-up meetings?
2. How are working hours overlapping across geographies. When is the best time for a customer meeting between India and the US?
3. When are most people available. Should staff mailers go right after lunch?
4. What is the longest stretch of time when people are offline. Should we shut down for Dussera or Diwali?

Employees will know when they are most productive:
1. Am I less distracted when I work from home or at office?
2. Are all my project meetings estimated for in the project plan?
3. What are my most productive hours in a day?

Now that we know how the tip of the iceberg looks like, we can build on this mine of data to come up with reports and analytics on how the organization likes to work, when it likes to work.

I am always open to ideating, let’s get a coffee and you can tell me what you think, and how we can make this better and more useful for you.
Or, email works just as well: prasadmp.net@gmail.com

bLync once, and know always.