Technology has, over the years, changed the way businesses operate, and the pandemic has fast-tracked the digitization of businesses. COVID-19 induced uncertainties pave the way for increased adoption of digital workplace solutions to prevent any possible disruption to workflows. Digital workplace software is the right platform your business needs to smoothen its digital journey as part of your efforts to scale up the capabilities and efficiency of your internal business operations.   

The concept of a digital workplace stems from the idea that there is a virtual equivalent to a conventional physical workplace that needs to be planned and managed efficiently with the right kind of tools and technologies for higher employee productivity, engagement, and experience. A Hewlett Packard article 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 goes beyond the physical confines of a traditional workplace to offer your business a digital ecosystem powered by cloud technologies for its day-to-day activities. It facilitates seamless data sharing and collaboration among your employees across multiple geographies in a connected environment. “The Digital Workplace enables new, more effective ways of working; raises employee engagement and agility, and exploits consumer-oriented styles and technologies,” says Gartner.

A digital workplace solution offers a single integrated platform with capabilities to enable your employees to seamlessly access all the data, software, and other related tools to perform their work, irrespective of their physical location or device. When you move part or whole of the internal operations of your business to a digital workplace, your employees get empowered by the right sets of tools to improve their efficiency at the workplace. Embracing digitization is a testimony to a change in the working mindset and culture of your organization. 

Read more: Merits and Demerits of Digital Workplaces – A Sneak Peak

So how do digital workplace tools help your digital workplace employees improve their efficiency? A good digital workplace solution like InfinCE is armed with services and capabilities across multiple dimensions of your business operations to ease seamless integration. Here is how :

1. Improves internal communication and collaboration.

Effective communication is crucial to business growth. A good digital workplace platform comes equipped with the right communication tools to help your digital workplace employees stay connected with peers and higher-ups all the time. InfinCE has an array of feature-packed collaboration apps for faster, smarter, and streamlined communication. Its office tools enable faster sharing and secure storage of documents and bring your geographically dispersed teams together no matter which corner of the earth they work from.

The centralized storage of data saves a large volume of human efforts and working hours; erstwhile used to be spent in search of information during the pre-adoption period. The comprehensive employee directory in InfinCE will fetch contact details of your internal staff as well as external partners with whom you can initiate a chat, call, or email depending on their online presence status. InfinCE also enables real-time active individual and group chats among your employees. The provision for shareable invite links helps you have video chats with your employees and clients without needing to download the InfinCE app. Setting up video meetings has never been easier! Multiple screen share and simultaneous document editing render your online meetings and presentations to be more effective and interactive.

2. Improves employee experience, engagement, and productivity.

A digital workplace platform offers your employees the relevant tools and technologies at their fingertips to give proactive feedback on their employee experiences. This boosts digital employee experience and serves as a motivational factor for increased levels of engagement and productivity on their part. An engaged workforce will always direct their efforts toward meeting the business goals set, thus actively contributing to your business’s growth. As already said, technology helps save time which can be productively used to accomplish business growth. In addition, the interactive tools in InfinCE help build stronger and trusted relationships with your employees and clients on the secure servers of the platform. 

Read more: Why is InfinCE a Perfect Mate for Your Enterprise Cloud Journey

3. Brings multiple applications to the table. 

Your business needs multiple applications to run its day-to-day operations. Digital workplace solutions make sure all the applications required for your business operations are available on their platforms. InfinCE provides a curated applications marketplace with an ever-growing library of applications from multiple vendors, including CRM, CMS, and HRM solutions hosted on secure cloud environments and dedicated to serving your business needs. 

4. Boosts workforce agility.

A company’s ability to move its employees to support changes in the highly volatile business environments defines its workforce agility. A digital workplace software solution endows your employees with the capabilities to be productive anytime, anywhere as long as they have internet connectivity. They ensure the internal operations of your business remain uninterrupted in a connected world. Besides, they get to be trained in new skills in tune with the change in customer demands and software updates.

Digital workplace tools have the capabilities to document employee experiences which can be curated and shared among the present and future employees to choose the practices that best suit your business needs. InfinCE offers an array of smart productivity apps that ensure the smooth functioning of your day-to-day business activities and raises your workforce efficiency. We have a dedicated and skilled team to manage the hosting, maintenance, and updates of our digital workplace software to keep your digital workplace employees abreast of the ever-evolving practices and smart technologies in the digital landscape.  

