Ever since the pandemic brought in the dynamics of remote work and hybrid models, Microsoft Teams has become a household name in the world of remote work. A 2022 press release indicates Microsoft’s revenue of $51.7 billion in the December quarter, a rise of 20% from the same quarter last year, and profits of $18.8 billion, a steady increase of 21%, with earnings per share of $2.48, up 22%. In terms of quick numbers, the number of daily active users doubled in the wake of the pandemic – from 75 million in April 2020 to 145 million in April 2021.

Despite its immense popularity, it’s not without its shortcomings. Microsoft Teams is feature rich yet falls short of some basic essentials that drive effective communication and collaboration. It’s also probably why several businesses are on the lookout for Microsoft Teams alternatives. 

• For one, it is limited in its use for large scale enterprises that have several cross-functional teams. It offers only about 30 private channels that can be a bottleneck for several communication workflows across large companies.
• Secondly, nuanced access control is not a well-thought out feature with Microsoft Teams. Rankling several industry leaders who have considered switching to Microsoft Teams, the absence of an evolved access and permission control has made it a rather unpopular option.

In this blog, we take a quick tour of 10 Microsoft Teams alternatives that offer an array of features beyond messaging and video conferencing.

1. Zoom

Primarily seen as a video conferencing tool with an instant messaging service, Zoom is equipped with a native cloud phone solution. 

• Integration with other tools and platforms: Available on iOS and Android, Zoom can host a large audience and has powerful integration capabilities. Zoom offers integration with other tools and platforms such as Slack, Dropbox, Google Drive, and Microsoft Teams.
• User experience and ease of use: With a simple and intuitive interface, Zoom enables easy scheduling and joining of meetings from desktop and mobile devices.
• Security: Zoom provides several security and privacy features, such as end-to-end encryption for video meetings, password protection, and waiting rooms for meeting attendees.
• Customer support: Customers can access Zoom’s customer support through email, chat, or phone besides offering a comprehensive resource section that serves as a knowledge base. 
• Pricing: It offers a limited free plan with paid plans starting at $149.90/year (or $12.50 / month).
• The flipside: One thing that deters ease of use is that it is loaded with too many add-ons that may not particularly make financial sense for a small business. Also, one of the major cons of Zoom is the mandate to download the app, thus lacking browser only functionality. 

Read More: Why Is InfinCE A Better Choice For Safe Video Calling Than Zoom

2. Google Meet 

Google Meet is a video conferencing tool that allows users to have video meetings directly from their Google Calendar event, email invite, or Gmail.  

• Integration with other tools and platforms: Google Meet can be integrated with other Google tools such as Google Calendar and Google Drive and other third-party tools such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Slack.
• User experience and ease of use: It has a simple and user-friendly interface that makes it easy to use for both hosts and participants. The platform offers features such as screen sharing, real-time captions, and recording abilities, which enhance the user experience.
• Security and privacy features: Google Meet features end-to-end encryption for video meetings, two-factor authentication, and enterprise-grade security.
• Customer support and resources available: Google provides extensive support and resources to its users through the Google Meet Help Center.
• Pricing: Offers a free plan for starters with paid plans priced from $8/ user per month.
• The flipside: Browser support is limited, which means some users may need to rely on apps for a smoother experience. The platform does not provide advanced webinar features, such as Q&A sessions or polling, which could be a drawback for larger meetings.

Read More: 5 Workplace Innovations You Can Welcome with Video Conferencing

3.  InfinCE

Here’s how InfinCE Scores over other remote platforms. 

• Tailored for remote work: Infince is designed to cater to the needs of remote teams by centralizing communication, collaboration, and data management in a single platform. The platform is optimized for remote access, usage, and management, providing businesses with flexibility and control over their operations.
• Enhanced security: Infince uses the latest security protocols and encryption methods to ensure data privacy and protection from cyber threats. The platform is hosted on a private cloud infrastructure, which provides additional security layers compared to public cloud hosting used by Microsoft 365 or Google Meets.
• Cost-effective pricing: Infince offers scalable pricing plans suitable for businesses of all sizes and budgets. The pricing is transparent with no hidden costs, making it easy for businesses to budget and predict their expenses.
• High degree of customizability: Infince features highly customizable templates that businesses can tailor to match their brand identity. This allows businesses to create a professional look and feel for their platform without the need for expensive customization.
• Dedicated support: Infince provides users with dedicated 24/7 support via phone, email, or chat. This ensures that businesses always have access to help when they need it, improving the efficiency and productivity of remote teams. It is in fact a perfect alternative during Microsoft Cloud or Google Cloud outages.

4. Cisco Webex

• Integration: Integrates with multiple tools, including Microsoft Teams, Salesforce, and Google Calendar.
• User Experience: Offers an easy-to-use interface, with features like screen sharing and virtual backgrounds.
• Security and Privacy: Provides industry-leading security measures and end-to-end encryption.
• Customer Support: Offers technical support through multiple channels, including phone and chat. 
• Pricing: Offers a free plan with paid plans ranging from $14.95/host per month.
• The flipside: Limited customization options and slightly higher pricing compared to other video conferencing platforms.

Read More: 6 Ways to Build a Secure File Sharing Practice Within Your Organization

5. ClickUp

• Integration: Integrates with popular tools such as Slack, Trello, and Google Calendar.
• User Experience: Offers a customizable interface, with various views and templates.
• Security and Privacy: Provides options like two-factor authentication and GDPR compliance.
• Customer Support: Offers 24/7 customer support through email and live chat.
• Pricing: Comes with a free plan for unlimited users and paid versions starting at $5 per user/month. 
• The flipside: Steep learning curve and requires a longer setup time compared to other project management tools.

6. Chanty

• Integration: Integrates with G Suite and third-party apps like Zapier and Trello.
• User Experience: Offers a simple, clutter-free interface with features like threaded conversations and file sharing.
• Security and Privacy: Provides end-to-end encryption and compliance with GDPR.
• Customer Support: Offers support via email, chat, and phone, with a detailed knowledge base. 
• Pricing: Provides a free plan for up to 10 members and a paid plan with $3/user/month.
• The flipside: Lacks advanced features like screen sharing and video calling, and limited integrations compared to other team chat platforms.

7. Pumble

• Integration: Integrates with Google Drive, GitHub, Bitbucket, and Zapier.
• User Experience: Offers a simple, user-friendly interface with features like public and private channels and voice messaging.
• Security and Privacy: Provides end-to-end encryption and complies with GDPR.
• Customer Support: Offers 24/7 support through a dedicated team and a comprehensive knowledge base. 
• Pricing: Offers a free forever plan that works for the needs of small and medium-sized businesses. Paid plans start at $1.99 per user per month with access to most Pumble features. 
• The flipside: Limited integrations and lacks video conferencing capabilities compared to other team chat platforms.

Read More: 5 Tips To Effectively Manage Remote Teams During Challenging Times

8. Brosix

• Integration: Integrates with other tools via Zapier and offers API for custom integration.
• User Experience: Offers a user-friendly interface with features like group and screen sharing and a customizable chat environment.
• Security and Privacy: Provides end-to-end encryption and complies with EU data privacy laws.
• Customer Support: Offers 24/7 customer support through phone, email, and live chat.
• Pricing:A forever free plan that works for small teams that are just getting started. Paid plans begin at $4 user per month.
• The flipside: Limited integrations compared to other team chat platforms and higher pricing compared to some competitors.7. Pumble:

• Integration: Integrates with Google Drive, GitHub, Bitbucket, and Zapier.
• User Experience: Offers a simple, user-friendly interface with features like public and private channels and voice messaging.
• Security and Privacy: Provides end-to-end encryption and complies with GDPR.
• Customer Support: Offers 24/7 support through a dedicated team and a comprehensive knowledge base. 
• Pricing: Offers a free forever plan that works for the needs of small and medium-sized businesses. Paid plans start at $1.99 per user per month with access to most Pumble features. 
• The flipside: Limited integrations and lacks video conferencing capabilities compared to other team chat platforms.

9. Zoho

• Integration: Offers integration with many popular tools, including G Suite, Salesforce, and Slack.
• User Experience: Offers a user-friendly interface with features like task management and a customizable dashboard.
• Security and Privacy: Provides industry-standard security measures and promotes data privacy.
• Customer Support: Offers support through phone, email, and chat, with a comprehensive knowledge base and user forum. 
• The flipside: Advanced features require higher-tier subscriptions, and some users may find the interface and navigation slightly overwhelming.

