Change management specialists, Impact, explain how remote systems could be the future of how a lot of us work, detailing the benefits of remote working and how COVID-19 has forced this change to happen
Before the interference that COVID-19 has wreaked on our lives and work, remote working systems and cloud infrastructure wasn’t integrated into some businesses — which has likely caused a lot of trouble in the current climate. With strict government regulations enforcing work from home where possible, the country has had to adapt imminently to a new and alien way of working for the foreseeable future.
But before this pandemic, remote systems were beginning to revolutionise the modern business — large tech firms were some of the first to make the transition to remote working, building on existing processes with instant messaging, remote access to important tools, and other technology to get their job done. Spend was predicted by Goldman Sachs to grow at 30% from 2013 to 2018, with cloud adoption accelerating faster than originally anticipated, which had to be revised and increased by 20%. Remote working forecasts in 2019 predicted seeing more companies realising the value of introducing remote working, with 61% of global companies currently offering it to some degree in their policy. There continues to be a year-on-year increase in remote working, and COVID-19 has only sped up the demand and integration.
COVID-19 could cause a permanent shift to working patterns, with many employees preferring not to return to the office when regulations are lifted. Here, we’ll take a look at how remote systems are revolutionising modern businesses with the right processes and technology.
Offers up-to-date and fresh software
Updates and upgrades are immediately made available to all employees when they’re released, not only helping businesses remain competitive, but working with quick and modern systems helps keep productivity at a high. According to research, remote workers are more productive due to minimised distractions and stress, so facilitating this with fast systems that allows workers to access what they need and to communicate with their team without a flurry of obstacles makes the working day a lot easier. For example, Microsoft Teams is a one-stop-shop for all communication, including messaging, voice and video calls with large groups of people, file storage, and document sharing.
Supports change management
As well as up-to-date software, other considerations such as learning and people development have been adapted to cater for digital accessibility through remote learning systems. For example, Impact’s Air’s experiential learning platform supports employees’ custom solutions around their needs, eliminating the need to come to work for learning and development. This sort of change management prepares workplaces for potential digital disruption — highly important in the current working world, supporting employees to continue growing and improving in a more efficient and effective way.
Reduce costs
With remote systems, businesses also have the ability to do more with less, allowing the reduction of data centres, servers, and software costs without having a negative impact on the company’s technological abilities. This can be important for companies who are looking to improve their ‘green’ credentials and their impact on the environment. Before lockdown, some companies had chosen to hire a mixture of onsite and offsite workers in their workforce, reducing costs for electricity and hiring smaller and cheaper office spaces. This has potential to be even more efficient with remote working policies adopted permanently for many more organisations.
Useful for merger and acquisitions
Mergers and acquisitions are excellent ways for businesses to achieve growth and innovation. Remote working systems and cloud infrastructure enables two companies to transition to become one seamlessly, whereas traditional computing may have required years of migrating files and applications and decommissioning data centres.
Centralising business-critical information and consolidating culture can be facilitated through a digital workplace, simplifying the whole process of migration.
With remote working being the biggest trend so far in 2020, we look forward to seeing what potential it can bring in the future.
