Say your air conditioner goes out on the warmest day of the year, during a particularly miserable summer of record-breaking high temperatures. You dust off the cover of the old printed phone book and start searching desperately for the number of a local repair AC-repair company as you flip through the yellow pages.
I know what you’re thinking: Why would I use a phonebook when it would take 10 seconds to find the number online? You wouldn’t rely on an antiquated solution when there’s a better, more efficient option, right?
Well, in today’s digital era, there’s no excuse for business technology to lag behind, either. If any of these signs sound familiar, it’s probably time to implement new workplace software.
Now is an important time to establish a competitive edge, get your workplace software ready for the modern business landscape, and stay ahead of evolving environments.
Since COVID-19 modified the IT budget for 2020 and 2021, you need to demonstrate there’s a need for new workplace software and that the value it will bring to the business outweighs the expense.
Before you make your pitch, make sure you can justify your purchase. In The CIO’s Coronavirus Playbook, Herb Schul, sectors and solutions leader for EY Americas Advisory Markets, shared this tip: “Necessity and immediate need eliminate the typical barriers”.
However, given the disruption to company budgets over the past 15 months, any plans to invest in workplace software could be subject to scrutiny from the C-Suite. Tech leaders will need to help explain why new workplace software is needed.
Technology is often looked to as an answer for time-consuming tasks and inefficient processes. But if your digital workplace software is at odds with the changing policies in your company, such as flexible work models or new visitor guidelines, you will run into major problems.
Workplace visitors, for example, aren’t going to be impressed with a crowded lobby and a check-in process that takes too long. Visitor management technology means they don’t have to sign in with a pencil and paper or wait around for their host to greet them. They can simply pre-register to save time, use the QR code they received in their confirmation email to sign in, and let the workplace experience software notify their host and simplify their visit.
It’s not just risky for your return to the office, either. Experts are saying that there’s no going back to the old ways of working — so if your workplace software can’t handle the new realities, the implications will last long after you transition back to working in the office post-pandemic.
Take the time to evaluate what policies have changed and make sure your workplace software is able to support them.
Remarkably, resistance to new workplace software is a fairly common problem. In 2021, it really shouldn’t be — but prior to the pandemic, “the way things have always been done” was enough of a defense to keep the old systems in place and block attempts to upgrade or implement new software.
That leads to a number of issues. Those issues often snowball into greater issues. In some cases, there may be workarounds. But think of those workarounds as more of a band-aid than a long-term solution. As you know, avoiding small problems now usually ends in huge challenges later.
In other words, if your old software won’t cut it — don’t just keep kicking the can down the road.
By definition, usability is the measure of how well users can use a solution to achieve a goal effectively, efficiently, and satisfactorily. In the context of your workplace software, it means this: You need to ask yourself if employees can use your workplace software to make work more effective, efficient, and satisfying.
If not, it’s time to make some progress and reevaluate what your workplace software has to offer.
It’s hard to think of something more frustrating than a tool that isn’t intuitive, doesn’t work well with existing systems, or causes additional work for people. This manifests in repetitive tasks, duplicate work, employee frustration, and blocked growth.
Employees stop using the technology because they’re frustrated with the experience. Attracting talent becomes an issue — after all, who wants to join a company that uses poorly designed systems? It’s not enough to invest in workplace software. Because new software isn’t a solution unless employees actually use it and benefit from its use.
It all starts with this question: What’s changing for your workplace? When you compare where you’ve been with company goals, it becomes easier to chart a direction for the future.
If your organization is becoming more flexible, prioritizing digital transformation, or looking for ways to future-proof the business — workplace experience software might be the answer.
Right now, most analysts predict the future of the workweek will be a combination of office-based and work-from-home arrangements. For employees, hybrid work will change the purpose of the office.
When people come into the office, it will be for different reasons than pre-pandemic. They’ll come to collaborate in-person, build company culture, get support from their team, enjoy the spontaneity of office conversations and interactions. It’ll be less about the physical office and more about the opportunity to work together — to share conversation, ideas, and experiences.
In a time when companies need to make the most out of their resources, there’s not a lot of room for wasted time. And visitors and employees feel the same way — their time in the office is limited, therefore every minute needs to be used well.
Imagine coming into the workplace just to find you can’t find any conference rooms available to meet with your colleagues because outdated meeting reservations still show up on the schedule and prevent anyone from booking the room for their meetings.
That’d be a disappointing and frustrating experience for employees. And inefficiencies like that are totally avoidable if you have the right workplace software in place.
Business intelligence has never been in higher demand than right now. But in order to future-proof office strategies and optimize the workplace, leaders need a way to analyze in-office behaviors and patterns.
That’s where workplace analytics can help — if your software provides insights from your data, that is. For example, with Teem’s sensor integrations you’ll be able to evaluate conference room utilization — so you can see if employees are showing up to their meetings and get information on meeting size and duration, and identify any gaps between what employees need and what your office provides.
Sensors also automate meeting check-in, book spaces as they become occupied and make rooms available again if no one shows up for a reservation.
Without modern digital workplace software, it’s increasingly difficult to stay in business, let alone competitive.
Digital transformation will be necessary for resilience and agility, according to Deloitte. Business life and the workplace software it relies on are changing at a rapid pace. Anyone who can’t keep up is bound to fall behind — fast.
If failure to adapt is all but guaranteed to result in becoming obsolete, then the best solution is to change the way you approach your software investment strategy.