10. Slack

• Integration: Offers integration with various tools, including Google Drive, Zoom, and Trello.
• User Experience: Offers a user-friendly interface with features like channels and direct messaging, file sharing, and app management.
• Security and privacy: Provides various data security and privacy measures, including enterprise-level encryption and two-factor authentication.
• Customer Support: Offers 24/7 customer support through phone, email, and chat, with a detailed knowledge base and user forum. 
• The flipside: Lack of threaded chats, and some users may find it challenging to locate specific conversations or messages

To Summarize

Remote work is gaining popularity with the various shifts in work culture. How companies strategize, evaluate and implement the right tools would define the path to their success. Where, some businesses might focus on improving work efficiency, others might depend on advanced tools and technologies to enhance work collaboration. However, a platform like InfinCE is built to help embrace the ever changing digital work environment and thrive with the rising technology advancements. 

Connect with us today to learn more about InfinCE!

Despite the soaring popularity of virtual meetings since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers point toward the concern that virtual meetings aren’t as effective as the traditional, in-person meetings. 

“Part of the problem might be that we’re worse at taking turns in virtual conversations than in physical ones.” (Stanford University, 2022)

“The number of meetings grew by 7.4% between June 2020 and December 2021, but the meetings were typically of low quality.” (University of Cambridge Judge Business School, 2022)

Many employees are annoyed with the amount of time lost due to technical issues, delayed meetings, irrelevant agenda, off-topic discussions, unpreparedness, and loud background noises. These challenges, however, cannot deny the fact that virtual meetings are here to stay. Gartner data shows that by 2025, 50% of all enterprise virtual events will be held on the video meeting platforms commonly used by organizations today, proving that video meetings are not likely to disappear from our workplace anytime soon.  

What does it take to run an effective virtual meeting that facilitates collaboration, engagement, and communication between in-office and remote teams? 

Common Challenges in Hosting Virtual Meetings

The use of virtual meetings in workplace can raise several concerns, some of the most commonly cited issues are discussed below:

• It can be difficult to pick up on non-verbal cues such as body language and gestures in virtual meetings. For instance, the meeting host or speaker may not be able to gauge whether other members of the meeting are puzzled, distracted or have lost interest.
• Video meetings can lead to Zoom fatigue, a unique kind of exhaustion that occurs when people participate in video meetings for an extended time period. The constant need to focus on screens, lack of breaks, and the difficulty in understanding non-verbal or social cues lead to fatigue and reduced productivity.
• Technical glitches that you have no control over, such as server or internet connection outages, microphone failure, audio problems, crashing of shared applications, or the trouble of logging into a virtual meeting. 
• Many people prefer face-to-face, in-person interaction instead of virtual team meetings. Remote team members may not get enough time to bond with each other and build formal relationships. The result can be a lack of mutual trust which, in turn, can impact your team’s productivity.
• Scheduling virtual meetings could be a challenge when you want remote teams working from multiple locations and different time zones to join the meeting at a reasonable hour.

Best Practices & Tips to Make Your Video Meetings More Effective

1. Turn your camera on during virtual calls

In a prolonged remote work environment, your employees get only little in-person face time with their colleagues, supervisors, or managers. Keeping the camera on during virtual meetings will make your video conferences more accessible, exciting, and intuitive for participants. 

By observing the facial expressions and body language of the participants during a video call, you can pick up contextual cues that are often lost over audio calls or text-based modes of communication such as chat or email. Encouraging your team members to turn on their cameras during video meetings can make them feel more connected, engaged, and productive.   

2. Use interactive tools to increase engagement

Utilizing interactive tools like polls, surveys, quizzes, and breakout rooms during virtual meetings will allow participants to get involved as if they are all in the same space.

Breakout rooms are one of the most popular features in InfinCE video meeting platform that helps create a dynamic virtual meeting experience. Meeting organizers or hosts can use the breakout rooms to divide participants into smaller groups for focused discussions and effective collaboration. 

InfinCE video meeting software allows you to create and launch polls/ quizzes during a virtual meeting and gather the responses from your participants. You can frame customized questions for your polls and see the results in real-time to make informed decisions or next steps. 

Using the Raise a Hand feature in the InfinCE video meeting platform, a participant can notify the meeting host that they want to discuss a point without disrupting the flow of the meeting. All these tools promote better participation and collaboration and provide valuable feedback to the meeting organizers.

3. Allow short breaks between each meeting

Back-to-back virtual meetings can be stressful and decrease your ability to focus and engage. Participants should be encouraged to step away from their screens and take a short break in between successive meeting schedules. It prevents stress from building up. 

Here are a few tips to make your moments of respite successful:

• View breaks away from your computer will help shift your mind and re-energize before joining the next meeting.
• A short meditation break or a simple physical activity such as a stroll will help you feel refreshed and recharged when you start your next meeting.
• Before scheduling a video call, do check if you really require a meeting to discuss the issue or if it can be solved through email, live chat, or document collaboration. 
• Make your meetings more intentional. Create and share an agenda ahead of time, think about who attends the meeting, start and stop on time, and transition to a five-minute recap at the end of the call. 
• Raise your hand, polls and quizzes, breakout rooms, and other interactive tools are great ways to keep your participants involved and elicit creative and strategic conversations.  

4. Find the right balance between virtual and in-person meetings

Despite returning to normal after the pandemic, virtual calls continue to be a staple of the daily business routines. Though virtual meetings cannot completely replace face-to-face meetings for good, they are likely to remain as a part of our working lives as most businesses adjust to a hybrid way of working. 

Here are a few tips to balance both in-person and virtual meetings:

• Choose the meeting type based on the topic or context. If you’re reaching out to a client for a quick check-in, a virtual meeting would suffice. If you want to discuss a major portfolio change or strategy adjustments, it’s better to meet in-person, if possible.
• Schedule virtual meetings and invite participants ahead of time to best manage your time and theirs, especially when you’re collaborating with remote teams located in different time zones.  
• Gauge the complexity level of the issue you’re going to discuss. If you’re tackling a thorny problem that’s difficult to comprehend or is emotionally complex, it’s better to go for an in-person meeting. 
• Finally, choose the meeting type that would be more inclusive. Consider your participants’ availability (proximity) for an in-person meeting. Check if they have a tight schedule that makes it difficult to find a common time for an in-person meeting. In this case, scheduling a virtual meeting can ensure maximum participation and inclusion.  

The Final Word

In the post-pandemic era, the workplace could mean different things for different people. With the erratic work arrangements across companies, individual teams, and industry segments, workers need video meetings more than ever.

The real challenge for employers now is to foster true collaboration in a hybrid workplace setting by balancing remote and in-office employee experiences – and a video meeting platform is the key to achieving that. 

With InfinCE, your organization can experience all the benefits and features of a modern digital workplace. Enable your team to work together from anywhere, using any device with our comprehensive virtual meeting software. Get started today.

Connect with our experts today or Request a Free Demo!

Definition and Evolution of Digital Workplace Platforms

Digital workplace platforms have evolved tremendously over the past few years, with the modern workplace requiring much more than just a basic communication tool. In a dynamic business environment where change is the only constant, employees require a cohesive digital experience to collaborate, access important information, communicate with colleagues seamlessly, and manage their workload effectively.

As a result, modern digital workplace platforms now provide a range of features that enable businesses to meet these needs. A suite of applications that enable businesses to function remotely, collaborate online, and have access to cloud-based tools to run day-to-day operations, digital workplace platforms include communication tools such as email, instant messaging, video conferencing, and project management tools. Analogously, these platforms act as virtual offices where employees can share files, communicate with colleagues, and complete work tasks. A digital workplace platform is like a toolbox that provides everything you need to get the job done from anywhere on any device, examples of which include HR databases, knowledge management systems, and customer relationship management software.

Read more: What is a Digital Workplace: A Complete Guide! 

Employee Experience: The Key Driver 

Several studies have confirmed that a positive employee experience leads to higher engagement, productivity, retention, and even profitability. For example, according to a 2023 Gartner Survey, 83% of HR leaders believe employee experience is crucial to their organization’s success. On the other hand, companies with poor employee experience see high turnover rates, low productivity, a bad work culture, and even customer dissatisfaction.

For a digital workspace to translate to building a positive employee experience, personalization, mobile accessibility, and ease of use are some critical ingredients.

1. Personalization involves tailoring the digital workspace experience to each employee’s unique needs and preferences – this can be achieved through customized dashboards, relevant information feeds, or custom notifications. 

