It’s no secret that going digital at workplace increases operational efficiency, improves workflows, eases customer relationship management issues and much more. A leading daily recently organized a discussion between industry leaders about the impact and trends of digitization of workplaces and its impact on functioning of businesses. Various industry honchos shared their thoughts, visions and challenges in transforming workplaces through digitization. Mr. Sumeer Chandra (Managing Director, HP Inc. India) was optimistic about the new trends that are emerging and how businesses are embracing them. He spoke about how HP is looking at interesting times ahead, expectations of the younger workforce and revolutionizing of the start-up eco-system. HP India is at the forefront of this digitization revolution, a curve ahead than any other player. They are the market leaders when it comes to providing infrastructural backbone and technological knowhow to various sectors and industries. Mr. Sunil Mehta (Senior Vice-President & Area Systems Director - Central Asia - J Walter Thompson) spoke about how digitization is boosting collaboration between organizations and future challenges for businesses to adapt to ever-changing changing work environment and significance of staying updated with the trends.
V. S. Parthasarathy Group CIO and CFO, Mahindra & Mahindra, shared how digitization is transforming businesses and how they are adapting to the same. He also touched upon the re-engineering opportunity and positive change that digitization is bringing and how organizations should help employees and customers alike adapt to the same. Opinions of the most industry leaders turned out to be overwhelmingly positive. Most corporate honchos were of the opinion that digitization has and is transforming not only communication both internal and external but the economy as a whole. It will improve productivity of employees and image of the businesses to the general public. Going digital will strongly impact the efficiency and profitability of a business. Businesses still may have their reservations about going completely digital, most of these fears, as in most other in-house improvements, revolve around the thought that digitalization entails costs and risks. Fortunately, experts confirm that these disadvantages can be seriously reduced and advantages increased when the processes are well understood and managed.
Trends in setting up workplaces of the future
Digitization ensures connectivity and accessibility. Today both startup entrepreneurs and established business leaders alike are leveraging the available technology to bring about a positive change. Digitization is also bringing about a change in work culture which organizations are adapting to. Organizations themselves may decide to adopt the levels and extent of digitization which will serve them right. For instance companies working in the medical, financial and legal sectors can opt for digitization of their paper documents in an efficient cloud storage system. Digitization also aids automation and simplifies various processes thus ensuring better work environment, which in turn leads to better employee’s satisfaction levels. Another lesser discussed benefit of digitization is reduction of the environmental footprint of an organization, be it due to lesser usage of paper or lesser travel by employees.
Benefits and Advantages of Digitization of Workplace
Success and growth of businesses more often than not depends upon innovation, value addition, speed of implementation of decisions and more. Digitization aids all these factors, it also allows for greater flexibility in the organization, since it allows the employee to work remotely from home or elsewhere. Digitization can also reduce the expenditures and costs in a company in the long run both by increasing productivity and by reducing time for things to get done. One of the primary benefits of digitization is efficient usage of time, in contemporary workplaces tens of thousands of hours per employee is wasted getting things done the old ways. For instance a business that relies solely on paper documentation loses precious hours in the effort to maintain, locate and update paper documents. Digitization of the same just not ensures proper storage but also makes sharing, searching, reproduction and editing of these documents a breeze.
Rethinking workplaces in digitized business environments
Digitization remains an important phase for any organizations seeking to add value. On the contrary to the popular belief a digitized workplace enhances security and safety of data and much more. It also improves an organization’s capability of dealing with problems or emergencies. With ever changing business environment and requirements, digitization can also help organizations deal with compliance issues, whether local, national or even international. Many of these regulations may deal with the privacy of the customers, the financial responsibility of the company and many of these may require storage and submission of data in digital form thus making digitization of the workplace a necessity or facing serious consequences of non-compliance. Digitization also greatly improves the response time required to meet the needs of customers. Logistical issues, customer issues, can be solved more efficiently. Customers will be happy to receive a quicker response. Today, the business environment is in rapid transition and new opportunities are emerging each day. It’s for businesses to embrace digitization and propel themselves on the growth trajectory.