Solving Hot Desking and RTO Challenges With Microsoft Places

Return-to-office initiatives are no longer just about attendance. For facilities and IT leaders, they introduce a new operational reality: managing space efficiently, controlling costs, and maintaining security—all while supporting a flexible workforce.

The challenge? Many organizations try to solve RTO with standalone desk-booking or workplace apps that create new security risks, fragmented data, and adoption issues. Before adding another tool to your stack, it’s worth understanding how Microsoft Places addresses these challenges natively within Microsoft 365.

Challenge 1: Lack of Visibility Into Office Usage

Hybrid work makes it difficult to predict who will be in the office and when. Without reliable insight, teams over-allocate space, overspend on services, and struggle with safety planning.

How Microsoft Places Helps
Microsoft Places uses existing Microsoft 365 signals—such as Outlook calendars and Teams presence—to provide a clear view of expected office usage. This allows organizations to:

• Align cleaning, security, and energy usage with actual occupancy
• Improve emergency preparedness with accurate on-site awareness
• Make data-driven decisions about future office layouts and capacity

All of this happens inside your existing tenant, without introducing new data silos.

Challenge 2: Desk Booking That Creates Friction

Employees expect desk and room booking to be simple. When systems are clunky or disconnected, adoption drops and shadow scheduling tools quickly appear.

How Microsoft Places Helps
Places enables booking directly within Outlook and Teams—tools employees already use every day. Features include:

• Desk, room, and space booking without switching apps
• Visual floor plans with availability and amenity filtering
• Schedules that automatically reflect in calendars

Because it’s native to Microsoft 365, there’s no additional login, no training curve, and no incentive for employees to find workarounds.

Challenge 3: Proving Office ROI in a Hybrid Model

Office space remains a major cost, yet many organizations lack clear utilization data to justify that investment.

How Microsoft Places Helps
Microsoft Places delivers usage insights that show how space is actually being used—highlighting peak times, underutilized areas, and meeting room efficiency. This data supports:

• Smarter space planning and reconfiguration
• Informed real estate decisions
• Continuous improvement of the employee experience

Why Native Matters

Microsoft Places is not a third-party bolt-on. It’s built directly into Microsoft 365, leveraging Entra ID for identity, existing security controls, and enterprise compliance standards. For IT teams, that means:

• No new security perimeter to manage
• No additional credentials or SSO complexity
• Faster rollout and lower long-term support overhead

Managing RTO Without Adding Risk

For organizations already standardized on Microsoft 365, Microsoft Places offers a way to meet RTO requirements without introducing new tools, new vendors, or new security concerns.

A well-planned Places implementation can streamline space management, reduce costs, and eliminate shadow IT—while keeping everything governed inside your existing Microsoft environment.

Interested in seeing how this fits your environment?
A short consultation with 360 Visbility can help map out a secure, practical Microsoft Places implementation aligned to your RTO goals.