2. Mobile accessibility means enabling employees to work from anywhere, anytime, on any device. An easy-to-use interface and accessibility from anywhere ensure employees can navigate the digital workplace platform without friction, frustration, or confusion. This also contributes to shorter learning curves and lesser training mandates.

Robust Integration with Third-Party Applications: A Must-have

According to a study conducted by the Aberdeen Group, companies that integrate their enterprise applications experience a 20% increase in productivity. This includes everything from marketing, sales, and supply chain management to HR and finance. Key integration capabilities that need to be present in a digital workplace include compatibility, security, and scalability. Compatibility means having the ability to integrate with a variety of applications, ensuring that you have access to your entire suite of tools. Security is important to ensure sensitive data remains safe and protected. Finally, scalability refers to the ability to add or remove apps as needed without disrupting the current workflow.

The Three Cs – Cloud, Collaboration, and Communication

Microsoft reported a 27% increase in revenue from investing in intelligent cloud, with an overall revenue uptick of 39% attached to the cloud. If you want to take a leaf from their book, you know where to put your money. Cloud-hosting is your best bet for a digital workplace platform especially because it safeguards important information, reduces the risk of data loss, increases security, and of course, allows your employees to share and access files from a central location, lending to a simple and seamless experience. Following suit, communication, and collaboration are key elements that have to fall in place if a digital workplace platform is considered successful.

Read more: Role of a Digital Workplace Platform in Hybrid Workplace

Adherence to Regulatory Compliance and Security: The Much-needed Protocol

Adherence to security and compliance policies is critical to the success of digital workplace platforms. Companies that comply with regulations and protect user data enjoy higher levels of trust and customer loyalty, leading to increased revenue and growth. It is essential to prioritize security and compliance to safeguard against the cost and reputational damage of a security breach. The implementation of security features like single sign-on, two-factor authentication, and data encryption has become crucial for digital workplace platforms to protect sensitive information. According to a report by Verizon, over 80% of data breaches are caused by weak or stolen credentials, which can be prevented by using these security measures. Companies like Slack and Microsoft Teams have successfully implemented these features, resulting in improved security and increased adoption rates. In fact, Microsoft Teams reported a record 2.7 billion meeting minutes in a single day in March 2020, attributed to the platform’s security measures.

Embracing Web3 Technologies

Gartner predicts that by 2024, AI will have automated as much as 75% of the manual work involved in project management-related administrative tasks. Better yet, a study by Accenture found that AI adoption could increase workplace productivity by as much as 40%.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning learning (ML) are becoming increasingly important in the digital workplace, and new platforms are designed to leverage these technologies to enhance productivity and automate routine tasks. One example of how these technologies help personalize user experiences is through intelligent recommendations. By analyzing employee behavior, such as the types of tasks they complete, the documents they access, and the apps they use, ML algorithms can suggest relevant content, information, and tools that are unique to each user. This personalized approach helps employees work more efficiently and effectively by streamlining workflows and reducing the time spent searching for information.

Connect with our experts know more about InfinCE

A digital workplace is a modern, virtual version of a traditional workplace that serves as a centralized hub for employees to collaborate, securely access or share data and execute business functions from anywhere, on any device, at any time, while driving competitive advantage, innovation, and sustainable business growth. 

IN THIS GUIDE

• What is a digital workplace?
• What are the key factors to consider in a digital workplace?
• What are the essential components of a digital workplace?
• Debunking 3 common myths about the digital workplace
• What are the benefits of a digital workplace?
• How does a digital workplace transform your employee experience?
• Why choose InfinCE over other digital workplaces?
• Conclusion

What is a Digital Workplace?

Any discussion on the future of work is incomplete without mentioning digital workplace technologies. The modern workplace is no longer a physical space we need to go to. The rapid transition to remote work driven by COVID-19 and the increasing popularity of hybrid work models have spurred the evolution of digital workplaces. 

Digital workplace software features the entire portfolio of applications, IT infrastructure, workplace technologies, and enabling services that power new ways of working and contribute to employee experience and engagement. 

Digital workplace software equips employees to take full advantage of existing and emerging technologies for driving business outcomes, including digital transformation.    

Simply put, a digital workplace is a virtual work environment in which your employees, scattered across diverse geographies, teams, and departments, can stay connected, access data, and do their work at any time of the day, using any device of their choice. You can enjoy the benefits of a digital workplace if you have a stable internet connection and a computing device (such as a laptop, desktop, tablet, or smartphone). 

What are the Key Factors to Consider in a Digital Workplace?

Digital workplace success primarily relies on three important factors. They are:

1. People

A digital workplace is designed to meet the changing needs of the modern workforce. Millennials and Gen Z, who make up the world’s largest working population, desire more flexibility in their work preferences (eg: remote or hybrid work models). The productivity and satisfaction of people should always take a front seat when planning digital workplace initiatives. 

2. Technology

Robust technology is the backbone of digital workplace software. The growth of the internet, along with the technologies that stem from it, has decentralized work. Physical space is no longer required for employees to communicate or store, access, and share information in real time. A digital workplace should incorporate technologies that help bridge the gap between people and productivity, such as cloud and mobility.  

3. Management

Strong and helpful management facilitates meaningful coordination between people and technology by driving a positive company culture. Management should make workplace technology more accessible for everyone and motivate employees to take full advantage of virtual collaboration solutions. This can go a long way in improving workplace transparency, accountability, and employee engagement.

What are the Essential Components of a Digital Workplace?

A typical digital workplace is an assembly of six basic components: 

Broadly speaking, a digital workplace should offer all the essential features to navigate a specific workday. 

1. Communication

Communication requirements in a workplace can be both synchronous and asynchronous. Collaborating with your team members in real-time or near real-time from a single location or multiple locations is critical for the success of your digital workplace. Synchronous or real-time collaboration is enabled through one-on-one voice and video calls, meetings with multiple participants, and live chat. Asynchronous communication that doesn’t require instant action, allowing people to respond or update according to their availability, is also an important component of the digital workplace. The best example of this type of communication is email. 

2. Mobility

The most striking feature of a digital workplace is anywhere, anytime accessibility which makes mobility an inevitable component of remote and hybrid work cultures. Your digital workplace should be accessible via authorized mobile devices (in the form of a mobile app or mobile website), especially when you are coordinating employees from multiple locations. Use stringent access controls to ensure that only the right users are logging into your digital workplace through authorized devices and login credentials. 

3. Productivity 

Popular productivity tools that help employees work efficiently, such as word processors, spreadsheets, presentation software, task management tools, calendar, etc., are a must-have digital workplace component. Productivity tools enable your team to easily manage their day-to-day activities and raise their efficiency.    

4. Security 

Digital workplace adoption implies shifting to a cloud-first, mobile-first workplace, where employees use many devices to accomplish tasks. This can expose organizations to potential cyber threats and security vulnerabilities. Digital workplaces offering virtual private servers (VPS) and virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) help retain absolute rights over your data by employing advanced access controls, user permissions, and firewalls. 

5. Storage

Sufficient storage is a must to handle both expected and unexpected workloads, whether your data is stored onsite in physical servers or uploaded to virtual cloud servers. There should also be a provision to scale storage on demand with ease as your organization grows.     

6. Integrations

Work becomes more convenient and smart when all your productivity tools and collaboration apps can be accessed and managed from a centralized platform through a single sign-on. Handling multiple subscription renewals, maintaining separate login credentials for each software, and spending money on unused tools can be easily eliminated with centralized IT management. Through seamless third-party software integration, a digital workplace brings all the tools you need in one place to perform your tasks without any interventions and challenges. 

Debunking 3 Common Myths About the Digital Workplace

Though digital workplaces are designed to make life easier and more productive for employees, only a few are aware of the benefits. Outdated views about workplace technologies prevent IT leaders and key stakeholders from providing their buy-in. Three common false assumptions standing in the way of digital workplace adoption are dispelled here:    

Myth #1: Digital workplace adoption can happen without culture change

The pandemic expedited the adoption of digital workplace technologies, which made remote work mainstream. However, most organizations use digital workplace tools such as video meeting solutions and visual collaboration applications to emulate their existing communication and collaboration experiences instead of enabling new ways of working. This affects the productivity of employees. 

Here’s what you can do to address this challenge:

• Nominate peer advocates and champions at the team level who can coach team members and support the cultural and process changes needed in a digital workplace.    
• Identify employees who need more encouragement or motivation. Demonstrate how the digital workplace is linked to their career advancement. 
• Develop a “our way of working” statement that helps employees select the applications they need for each scenario. This encourages them to use all of the functionalities you’ve implemented. 