Thus the best digital workplace solutions have the tools and capabilities to increase your employee experience, engagement, and productivity to motivate them to put in their best efforts to improve the bottom line of your business. The digital workplace benefits are plenty and are good enough reasons for non-adopters to embrace it. However, companies should strategically analyze their work environment and business needs before adopting the best digital workplace solution that caters to their requirements. 

Watch: How InfinCE makes work management simpler and efficient from anywhere!

InfinCE is empowered by a wide range of tools and capabilities to provide your business with a tailor-made digital workplace solution to give your internal customers – your employees – an integrated experience sans back-end complexity. 

Gone are the days when work meant a place where employees went to earn their livelihood. Instead, Digital technologies and remote work culture have redefined work as something that goes to the employees on their preferred devices at their geographical location. InfinCE has the right sets of digital workplace tools to synergize with your employees to make your digital transformation journey meaningful.

For more guidance about our digital workplace platform, feel free to contact our experts.

Digital transformation is essential to your businesses primarily because it enables effective and efficient management of all your resources, be it technical or human. It empowers your business with technologies to help you stay relevant in today’s challenging market. Pandemic-induced lockdown forced businesses to increasingly adopt digitalization to enable their employees to stay connected and agile while working from the comfort of their homes or any place they preferred, thus preventing disruptions to workflows. 

Digital workplace statistics definitely demand the attention of non-adopters of digitization. McKinsey’s The Future of Work After the COVID-19 report says that 20-25% of the labor forces in advanced economies now have the capabilities to work from home between 3-5 days a week which is nearly four to five times more remote work than the pre-pandemic period. Reports from other market research firms also speak of an overall increase in digital adoption worldwide, endorsing a growing trend among businesses to embrace future technologies to remain competitive.

Foundry’s 2021 Digital Business Study report says 91% of the organizations surveyed have either adopted or have expressed their plans to adopt a digital-first business strategy. The report also says that the sample members plan to invest as much as $16.5 mn on digital initiatives this year on cutting-edge technologies like machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI), data analytics, and public cloud. What is important is once you decide to digitize part or whole of your business processes, you must wisely choose the right technologies that suit your operations best and ease your digital transition. Here is where a digital workplace solution comes in very handy.  A digital workplace solution is your best buddy when it comes to making your digital transformation journey productive, cost-effective, and meaningful.     

A digital workplace platform lets you have virtual meetings with any or all of your employees beyond the barriers of time, geographical location, devices, or network connections. It is an integrated platform that offers your employees all the right tools required to carry out their working tasks effectively and efficiently. It digitizes all the workflows related to your internal business processes and relocates your business space from a physical location to cloud space. This is achieved by moving all the data and technologies related to your business’s internal operations to a secure web interface that can be seamlessly accessed by your employees from anywhere on any device of their choice. InfinCE is a one-stop technology solution that simplifies the cloud by offering a wide array of applications and tools to help your business run its internal operations smoothly and productively. 

Having said that, adopters shouldn’t mistake that everything will always be hunky-dory in a digital workplace environment. Of course, a digital workplace solution has its own share of advantages and disadvantages. But the advantages always outweigh the disadvantages, and the latter should never deter your decision to embrace digital technologies.  

Read more: Five Myths Around Hybrid Workplaces Demystified

A few advantages of digital working places  

1. Promotes employee engagement 

In today’s digital world, businesses need engaged workforces to stay agile and competitive. Engaged employees are motivated to invest their best at work. Seamless communication in digital workplaces enables easy access to data, which helps simplify decision-making and improves employee engagement. 

The communication and collaboration tools of InfinCE help better engagement among your geographically dispersed employees and promote an interactive culture. The custom dashboards available on the platform are powered by a variety of tiles for enhanced visibility. Efficient collaboration and easy file sharing enabled by InfinCE help create a better user experience and bring your workforce together. The in-built digital workplace tools of InfinCE have capabilities to address all the internal operations of your business. 

2. Increases revenue and reduces costs

Digital workplace services improve the overall efficiency of your business operations by optimizing its capabilities while saving time and human efforts. Consolidation and automated processing of documents serve to eliminate the manpower previously required to accomplish the task in a non-digital environment. Centralized data offers information at the fingertips, which saves a lot of employee time. Digital capabilities help save time and human efforts while reducing the operational costs of businesses. 

With InfinCE, you get to run your business without a full-fledged in-house IT team. Thus, saving you much on your operational costs. 

3. Increases business productivity

A digital workplace streamlines business processes and removes communication hazards, thus increasing productivity. Integrating a wide range of tools and software into a digital workplace platform allows end-users to choose the right applications that suit their business model. Furthermore, automation of processes helps save time which can be productively used to achieve organizational goals. 

