It’s not secret that more and more industries are turning to the power of digital to augment their physical workplace. Trends like video conferencing, working remote and digital collaboration are here to stay and most companies are ditching the idea of a traditional office to implement these changes.
Digital Trends
One of the hottest digital trends right now is video conferencing with more companies trying to implement this digital solution. However, some organizations are facing road blocks as their current configuration will not allow the change to video conferencing.
For instance, businesses with an open office floor plan will have the most difficulty with trying to get video conferencing into their space. In order to combat this, companies with open office floor plans needs to either have a dedicated space or a zone specifically made for video conferencing that is closed off from the open office. With this course of action, disruptions to staff and employees will be held at a minimum.
“Today’s offices are becoming more ‘open plan’ to allow for collaboration. With this, video conferencing technology is booming and becoming more common as companies look to implement this within their space. In order to support this trend, offices and furniture needs to support this emerging digital technology.” – Gary McIntosh, Senior Account Manager.
Digital Spaces are Here to Stay
Digital technology goes beyond fancy hardware, gadgets and gizmos as one of the greatest abilities that digital technology allows is the use of online collaboration and sharing information to people within a short period of time. With the emergence of cloud technology and modern website tools offices are now able to have their employees work remotely.
This benefit also trickles down to customers as well. For example, gone are the days where someone needs to drive miles to an office furniture dealer only to find that their showroom is not adequate to their needs. Now, a customer can head on over to a website and see full pictures of a dealers space and see what inventory a dealer has. Digital technology can then take this a step further by allowing digital communication tools, like a live chat operator, on a website in case a customer needs to ask a quick question. All of this time saved will make the customer experience that much more fruitful and alleviate any frustrations with buying office furniture.
“At AOI, our digital space is just as important as our physical space, as our website allows for the full dealer experience without actually having to visit our showroom.” – Nycole Wynkoop, Project Designer
Don’t Let Digital Be a Distraction
With all of these benefits and positives that come from digital technology and workspaces, naturally, there is going to be some distractions that can hinder workplace efficiency and productivity. With the above example of video conferencing, like previously mentioned, it is important to set clear guidelines and rules and inform when video conferencing is allowed and where it isn’t allowed as to not have the open chatter and noise caused by this technology be a distraction.
However, most of these challenges can be hurdled by having transparent communication with the workforce.
“Cell phones and other digital technology can be a major distraction in the workplace. However, there are way more benefits to digital workplaces than there are negatives, and businesses should embrace technology and fuse digital into their physical space.” – William Reid, Senior Account Manager.
AOI Can Help
Give AOI a call today at 630-784-7730 and one of our experts can give you a detailed demonstration on how your business can fuse digital and physical workplace into one.