Myth #2: Workplace collaboration is always synchronous

Several business leaders still believe that true workplace collaboration occurs only when their employees are in the same place, working on a common task. In a hybrid world with frequently overlapping work schedules, asynchronous modes of collaboration equally impact team innovation. Employees forced to spend more time in meetings have proven that they can be as productive and innovative using modern asynchronous collaboration methods. For example, video meeting recordings and transcriptions are great time savers, as they reduce the need for meetings and allow employees to catch up on missed discussions.

Ways to promote asynchronous collaboration methods:

• Use internal networking collaboration tools like employee intranet solutions to experiment with new collaboration styles, grow communities, and strengthen employee interactions.
• Collaborative work management applications, such as online office tools, file collaboration, and simultaneous editing, drive the adoption of new collaboration practices, improve workplace transparency and accountability, and boost employee engagement.

Myth #3: Digital workplace and digital transformations are the same

The digital workplace is often used interchangeably with digital transformation. Both aren’t the same. A digital workplace provides an engaging and intuitive environment for employees to collaborate virtually through a horde of workplace applications. It allows teams to leverage existing and emerging technologies to drive business outcomes. A digital transformation model exploits the latest digital technologies to create new business models. 

A digital workplace is a key step in accomplishing the digital transformation. Prioritizing employee-centric workplace digital initiatives will augment your digital transformation agenda.

• Understand what could enhance your employee experience and help them operate in a more engaging and intuitive workplace.
• Choose a digital workplace software that’s easy for your employees and managers to optimize when, where, and how the work gets done. 

What are the Benefits of a Digital Workplace?

A digital workplace improves employee engagement in your organization by giving your teams the tools they require to connect, collaborate, and perform their core responsibilities at work. Here is why you should implement digital workplace software.

1. Flexibility to work remotely

The third edition of McKinsey’s American Opportunity Survey reveals that 87% of people prefer to work remotely one or more days per week if given a choice. Remote work gives employees the flexibility and freedom to manage their core job responsibilities without being physically in their office workspace. 

A digital workplace platform features all the collaboration tools you need to connect virtually with your colleagues and access your company data and applications online from any device, any location, at any time of the day. This will enhance your employees’ job satisfaction, productivity, and work-life balance. Flexible work environments and schedules help employees get the most out of their workdays, as they can time-shift to perform work when they are most prepared.      

2. More room for ideation and innovation

Smart and reliable virtual collaboration tools cut down meeting times, reduce delays in peer-to-peer communication, strengthen employee-management relationships, and give teams more room for ideation and innovation. Better workplace coordination infuses a collaborative culture in your organization that helps churn ideas that may not otherwise have been heard. 

Instant feedback shared laterally between team members and vertically between the management and employees will improve your team’s workplace morale and satisfaction.  Employees ardently use their freed-up time for problem-solving and ideation when work becomes easier.  

3. Lower operational expenses

There is no better choice than a cost-effective digital workplace to manage globally distributed teams. When you are spared from the need to pay multiple subscription costs and license renewal charges, your operating expenses decrease considerably. For example, a cloud-based digital workplace platform eliminates the need for costly on-premise servers and storage and the physical office space and IT resources needed to operate and maintain them. 

4. Better data security, storage, and access

Digital workplace software leverages the power of the cloud and mobility. Cloud technology ensures secure storage and easy access/ sharing of data files from anywhere, at any time. The virtual work environment allows employees to access the right information they need and share their knowledge with a few clicks or taps. 

Most digital workplaces are designed with built-in security measures. To protect your employees’ personal identity and save your data from cyber attacks, you can implement additional security measures, such as strong password encryption and multi-factor authentication.   

5. Transparent work environment

A digital workplace combines multiple components into a single suite, so your employees can perform their best with as few obstacles as possible. When everyone in your team is on the same page, you will get more time to focus on business and organizational goals. Sharing company news, success stories, culture posts, accolades, and recognition via the digital workplace platform improves team bonding, promotes a “family-like” environment in your workplace, and ensures all employees are aligned with your organizational culture.     

How Does a Digital Workplace Transform Your Employee Experience?

Digital workplaces follow a bottom-up approach that considers all the daily challenges of employees and provides all the tools to boost the overall employee experience.

1. Facilitates modern workstyle

A digital workplace platform allows employees to work remotely with optimum productivity. Easy access to all information in one place, sharing the right information to the right people at the right time, collaboration tools, productivity applications, and all the necessary tools and technology for your remote employees ensure that their productivity isn’t compromised.

2. Bring your own device (BYOD)

Millennials, who presently comprise the largest portion (38%) of the American workforce, prefer to work from their own devices because they feel more engaged, motivated, and comfortable. As long as your employees are connected to the internet, they can access their work-related data anywhere, on any device. The freedom to use any device they prefer improves your organization’s employee experience. 

3. Communication and Collaboration

Effective workplace collaboration is the key to business success and innovation. Ideas developed by a team of three or more people have a greater appeal than those developed by just one or two individuals. However, desk-side collaborations and conversations over lunch are practically impossible when you have a highly distributed workforce. A digital workplace platform is the best way to make collaboration and coordination an important part of your company culture. Using digital workplace software, you can set up internal communication channels for every team or department, making it easy for members to communicate with each other. It gives your team more time for innovation and ideation by reducing the duration and number of meetings they attend.     

Why Choose InfinCE Over Other Digital Workplaces?

No digital workplace platform is 100% one-size-fits-all. Therefore, it’s crucial to find a digital workplace solution that can be customized according to your company’s needs and integrated with your existing workflows and third-party software tools, if any. To keep it simple and short, a digital workplace should augment your employee experience and work culture without disrupting your existing workflows and give you better results and ROI. This is where InfinCE makes a difference.  

Whatever your use case may be – team communication, project management, document creation and sharing, managing information assets, video meeting, virtual collaboration, and more, InfinCE has everything you need to handle all aspects of your business. Here is a summary of the top InfinCE features. 

Watch more: How InfinCE Digital Workplace makes work smart, efficient, and productive!

1. Built-in collaboration apps and productivity tools

• Collaboration apps for employees to coordinate at work more efficiently, including employee directory, live chat, one-on-one voice and video calls, video conferencing, and private email.
• A comprehensive suite of productivity tools that help perform your day-to-day organizational activities like task management, document creation, and sharing. 
• Ready-to-access online office tools: Documents, Spreadsheets, Presentations, and Calendars raise your employees’ productivity. Employees can easily share and collaborate on documents and get the work done quickly.
• Secure file sharing: Files can be securely shared between employees, but also between employees and non-employees using options like upload-only folders and password-protected files.

2. Custom dashboards to track insights and make decisions

• InfinCE lets users create custom dashboards to help them keep track of what’s happening in their project or team. It brings an effective way to communicate key business information in real-time and simplifies team collaboration.
• InfinCE dashboards can be restricted to and contain just the information appropriate for the expected viewers. However, those viewers may be classified: as Organization, Department, or Team. An individual can create private dashboards for their sole use. 
• Unique standard tiles on the InfinCE dashboards allow sharing of different types of information, including news feeds, announcements, bookmarks, videos, notes, and more, in one view.
• The dashboards consolidate data from various sources (such as other internal software apps) and display insights in charts, graphs, tables, and other formats.  

3. InfinCE Mobile App

• Download the InfinCE employee engagement mobile app on your iOS or Android device and stay on top of your work.
• View dashboard updates, access work files, find contacts, join video meetings, and do a lot more with the intuitive InfinCE mobile app.
• Customize the app’s interface to reflect your branding and deliver a highly engaging experience to your workforce.
• The mobile app is envisioned to help you perform all the functions that are available on your InfinCE Web, from anywhere, at any time.

Watch more: How the InfinCE Mobile App seamlessly enables a connected workplace!

4. Private and secure IT infrastructure

• Private cloud infrastructure guarantees enterprise-grade security for your organization. It provides unmatched data security and powerful performance that your IT team can manage and monitor easily. 
• We offer dedicated virtual servers, so you don’t have to manage your cloud platform separately. InfinCE private enterprise cloud gets renewed along with your subscription. 
• Virtual private servers improve corporate privacy because there is no sharing of your company data with third-party software vendors. InfinCE’s secure digital infrastructure achieves this added protection through its inbuilt firewalls and encryption/password-based user access controls.

