The Digital Workplace: Enabling Greater Agility for Businesses

The Covid pandemic, super-accelerated digital transformation and the momentum has been carried forward worldwide with some of the most innovative solutions designed to support the future of work. According to a recent report on the future of work by Gartner, over 75% of workers are looking to have a flexible work environment, while the rest are craving more in-person time with their teams.

To better accommodate hybrid work environments, 66% of business decision-makers are considering redesigning physical spaces. What's key in this environment is ensuring productivity, security, and collaboration regardless of work locations.

From physical spaces to internet-enabled workplace, entering the spotlight is the digital workplace, a suite of tools and services available in a centralised, cloud-based platform that empowers businesses to operate smoothly across multiple settings. The ultimate objective is that every employee, wherever they're working from, should be productive, engaged, and secure.

The Making of a Digital Workplace

A digital workplace is a virtual environment in which employees don’t have to change the way they interface with technology and work applications based on where they are, or what device they’re using.

Top technologies that will drive this environment include Cloud, Unified Communication, Cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence, AR/VR, augmented analytics etc and will manifest in the form of cloud-based work nucleus, virtual personal assistants, immersive work applications, AI-chatbots, advanced productivity analytics among others.

A typical digital workplace will include virtual desktops that are connected by the cloud, virtual applications, or tools to work from anywhere, secure endpoints that protect users from cyberthreats as well as physical threats, collaboration tools to engage with fellow employees, analytical tools to identify employee skills and address issues, among other services.

Once the said digital workplace tools are in place, organisation leaders will have to ensure that employees are aligned with the vision of a healthy digital culture. The expectation is that the companies that set up a digital workplace will witness increased productivity, engaged employees, lower employee turnover, better talent retention, improved customer service, better security, and reduced expenses.

That being said, one of the biggest challenges to improving the digital workplace experience is the gap between what employees need and what organisations offer. According to a trends report published by Deloitte, only 38% of employees are satisfied with work-related technology and tools.

Investing in the right technology provider, one that provides tools and services that complement the businesses as well as employees' needs, is the first step towards building a sustainable digital workplace.

Think Digital Workplace Solutions, Think TTBS

Tata Tele Business Services (TTBS) is on a mission to make every day seamless for both businesses and their employees with its smart bundle of digital transformation solutions in one platform.

The company offers industry-leading digital workplace products like Microsoft 365 for Business and Google Workplace Solutions - which are a suite of apps and tools that is meant to provide small and medium businesses with the support they need to digitise its operations without spending too much time or money. Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs) who are in the initial phases of their digital transformation journey will largely benefit from digital workplace products.

These digital workplace solutions, provide a single membership from which team members can access any app in the entire Microsoft Office suite or the Google Workplace Suite. Since it's a unified platform that runs on the cloud, businesses can get access to a wide array of tools without having to buy subscriptions for each of them. They will be able to communicate and collaborate without distractions, share computers and apps, upgrade licences, and store up to 1TB of data.

Sharing his views, Vishal Rally, Senior Vice-President, Product & Marketing, Tata Teleservices, said, “Both Microsoft Office 365 and Google Workplace Solutions are true digital workplace products, and have provided proven set of tools that have been a mainstay in offices for nearly three decades now. From simplifying internal processes to boosting productivity, these digital workplace products unlock the potential of your employees leveraging technology. Also, our expertise and experience with SMBs means trusted service is assured.”

What makes these solutions stand out is that they are cloud-based, so they require no IT infrastructure investment, include little to no setup requirement, enable an expedited transition to remote work, and provide round-the-clock support.

The future looks hopeful

According to Reportlinker, the global digital workplace market is expected to reach $44.9 billion by 2026. Fast forward to 10 years from now, users will no longer switch on their devices to log in. They might have password-less multi-factor authentication to log in to their work portal. They will get all their notifications and tasks, be able to collaborate, and share files without switching devices. In other words, there will just be one single interface to do all their work. At the end of the day, employees will be able to truly call their workplace their own.

If your business is looking to make it to that era, it's important to infuse digital in your workplaces today. Know more about how TTBS Microsoft 365 for Business and Google Workplace Solutions can help you boost your digital workplace capabilities.