As part of a major investment in Qatar, Microsoft has extended its operations in the country with the launch of a new facility in Lusail City, the company’s fourth and largest in the nation. This also applies to the next Microsoft Cloud Datacenter Region.
The launch of the new offices reinforces Microsoft’s commitment to establish Qatar as a knowledge and innovation hub, and will enable Microsoft to better serve its customers, collaborate with its technology partners and attract and develop top talent.
Microsoft was joined by Mohammed bin Ali Al-Mannai, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, as well as high ranking officials from the US Embassy in Qatar, to celebrate the official opening of its new state-of-the-art office in Burj Al Fardan, Lusail City.
Deeply rooted
The inauguration ceremony was live-streamed on Microsoft Teams to allow the company’s employees in the wider Middle East and Africa region to be part of the celebrations.
“Microsoft has been deeply rooted in Qatar and our commitment to help grow Qatar’s innovation economy has never been stronger,” said Lana Khalaf, General Manager at Microsoft Qatar. “With the launch of our new offices and our Customer Innovation Centre, customers and partners will have the opportunity to co-innovate, ideate and envision ground breaking solutions that will revolutionise their industries”
Fuelling innovation
With one side of the office overlooking the Arabian sea and the other facing the desert, the eye-catching space fuses Microsoft’s global corporate identity with local Qatari flavor to capture the forward-looking, agile and resilient nature of Qatar.
The new Microsoft facility includes a Customer Innovation Centre that will host innovation and ideation workshops aimed at inspiring groundbreaking solutions that spur transformation across industries in Qatar. The office will play a vital role as an innovation hub for leading technology startups, students, and community organisations from across Qatar.
It will also serve as a regional hub for the company’s talent, servicing Qatar and the wider Microsoft Middle East Cluster region. Work done at the facility will support the company’s efforts to grow, retain, and recruit the most talented people to build the most cutting-edge solutions.
The new office was designed with the evolution of work in mind, presenting an inclusive hybrid workplace that empowers employees to better serve customers and collaborate with partners, whether they are in person or remote.
Future of work
Leveraging the company’s latest future of work technologies, the sustainable, smart space facilitates seamless hybrid work that offers employees flexibility to divide their work time between the office and offsite locations, leading to increased productivity, higher employee satisfaction and enhanced team collaboration.
The office incorporates a Team Based Space design that pairs the latest technology with modern and collaborative workplaces and is fitted with the latest Microsoft Teams-enabled hardware and software to facilitate seamless hybrid work.
“In designing the new office, we were guided by two main principles. The first was our determination to provide the best workplace for our employees, offering a highly engaging, inclusive, and flexible environment that leverages the latest modern work technologies to create future proof smart workspaces. The second was sustainability, to deliver the first office to be certified on the highest sustainability standards in the Middle East. I am extremely proud to say that we delivered on both of those objectives – while prioritising the focus on customers with our Customer Innovation Centre,” Khalaf says.
Further recruitment
“I look forward to welcoming customers, partners, visitors and Microsoft’s team members to our new office, and I am confident that this expansion will drive further recruitment and retention of the brightest talent who will be inspired to build cutting-edge solutions for organisations and people in the country.”
In 2020, Microsoft announced ambitious commitments to become carbon negative by 2030 and remove more carbon from the environment than it has emitted since its founding by 2050. In line with these sustainability goals, this new facility is fitted with the latest green technologies to drive energy and water efficiency and is the company’s first office in the Middle East to reach Level 1 on Microsoft’s Global Sustainability Standard.
The premises have also achieved a C-Grade Global Microsoft Accessibility Standard for extending equal opportunities for all employees to access their workspaces with features such as easily accessible parking spaces, automatic doors, room signs with Braille, and audible and visible alarm systems.
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