5. Custom brand your digital workplace 

• You can elevate your brand presence from your workspace to your customer front with InfinCE’s extensive custom branding options. 
• Showcase your brand logo and colors at every touchpoint – internally and externally – such as your private email, website, digital workplace, company mobile app, and video meeting rooms.
• Carve a unique brand identity that’s both consistent and catchy through custom business email, white-labeled web and mobile apps, personalized smart workspaces, and branded video meeting rooms. 
• Reflect on your brand’s purpose, values, strategy, and communication codes with InfinCE. 

6. Curated application marketplace

• InfinCE features a growing library of commercial and open-source business applications from several software vendors on its platform. Available applications come in categories suited to different business functions, such as CRM, ERP, project management, HRM, etc. 
• Subscribe and readily access all your essential enterprise applications with a single sign-on through the marketplace. Suggest any compatible software that can be added to the marketplace. Our developers also help you build special-purpose custom software. 
• Easily integrate all your business processes, reduce expenses, manage resources optimally, and engage with clients better to stimulate growth. 
• Stay on top of your software costs by avoiding multiple subscriptions and unused software tools.  

7. Business phone system

• InfinCE offers a complete cloud-based phone system for all your business communications.
• Enjoy lower call costs per minute based on the time spent on calls. No cancellation fees are required.
• An intelligent IVR system helps improve customer service efficiency, manage incoming call spikes, and increase customer satisfaction with auto callbacks.
• Automated call distribution minimizes call waiting times by customizing call flow paths and diverting callers to the right agents.

Conclusion

A robust digital workplace drives real cultural change. It breaks down communication barriers, transforms employee experience, and fosters innovation and growth. From integrating email and instant messaging to virtual meeting software and custom business dashboards, InfinCE offers all the tools you need to implement an entirely new working environment that replicates your employees’ changing work experience.

Connect with us today or request a quick 30 minutes demo now!

With organizations worldwide adapting to either a hybrid or a remote work structure, the shift to a new work order is difficult if there is no digital workplace platform to streamline operations, especially if the company has a mix of on-site and online employees. Companies need digital solutions to ensure that all employees and stakeholders are on the same page.  

During the pandemic, many companies managed to pivot to remote work, but many of them used existing technology overlays to adapt to a hybrid or online work structure. These piecemeal solutions are inadequate and do not have the intuitive design of a digital workplace solution built especially for digital workplaces and put workers at the center of their design. Companies should choose solutions that digitally transform tasks, unify data, drive productivity, and provide intelligent collaboration apps.

What is a digital workplace? 

A digital workplace is a virtual office space designed to help employees work efficiently and carry out their tasks in remote or hybrid settings. Digital workplaces give employees instant access to resources and help them collaborate better. They streamline company workflows, increase productivity, and boost team morale. Digital workplace solutions also enable an always-connected work environment and a seamless employee experience.

There is a misconception that a digital workplace is simply a group of remote workers. Digital workplaces are all about how you work and are not restricted to location.  

According to Deloitte, a digital workplace can manage tasks from your HR applications and your core business applications to emails, instant chats, enterprise social media tools, and virtual meeting tools.

Deloitte points to one of the key requirements of a good digital workplace solution – one that aligns with the company’s business value and connects worker experience to business outcomes.

Read more: Deliver Engaging Experiences with the InfinCE Digital Workplace

https://vimeo.com/766361452

Digital workplaces are gaining traction in the remote work culture – here’s why

With digital workplaces, workplace efficiency has increased, and so has flexibility. Digital workplace solutions also equip companies with exciting new technologies that automate mundane tasks and increase the speed that it takes to complete time-sensitive projects.

With digital tools giving employees all the information they need, including troubleshooting guides and company manuals, customer care reps can service customers better. 

We live in a hyperconnected world where the right digital work experience drives workplace productivity. In its roundup of technology trends, Deloitte states that digital workplaces are gaining popularity because organizations need to use technology to optimize team productivity and collaboration to stay ahead of the curve. In particular, companies can derive incredible benefits from the actionable data generated by these tools and the AI-driven people analytics solutions that can drive superior workflow management solutions. 

A Gartner survey backs this up by reporting that 56% of CEOs attribute increased revenue to digital improvements. Many companies invest in digital workplace solutions because they know that these tools promise measurable returns, which accounts for their growing importance in business.

How Digital Workplace Solutions Make Remote Work Easy And Profitable 

Digital workplace solutions are built to make it easy to work virtually and remotely. They provide powerful enterprise productivity tools that help companies optimize workflows and create an agile workforce. Their tools work in sync with employee workflows, and they help companies adapt to the complexities of the new workforce.  

Digital workplace platforms help remote team members to collaborate easily. Employees can share files, manage cases, track project statuses, and enjoy a single integrated view of multiple workflows. This ensures that all employees and departments are not working in silos and that there is a more transparent, integrated working environment where team members can track project statuses, leads, define tasks, and set deadlines.

Digital workplace platforms provide collaboration tools that employees can use to work across locations and time zones. Digital workplace solutions also automate repetitive tasks, provide an integrated work experience, and increase employee engagement. They have also re-engineered organizational structures and cultures, with workers being more connected with leadership and employees having access to company data. 

Read more: Ensuring Digital Wellbeing With The Right Digital Workplace Platform!

Here’s How You Can Identify The Right Digital Workplace Solution 

When looking for the right digital workplace solution for your company, look for a complete digital workplace toolkit. While many piecemeal digital solutions offer communication tools, it’s the collaboration tools that truly make digital workplace solutions very useful. There is more to digital workplace productivity than ad-hoc digital solutions. Instead, look for a digital workplace orchestration platform that transforms how people work and collaborate. Unlike generic digital workplace tools, digital orchestration platforms are designed to help companies boost efficiency, scale operations, work on continuous innovation, and deliver proactive and intelligent people analytics.

Here are some aspects to consider when choosing the right digital workplace solution for your company.

• Go for personalized and intuitive solutions: Every company is different, so it is important to go with a customizable digital workplace solution that allows you to choose off-the-shelf software or SaaS per your requirements.  
• Look for collaboration tools: Choose a digital workplace platform that provides workgroup chats, group meetings, audio and video conferences, and other collaborative tools. Also, favor a platform with a unified dashboard to manage daily operations seamlessly. 
• Prioritize productivity tools: Go for platforms with important productivity tools like smart email management, simplified multi-app management, calendar management, time tracking, and collaboration channels. Look for tools that can monitor the progress of projects and employee performance. 
• Choose a people-focused digital workplace platform: With remote work, employees and teams need to be constantly engaged and motivated to work and collaborate efficiently. Choose platforms with intra-organizational tools that foster a sense of community and engagement.  

With an orchestration platform like InfinCE, you can simplify your processes and choose only the features you need, thereby controlling infrastructure costs. InfinCE’s modern tools unify data and give you a competitive edge over other companies. Want to increase your profits and drive great business outcomes? InfinCE helped a company like Fingent improve productivity by 20% due to its incredible digital workplace orchestration platform.

Fix a demo session today or talk to our experts to know more about InfinCE.

A digital workspace is the virtual equivalent of your individual workstation. It is an integrated technology framework that leverages evolving technologies to enable you to work online by providing and managing a hoard of features like apps, data, task management functionality, desktop delivery, etc., on any device, anytime. Global Workforce Study 2021 by BCG and The Network says 89% of the respondents expect their jobs to be partly remote when the pandemic ends. So, remote work is here to stay, fully or partially. 

The pandemic caused businesses worldwide to quickly adopt digital workplace solutions to prevent disruption to their workflows. What started as a move triggered by the force of circumstances later proved to be so highly productive and beneficial that most forced adopters became strong advocates of digital technologies. Adopting a digital workplace solution is the first step toward creating a digital workspace. 

Read more: 6 Tips To Guarantee Data Security in a Digital Workplace      

Essential features of a digital workspace    

1. App and desktop virtualization to provide seamless access to your remote workforce
2. Secure and hassle-free access to SaaS apps in one place
3. Easy and seamless file sharing
4. Content collaboration tools to let teams create, edit, review, and post content that can be accessed by the right people
5. Automated workflows that save time and man-hours
6. Unified endpoint management of all devices by a central management console 
7. A single sign-on that provides your employees quick and secure access to data and apps  

You can improve the productivity and efficiency of your remote workforce by choosing the right kind of digital workspace with task management functionality that matches your business needs. Hewlett Packard Enterprise defines a digital workplace as “ a virtualized form of the traditional, in-person office environment, where many elements of collaboration and productivity are performed through some combination of digital applications, cloud computing, and other technology”. 

