Location Independence and the Digital Workplace
January 17, 2022
Kelly Mark, Area Vice President, North America Sales, VOSS
In this blog post I take a look at the changing nature of the workplace, the impact and demand this places on your business communications systems, and new considerations for employee productivity, satisfaction, and management.
In a report that I have cited a number of times in recent months, Gartner explains that; “COVID-19 has shifted where employees, customers, suppliers and organizational ecosystems physically exist. Location independence requires a technology shift to support this new version of business.” Here at VOSS, we couldn’t agree more.
Location independence: What does the new workplace look like?
For the majority, we are no longer tied to one particular “work” location. In fact it may be in the employer’s interest to keep us away from the office right now, to keep staff healthy and to ensure business continuity. Many of us have been given the freedom to work from home or from other remote locations, removing the need to make the daily commute to the office. However, this hybrid working model – where staff are free to perform their daily tasks from home or from the office – brings its own set of challenges:
- Systems need to be robust, resilient and secure
- IT administration needs to be flexible and agile to respond to change quickly
- New communication tools that are being adopted by the workforce need top-down company evaluation and approval
Technology transformation
In order to support location independence, companies must have the infrastructure in place and ensure that staff have access to all the tools they need to perform their daily tasks regardless of location. Often, this means embarking on a full digital business transformation. During this process of transformation, companies are increasingly opting for cloud-based collaboration and productivity tools, from multiple best of breed vendors – rather than a single-vendor solution. I’m keen to know; where are you on your digital business transformation journey? Are you following the model of choosing best of breed technologies from multiple vendors? If so, how are you managing it?
I ask this final question because administering multi-vendor solutions across many locations is complex. Our customers have found that introducing automation into all areas of the business revolutionizes the way they operate, and positively impacts the way they deliver service to their staff and value to their customers.
In my opinion, for your digital workplace strategy to succeed you need automation management.
At VOSS, our award-winning technology comprises an extensive array of automation management capabilities and pre-integration with other business applications, enabling you to create customized workflows that significantly lower your operating costs and meet your business needs now and as they evolve in the future. This puts you in control, gives you peace of mind, and enables efficiency.
Location independence: Productivity and the employee experience
No matter where you are on the transformation journey towards a digital workplace, productivity is key. For your business to thrive your employees must be productive. But employee productivity is intrinsically linked to a positive end user experience. So, keep your staff happy and your business will fare better.
With a remote and highly mobile workforce, how do you know if your staff are content and therefore being as productive as they could be?
VOSS gives our customers access to actionable intelligence about their digital workplace strategy, enabling them to visualize and actively manage the performance and quality of collaboration tools, across the lifecycle. We help companies optimize their business and operational performance while increasing user adoption, saving time and money. VOSS also integrates seamlessly with other third party business applications, empowering you to be highly agile and adapt to changing situations by identifying and resolving problems faster, making better, more informed decisions, and improving service delivery through automation. This all contributes to measuring productivity and employee experience.
I’d be fascinated to hear about your experiences around location independence, both pre-and post-pandemic. How have business operations changed for you, and do you see a greater need for automation management in the new digital workplace? Please get in touch with your thoughts.
