Technology has revolutionized the world we live in; and offices across the world are relying on new advances to make their businesses as successful as possible. By using the latest equipment or software, companies can improve their efficiency, productivity levels and also save money. It comes as no surprise that many small and start up businesses want to achieve more with less resources, and are relying on technology to assist them with this. We take a look at some of the new technologies that are being used today.
Virtual Assistant
With the increase of workloads in offices, there’s a high demand for help. Many companies do not have the capacity, or money, to hire a human assistant to work full time within their business. Instead of employing an extra member of staff, business owners are turning to Virtual Digital Assistants who are designed to carry out work duties in remote locations. They are efficient across various areas, in particular creative and admin. Many start up businesses are opting to use them as their work will be carried out quickly for a better price – and will save them paying a salary, holidays, sick pay and any extra office equipment that they might need. Currently, there are 504 million Virtual Assistants being used, with this set to rise to more than 1.8 billion by 2021.
3D Printers
Over the last few years, there has been an increase in 3D printers across many industries including construction, medical and retail. However, since 3D printers have become much more affordable, many businesses have started using them within their offices. Companies have realized that these printers have the ability to create almost anything instantly, by simply bringing a digital file to life.
Traditional office supplies, such as paper clips for example, no longer have to be ordered or manufactured, they can simply be produced through a 3D printer, saving businesses time, the cost of the product and shipping fees. There are many other benefits to offices as a result of this including everything that’s produced being confidential as it is not being outsourced, there are fewer errors as the office can process it and items can be personalized.
Tracking Apps
The days of sending emails to colleagues asking them to carry out tasks are well and truly over. These have been replaced by project management tracking apps, such as Asana or Slack, that are each designed to manage work projects without the use of emails. Users can set which tasks need carrying out, who needs to do them, monitor the process and also see what the rest of the team is up to.
Tracking Apps allow colleagues to interact with each other on it by making notes, or sending any information that they might need, and is accessible by all. The reasons behind web services likes these are aimed at improving team collaboration as they allow everyone to communicate efficiently, and effectively to make sure all work is up to date. They are great for smaller business as they save time chasing colleagues to see if they had received your email, and it also allows projects to be organised as everything is in one place.
As technology is constantly changing around us, it won’t be long until there are even more advances in the office. It has been predicted already that by 2020, we will be using gesture control on computers to stop us using our mouse and keypad, and that there will be a rise in robotics carrying out human work in an office environment.
This article was written by Hannah, a content writer for The Scanner Shop.
Very detailed ideas on technologies being used for small/virtual offices. I heard Slack is a great application in which rather than emailing you can send it via there all the attachments that you need and is a user-friendly application. Thanks for sharing this!
Upgrading to new tech is important with the constant challenges faced at work, it helps enhance productivity and save up on time.