A digital workplace solution leverages cloud technologies to integrate all the apps and services required for the internal operations of your business on a single platform so that your remote teams can seamlessly access and share data in a secure environment. Companies create unified environments to enable seamless collaboration among their systems.  

So, what is a unified environment?

A unified environment or platform is an efficient, effective, collaborative, and scalable ecosystem consisting of people, systems, and data that work in unison to meet business goals. It enables seamless collaboration among teams and offers secure data access, independent of device and location. 

Salient features of a unified platform  

1. Secure and hassle-free exchange of data between systems and apps.
2. Seamless collaboration among teams across geographies.
3. Central and controlled access to data across all access points.
4. Scalable to accommodate the changing needs of your business. 
5. Enhanced security and protection against data breaches. 

Thus, unified platforms have multiple features that help employees improve productivity and meet goals. The pandemic-induced lockdowns and new health protocols have paved the way for increased adoption of remote work among businesses worldwide. The BCG Employee Sentiment Survey 2020 reports that 75% of the 12000 surveyees are able to maintain or improve productivity on individual tasks, while 51% confirm being able to maintain or improve productivity on collaborative tasks. As working from anywhere is becoming the new pattern of work, companies are increasingly embracing digitalization to overcome the challenges of an ever-evolving business environment.  

Read more: Ensuring Digital Wellbeing With The Right Digital Workplace Platform!

So,  how does a unified environment promote remote work? 

1. Provides a central hub for all business processes, thus eliminating the need to switch between apps to get work done. Multiple modules are integrated on the centralized platform, which can be accessed on dashboards.
2. Allows users to create their own workflows sans coding. Workflows can be reconfigured or changed to meet changing business objectives.
3. Offers flexible integration of apps and data. Data updates are synchronized across all tools, thus breaking silos to enable all pervasive integrations.
4. Uses dashboards for smart reporting. Smart dashboards simplify data analysis and help track and report KPIs and other metrics.  

Digital workplace solutions thus bring together people,  processes, and cloud technologies to deliver secure, efficient, and enriched employee experiences across multiple devices and geographies. They come endowed with a host of features to help your remote teams work smarter for your business growth. 

A smart digital workplace solution will have an extensive suite of collaboration apps to help you connect with your teams faster and smarter to meet your goals. It will help you streamline communication through a series of channels like email, live chats, easy file sharing, individual and group audio/video calls, etc. Above all, you can centrally control your entire IT assets from one place and manage your information assets with ease and security. You can even leverage private business IT infrastructure custom-built to meet your end-to-end needs for enhanced security. 

If you are looking for a digital workplace solution that unifies all your business tools to increase your employee productivity, InfinCE would be your answer. The curated marketplace on the platform includes apps from multiple vendors to meet all your business needs. And what’s more, our experts can guide you through adding custom apps to the platform to increase productivity and improve the experiences of your employees. Whether creating documents, handling emails, scheduling events, or managing tasks, InfinCE’s vast library of productivity tools will help you accomplish your day-to-day activities easily and raise your workforce efficiency. 

Get in touch with our experts or take a demo to know more.   

The advent of IT fundamentally changed the way businesses operate. It empowered companies with hardware and software capabilities to manage information overload better, and their workforces upgraded their skills to manage digital devices to fast track their work. As workplace demographics changed and expanded, big companies began to increasingly digitize their business operations to stay competitive and successful, thanks to the emergence of cloud technologies. When Covid19-induced lockdown disrupted workflows, small and medium-sized companies started digitizing their business operations to remain competitive. The last two years saw on-premise systems replaced by cloud-powered technologies at a much faster pace than ever before, and digital workplaces have come to spearhead the digital transformation of businesses. 

So, what is a digital workplace? A digital workplace is a virtual workplace setting wherein your employees across all departments get to stay connected as and when they want, across geographical boundaries, on devices of their choice,  and access all data and information relevant to get their work done. The cloud-backed tools of the digital workplace platform have the capabilities to enhance your employee experiences.

So, what is employee experience? Gartner defines employee experience as “the way in which employees internalize and interpret the interactions they have with their organization and the context that underlies those interactions”. In short, it is an employee’s perception of his job. HBR Analytic Services defines employee experience as “how hard or easy it is for employees to do their best work, taking into account technical, cultural, and physical touchpoints”.

So, why is employee experience important to businesses? The digital revolution has made companies realize that engaged, collaborative, and productive employee experiences are vital to delivering excellent customer experiences. Companies have discovered that the best way to build good customer experiences is by building good employee experiences. Communication and collaboration enabled by digital workplaces are vital to building good employee experiences. Sharing data across departments and geographies has paved the way for employees to build fruitful business relationships beyond their immediate workgroups or teams. Good employee experiences create good employee engagement.

Read more: Five Myths Around Hybrid Workplaces Demystified

Your digital toolbox will have all the tools and technologies required to help your employees stay connected, thus seamlessly easing their workflows. Pandemic-induced lockdown and remote work have redefined the way companies let their employees work. The introduction of digital workplaces has caused the line between employees’ professional and personal lives to blur, enabling them to leverage the tools available on their digital workplace platforms to seamlessly communicate and collaborate with their dispersed team members virtually. A good digital workplace leverages cloud technologies to integrate all applications required for business communication and employee collaboration like email, enterprise social media tools, virtual meeting tools, CRM, file storage and sharing, HRM, etc. InfinCE is the right partner for your company’s digital aspirations, with all the applications available on a single platform!  

An efficient digital workplace like InfinCE can improve your employee experience in more ways than one! Here is how:

1. Offering an efficient remote working environment.

The Talent Tech Outlook 2022 Study says 82% of employees prefer working from home. Remote work gives employees the freedom to set their own schedules and manage their work from whichever place they like. In addition, most employees consider the time saved by avoiding daily commutes a big blessing. InfinCE is a one-stop technology solution that has efficient office tools to bring your workforce together no matter which geographical location they work from. The platform enables secure storage and quick sharing of documents too. Thus, improving your employee experience by leaps and bounds. 

2. Providing instant communication and effective collaboration tools.

InfinCE has an extensive suite of collaboration apps that eases communication and collaboration with your company’s in-house and external contacts. While remote working is undoubtedly an aspect that enhances your employee experiences. 

3. Offering your business a unified, centralized platform to access all its applications.

Businesses need to use multiple apps to manage their daily operations. InfinCE has a curated applications marketplace with a growing list of apps to choose from, providing a wide range of solutions, including CRM, CMS, and HRM, hosted in secure environments. You have the absolute liberty to choose the applications you deem are right for your business operations. Seamless integration of multiple apps on a single platform eases business operations and improves employee experiences.  

Read more: How A Collaboration Software Can Improve Productivity

4. Boosting productivity.

With InfinCE, your employees get to connect to a  custom workspace that displays information based on your preferences through flexible tiles. A branded workspace easily connects your employees and aligns them to your organization’s core values, which raises engagement and productivity. The platform has multiple productivity tools to organize and manage your data and work. Its advanced data protection features enable private storage and secure sharing of your valuable data. InfinCE is a cutting-edge digital workplace that can help your business streamline its work very efficiently and effectively. Better employee experiences lead to increased productivity.

5. Providing single sign-on accessibility.

A single sign-on provides access to all your business software and productivity tools from anywhere. 

6. Offering device independence and ensuring work continuity.

InfinCE lets you enjoy the freedom to access your entire business software from anywhere through any device and allows you to continue working from exactly where you had previously left off. The device independence feature will definitely serve to improve your company’s overall employee experience while ensuring your work continuity.  

7. Providing absolute data security.

Your data enjoys absolute privacy and security on secured private virtual servers. Advanced firewalls and encryption/password-based access controls add to the security protocols of your data. Getting to work in a virtual environment that keeps your data safe and secure is an aspect that enriches your employee experience. By adopting an efficient digital workspace like InfinCE, your business can enhance its employee experiences in many ways and nurture a work culture wherein your employees would always want to do their best and improve their performances. InfinCE endows your company with the right kind of capabilities to achieve the true digital culture, thus helping its employee experiences scale new heights, leading to increased productivity and improved customer experiences. 

Read more: Why is It Necessary to Safeguard Data Privacy in Project Management?

