Are you contemplating making changes to your office IT in 2020? You might be wondering what impact it will have across your organization. Here are five positive changes that come out of improving your office IT, which can increase revenue in 2020.
1. It Will Improve Your Communication
We can use technology to improve communication within teams and across the different departments of your organization. Solutions like Skype, Slack and Google Apps enable employees to connect through chat conversations or by face-to-face video. A study found that for smaller companies with roughly 100 employees, miscommunication costs a company an average of $420,000 per year. An open communication workflow helps leaders better manage projects and helps employees meet deadlines, decreasing costs and improving overall productivity across your organization.
2. It Will Increase Opportunities for Automation
Implementing automation tools limits the time your employees are spending on tedious office tasks. Simple automations such as the immediate trigger of an email request or automatically transferring monthly data into a spreadsheet can improve employee productivity and give them more time to focus on the tasks that matter. A popular tool to set up these simple logic automations is Microsoft 365 SharePoint.
3. Your Employees Can Work Remotely
Improving office technology can overflow out of the office as well. Offering the opportunity for your employees to work remotely has many benefits. Not only is it a growing trend that’s expected to continue over the next year, but it has been found to decrease office costs and improve employee morale. This provides your organization more opportunities when it comes to recruitment and helps to keep employees engaged for the long term, lowering employee turnover. Read our recent blog post about how to prepare your office space and employees for working remotely.
4. Encourage Stronger Employee Collaboration
Increased employee collaboration tends to lead to a higher level of efficiency. A Stanford study found that employees who act collaboratively on a work-related task stuck to the task 64% longer than those working individually. They also reported higher levels of engagement, lower fatigue levels and an overall higher success rate.
So what types of technology can help you increase employee collaboration? Something as simple as improving your Wi-Fi would easily allow team meetings to take place in your boardroom without interruption. In addition, there are many software solutions, including Microsoft Office 365, that allow for employees to easily collaborate on working files from multiple devices and from any location.
5. It Will Improve Your File Sharing and Storage
Finding a recent document among dozens of files can be frustrating and time consuming. Many organizations struggle to find an effective way to share files amongst employees and ensure that they’re always working on the most recent version. On average, employees spend 1.8 hours every day searching and gathering past information. Investing in a cloud technology solution ensures that all your files are in a central, backed up location for everyone to access.
What does your organization have planned for their office IT in 2020? It may seem like a daunting initial investment, but improving your office IT will have positive impacts across your organization.