In the digital ecosystem, employee experiences determine productivity, which shapes customer experiences. When you choose InfinCE to spearhead your digital transformation, you get access to the platform’s numerous features, which would serve to improve your employee experiences.

Get in touch with our experts to know more about how InfinCE can enhance your employee experiences. 

It is no surprise that embracing digital transformation is one of the core pillars of success for any business today. In fact, the COVID 19 pandemic accelerated the digital economy by leaps and bounds as more consumers preferred digital services for some of their most basic needs like shopping, banking, entertainment, and even education. Businesses of all sizes are rapidly investing in making their IT backbone reliable and robust to handle the huge surge in digital environments through which their operations are being subjected to. Gartner predicts that the worldwide IT spending budgets will reach a whopping USD 4 Trillion in 2021.

The increasing money flow is to fund new digital business avenues where most consumers are likely to interact and transact with a business going forward. While the spending on IT is justified, not all businesses may have the deep pockets to have an exorbitantly high IT budget. As a matter of fact, revenues of small and medium businesses (SMBs) have already been affected significantly during the COVID 19 pandemic period. Their financial assets and credit lines are nearly fully engaged in supporting their core business activities and unfortunately, IT may have to take a back seat.

However, if businesses can choose the right IT infrastructure and approach then there is no need to worry about budget overshoots and cost pressures. If we look at the way IT budgets are expected to be utilized across global enterprises as per Gartner, the lion’s share of investments is expected to be gobbled up by communication services and IT services.

So, what if businesses had a way to optimize the way their internal IT and communication can be streamlined at low costs? The answer lies in moving away from traditional heavy legacy IT infrastructure and transitioning into an agile, flexible, and reliable cloud-based enterprise digital platform like InfinCE to handle their end-to-end IT needs.

Read more: Shifting to a Digital Workplace? Here’s What You Need To Know!

So how does InfinCE solve the IT budget problem?

If you want the answer in a nutshell, here it goes. InfinCE is a world-class business management platform that allows organizations of all sizes to run their entire IT workflows on a scalable, cloud-based environment and empower employees to leverage numerous communications, collaboration, and operational capabilities of the platform on a subscription basis. However, for most businesses, it is important to have a full picture of how InfinCE can transform their IT infrastructure into a truly digital-friendly ecosystem without burning a hole in their pockets. Let us explore some key highlights of InfinCE that make it a worthy choice for transforming a business’s traditional IT infrastructure:

1. One-stop IT destination

A key benefit of InfinCE is that it offers a plethora of standard IT operational capabilities under a single roof. From centralized IT management tools to productivity, collaboration, business telecommunication systems, cloud hosting, and custom reporting, InfinCE eliminates the need for enterprises to invest in multiple applications from different vendors to have their IT needs to be fulfilled.

2. SaaS cost structure

InfinCE offers a cloud-based subscription model of deployment for any of its features that an enterprise wishes to incorporate in its digital landscape. This gives the benefit of cost efficiency as businesses only need to pay for the resources they need and when they need them. This is a highly desirable modern enterprise technology pricing paradigm as it allows enterprises to utilize their IT budgets more diligently, eliminate wastages of resources, and only use what they need. As the business grows in volume, InfinCE can be easily scaled up to offer more resources in alignment with the growth prospects be it user licenses, more storage or performance upgrades, etc.

3. Faster time to market

In the digital economy, time is money. Any business would want to bring out their latest tech innovations as immediately as possible into the market to remain competitive. With InfinCE, deploying a highly robust business management system for your enterprise is easier. With lower implementation workflows, highly automated services, and easy integration interfaces, InfinCE can become an integral part of your business in no time. Once on-board, it offers a simple and efficient IT backbone that supports new custom feature implementations faster allowing your business to launch customer-facing services quickly and win over their loyalty. For example, if your business plans on launching a new corporate website, InfinCE lets you set up a business domain, highly engaging website with custom branding options, and a mail server in just a matter of hours, and that too without any coding requirements.

Read more: How InfinCE Cloud Orchestration Platform Can Be A Game Changer For New Business Owners

4. Ease of use

Technology solutions may not be the core forte of every business. Hence their employees may not be tech enthusiasts who can master the learning curve of modern enterprise applications quickly. As a result, it requires extensive training sessions and more time for the fully-fledged operations of your business to be handled by your business management systems. This can lead to loss of competitive market presence as well as increase costs of operations due to prolonged training requirements. InfinCE has considered this pain point of businesses while building the platform and ensured that it has the simplest user interfaces possible to let employees quickly acquaint themselves with the new system. It also has strategically mapped workflows that minimize processes involved in managing the enterprise IT landscape.

5. Effortless collaboration

Whether it is facilitating seamless communication and information exchange amongst employees through productivity apps or empowering different departments or business units to manage each unit’s IT needs efficiently or enabling managers to seamlessly handle multiple projects with reliable reporting and task management, InfinCE lets businesses foster collaboration easily and with minimal costs. Even if the business or any unit within the business has its own preferred choice of software from another vendor, InfinCE allows custom integration thanks to its open-source architecture and seamless connectivity through APIs.

Read more: 6 Ways InfinCE Simplifies IT Infrastructure Management For Enterprises

IT budgets can often be a challenging dilemma for business leaders. They know that in the digital economy, IT is no longer just an enabler, but a direct contributor of value and a competitive differentiator in the market. However, it is important to ensure seamless IT excellence without losing control over costs and management overhead. InfinCE was developed with this philosophy at its core. Get in touch with us to explore how your business can transform its IT landscape with InfinCE with minimal investments.

There is no arguing the fact that digital transformation is the need of the hour for businesses to drive success. So once you have made that crucial decision to embark on the digital transformation journey, the next step would be to choose the right digital workplace software that would make the transition smoother. Read on to learn about the core competencies that you need to look out for when adopting a digital workplace solution for your company.

Read more: Why InfinCE is The Only True Digital Workplace Orchestration Platform Ever Created

The Essential Features of Digital Workplace Software

Selecting a digital workplace platform can be much more overwhelming than it may sound. There are a lot of digital workplace tools available out there, and most of them look quite the same at a glance. Nonetheless, you need to ensure that the digital workplace solution you choose fits your organizational requirements in the best way. Otherwise, it will not serve the purpose, not to mention lead to unnecessary costs for the company in training and learning features that you would never use.

At the same time, you should realize that using multiple workplace tools to manage different aspects of the company is not a worthy option either. That is because it will require you to spend more hours training your employees as well as buy multiple subscriptions to meet different needs. That is why choosing all-in-one digital workplace software like InfinCE is a more practical approach to fulfilling the varied demands of digital transformation. For one, it comes with all the essential features to meet day-to-day communication needs in an organization. Plus, you get advanced tools for project management, time tracking, task allocation, file sharing, data storage, and more.

Read more: 5 Common Remote Work Challenges Solved by InfinCE Digital Workplace Solution

Here is a look at some of the most important features that you must have in the digital workplace software that would help to get you started with your digital transformation strategy.

1. Modules to Facilitate Multiple Tasks

Studies have found that more than 60% of employees end up wasting around an hour toggling between different applications to perform their jobs. With an all-in-one digital workplace solution like InfinCE, your employees will not have to juggle between different software to, say, share documents and have a video conference. A platform that comes with modules for automating simple tasks, building project boards, and handling collaboration needs from a unified dashboard is the right remedy.

2. Seamless Integration

Shifting to a digital workplace culture means you will need to move the existing processes and operations to a digital environment. Therefore, you need to choose a digital solution that allows for a seamless integration with the CRM, accounting, and other essential systems you are using. This will ensure that all the tools you require for the day-to-day running of your business are strategically connected to help you achieve higher productivity.

3. Simplified Project Management

One of the most striking benefits of adopting an ultra-modern digital workplace solution like InfinCE is that it allows you to jump right into managing your workflows with its no-code environment. In other words, the learning curve is never steep with InfinCE and you can get started in no time to create as many workflows as you need for your company. There is also 24/7 concierge support available to help you deploy the right solutions you need.

Read more: 5 Ways InfinCE Custom Dashboards Can Boost Your Workplace Productivity

4. Pre-Built Application Suite

Reports say that a reliable and intuitive digital workplace software solution can boost employee satisfaction and retention rates significantly. This is also because of the vast pool of pre-built apps in all-in-one workplace platforms, which helps you to save time in finding the right tools to automate the running and planned workflows. With InfinCE, you can start from scratch, upgrade the existing apps, or integrate the current systems through a unified platform, no matter what the type of your business is.

5. Communication Solutions

Contextual conversations are the backbone of a successful business in a digital workplace environment. Ineffective communication can severely affect the ability of your employees to perform their jobs, which can, in turn, lead to poor collaboration and lost productivity. InfinCE bridges this gap by providing multiple types of communication tools to meet your organizational requirements. Be it a quick audio call, instant messaging, or a group video conference, you can do it all using the unified platform.

6. Smart Reporting

Building a successful digital transformation strategy relies on generating a variety of reports. This helps to track performance and focus on areas that need to be improved to deal with the issues that affect process efficiency. An all-in-one digital workplace platform gives you multiple reporting options with pivot tables, aging metrics, audit logs, and even custom reports to meet your varied requirements, which would help to identify problems and take the necessary action to address them in time.

Read more: How InfinCE Online Collaboration Tool Helps Achieve Your Business Goals

7. Security and Access

You should also look for a digital workplace solution that provides you flexible access control options. This is vital to ensure that your confidential business data does not fall into the wrong hands. InfinCE comes with improved data security features to ensure absolute privacy so that you can keep sensitive conversations under wraps. It allows you to make the most of secure virtual private servers, advanced firewalls, as well as encryption and password-based access controls to simplify enterprise-wide collaboration and communication.

8. Workflow Flexibility and Automation

Another great feature that all-in-one collaboration software gives you is the ability to switch from different boards and layouts to meet your workflow needs. You can also assign tasks to different team members using custom parameters and set the expectations and deadlines clearly upfront to make project management simpler. Setting up rules for recurring tasks for different categories and generating them automatically at regular intervals will save a lot of time in task distribution.

Apart from these, you should also make certain that the digital workplace software you choose allows you to connect with remote teams globally and supports portability. InfinCE is a cloud-based workplace solution, which not only gives you unmatched versatility but also expands your reach to acquire talent from around the world. It can be accessed from any device, while you can also scale the server capacity and storage space needs as your business grows.

Read more: 8 Ways Cloud Automation Significantly Improves Your Legacy IT Operations

Make the Move Now!

Once deemed as an ambitious goal for large enterprises, having a digital transformation strategy has become essential for every business to stay competitive in the market. As the world is moving hurriedly toward a digital-first culture, it is high time to adopt the best digital workplace software and equip your organization for the future. So wait no more!

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The Core Benefits Of Using A Cloud Orchestration Tool Like InfinCE

How does InfinCE Cloud Orchestration Platform change the game for businesses in today’s remote working era? Learn more about cloud orchestration and InfinCE in this post. 

Significance Of Cloud Computing Today

Cloud computing is one of the most efficient and disruptive business technologies that is helping enterprises across the globe to drive success in their respective industries. It has been assisting businesses to push forward innovative approaches, improve operational efficiency, and reduce downtime. By leveraging the power of a vast network of managed remote servers over the internet, you can manage, store, and process important business data much more proficiently. With cloud orchestration in the picture, exploring the benefits of enterprise cloud can be further simplified.

Read more: 5 Ways an Integrated Cloud Platform is Beneficial for Your Small Business

What Is Cloud Orchestration?

Cloud orchestration refers to a comprehensive solution that supports and fortifies cloud computing services and operations. This is done with the help of a set of cloud orchestration tools, which ease managing interconnections and interactions over the network. Moreover, a cloud orchestration platform can also facilitate end-to-end automation of the multiple services that are used or are in the process of being deployed in the cloud architecture.

Understanding The Basics Of Cloud Orchestration

Experts in the cloud computing industry have highlighted the uncertainty around adopting the technology by businesses for a long time. However, enterprises that have embraced the cloud have found it quite promising in dealing with the changing customer behaviors and trends and the evolving market dynamics. With cloud orchestration tools like InfinCE, businesses can coordinate and arrange automated tasks, which will help consolidate the existing operations and workflow.

InfinCE cloud orchestration platform allows you to automate the processes required to manage connections and various public and private cloud workloads. With the help of the InfinCE cloud orchestration tool, you can also integrate different automated processes and tasks to create a unified workflow to address a specific business function.

Read more: Why InfinCE is The Only True Digital Workplace Orchestration Platform Ever Created 

Cloud orchestration also involves enforcing policies and ensuring that all the processes have the required permission to execute as needed or connect to the applicable workload. In that, the core tasks of a cloud orchestration platform are to start server workloads or provide for them, provision applicable data storage capacity, as well as manage Virtual Machines (VMs) by arranging the required resources, services, and workloads in the cloud.

What Makes Cloud Orchestration Essential For Businesses

Enterprises around the world are adopting microservices-based applications to ensure the smooth functioning of their day-to-day operations. These containerized applications are designed to communicate using APIs to perform their tasks. This has led to the rising demand for automating such applications across the cloud, whether deploying or managing them. However, this can be daunting without a proper approach to address the varied requirements across multiple clouds.

This is where cloud orchestration tools like InfinCE come to the rescue of enterprises. Using the InfinCE cloud orchestration platform, you can easily manage countless dependencies on the cloud environment with the help of policy-driven security as well as well-defined management capabilities. As more companies embrace hybrid cloud architecture these days, the InfinCE cloud orchestration tool helps enterprises fulfill the demands of both public and hybrid clouds.

Read more: 5 Features of InfinCE that will Transform The Way You Work

Cloud orchestration can be a vital asset for businesses today as it helps avoid the need for a dedicated IT team to manage the automation tasks. That translates to savings in terms of productivity as your workforce will be free to focus on more value-adding tasks or core business activities. Besides, cloud orchestration takes the chances of manual errors out of the picture while providing fast and reliable output. Orchestrating cloud operations also allows you to invest more time and resources in innovation, which can help you gain a competitive edge in the industry.

Differences Between Cloud Orchestration And Cloud Automation 

Both cloud automation and cloud orchestration tools allow you to address common challenges in managing enterprise cloud by automating various processes across domains and systems. In addition, both help you eliminate the roadblocks in automation by facilitating a cohesive and cloud-first strategy, which entails both private and public cloud components. The result is improved employee and customer experience. However, there is a subtle difference between cloud automation and cloud orchestration.

Read more: 8 Ways Cloud Automation Significantly Improves Your Legacy IT Operations 

Cloud orchestration is more like a superset of automation. It goes beyond the usual automation processes to further ease the coordination between the automated tasks in the cloud. On the contrary, cloud automation focuses on enabling the tasks at hand, such as initiating workloads or web servers, and ensuring that the same task can be repeated without manual intervention. In other words, a cloud orchestration platform allows you to manage the entire IT process automation through a single dashboard.

Nonetheless, it is crucial to understand that cloud automation and cloud orchestration work collaboratively. This way, they ensure that the applications and services deployed in the cloud are managed in a unified and functional environment that functions efficiently and adds to the cloud’s cost-efficiency. Even so, cloud orchestration is crucial to ensure the effective scaling of applications across public and private clouds.

Key Business Benefits of Cloud Orchestration

Cloud orchestration allows businesses to add enterprise-wide functions to their existing models, such as scalability, redundancy, and failover and fail-back. At the same time, it will enable you to manage dependencies and couple everything into a single package, which helps to reduce the overall IT burden. Moreover, cloud orchestration tools like InfinCE offer improved visibility into the resources and processes in your organization. This can help you prevent VM sprawl and track resource usage based on business units, departments, or even individual users.

With the help of a robust cloud orchestration platform like InfinCE, you can also enable automatic scaling for your distributed applications while ensuring that reliable disaster recovery measures are in effect. This will ensure business continuity and drive superior inter-service configuration. On top of that, the InfinCE cloud orchestration platform helps simplify automation across hybrid cloud environments while ensuring that the security protocols and enterprise policies are maintained in a dynamic environment.

White Paper: InfinCE digital workplace orchestration platform helps organizations implement an entirely new working environment and accurately replicate their employees’ changing work experience. How does InfinCE transform the workplace and add value to business owners and employees? Download our free white paper.

There is no doubt that cloud orchestration can reduce your overall operational costs. Meanwhile, it also helps accelerate the delivery of various services while automating coordination between workloads and the management of complex IT architectures. As it also eliminates provisioning errors and facilitates instant provisioning of the required services, cloud orchestration is the need of the hour for enterprises that want to ensure high-end configuration for superior business growth. Experience the potential of cloud orchestration with InfinCE, the only authentic and holistic digital workplace orchestration platform. 

Please chat with our expert to understand why InfinCE is the best fit for your business.