InfinCE is a perfect digital workplace platform for organizing work and managing your data, thus improving the efficiency of your workforce. The platform empowers your business with a wide range of productivity tools to create documents, manage emails, oversee tasks, and schedule events. Thus, the day-to-day activities of your business can be achieved with ease, and the efficiency of your workforce increases by leaps and bounds.  

Read more: How Digital Workplaces Improve Employee Experience

A few disadvantages of digital working place 

1. Increased dependence on technology

There is no guarantee that the software infrastructure of your digital workplace will run smoothly 24/7. Every aspect of work is likely to get technology dependent which can become a drawback in the long run as a technical glitch on the server-side may lead to a loss in productivity. In addition, if the system crashes, workflows will be disrupted until the issue is resolved. 

With InfinCE, you can enjoy concierge support from a technically adept team. The digital workplace services offered by InfinCE include a dedicated team to assist with the hosting, maintenance,  and updates of the software. The services of our dedicated support time include email, live chat, and phone support round the clock.  

2. Software upgradation can prove expensive

Technology keeps evolving, and so do your business needs. The cost of the upgrade has to be followed up with the cost of training your workforce to handle the upgraded software. A repeated need to learn new applications would be stressful for the employees, adversely affecting their performance and job satisfaction. But with software upgrades, efficiencies improve at all levels.  

The scalability feature on InfinCE helps you increase your server capacity and storage space without any hidden costs. The platform also allows you to scale down your cloud technologies in tune with your changing business needs, and you need to pay only for the applications you use. 

One of the biggest advantages of digitization is facilitating virtual and global collaboration through digital workplace solutions. A digitally integrated workforce enables businesses to keep their geographically dispersed employees on the same page logistically and coordinate their efforts toward meeting organizational goals. Digitization is here to stay, and businesses cannot afford to turn their backs on it if they want to stay competitive.

Reach out to our team for a quick demo or to know more about the InfinCE platform.

The pandemic has ruffled our daily lives and work-life routines in many ways. It has changed the mode of working for businesses! The way businesses shifted to remote work has indeed shattered traditional work designs. Born out of sheer necessity to ensure uninterrupted workflows during the pandemic, remote work has led companies to create digital workspace teams and embrace hybrid work models. Compared to the on-premise infrastructure, cloud platforms are globally accessible, secure, and less expensive (post-adoption). 

As the name indicates, a hybrid workplace model is a blend of in-office and remote work that offers more flexibility and support to employees and helps them achieve a better work-life balance. Decision-makers have shifted their business operations from location-centric models to human-centric models by providing suitable technological infrastructures and encouraging the right work culture of shared understanding of mutual needs and expectations. However, despite hybrid work being around for more than two years, several misconceptions still exist about hybrid workplaces. Let us have a look at five common myths about hybrid workplaces. 

Read more: Things to Know When Adopting Enterprise Hybrid Cloud

Myth #1: Remote work hinders productivity

This is one of the biggest illusions about remote workspaces. On the contrary, lines between working hours and off-work hours tend to blur when employees work in a hybrid environment. Extreme flexibility drives productivity, and the absence of physical monitoring nurtures a culture of trust, empathy, and empowerment, boosting work outcomes. 44% of Buffer State of Remote Work /2022 Report say remote work helps them focus better on work, and 59% feel not having to commute daily has left them with more time on their hands that they can use productively. Being productive at work is more about following a culture of striking the work-life balance and achieving corporate goals than about the long hours of work you put in. Work outcomes matter more than activity metrics.

InfinCE a remote workplace collaboration platform, can help project team members to boost their productivity and efficiency by assisting them to work faster through collaboration and optimal use of resources. InfinCE has the tools that can bring together people across multiple geographies to plan meticulously and efficiently execute, allocate, track, and manage tasks while easing the management of documents.   

Myth #2:  It is more challenging to collaborate remotely than face-to-face

This runs true only in the case of non-adopters and nascent adopters of hybrid workspaces. Hybrid workspaces empower companies to develop capabilities to let their employees work from anywhere. Adopters of hybrid work technologies have at their disposal the right tools and methods that facilitate virtual teamwork and seamless collaboration.

InfinCE is a one-stop solution for businesses that plan to adopt a hybrid work model as it comes with multiple tools having capabilities to perform multiple tasks. In addition, the cloud-based solution provides an efficient collaborative work environment for all team members – internal, external, and remote – to come together in a virtual environment to work towards achieving project objectives and facilitate better workstreams. Besides, you can also buy additional apps that meet your specific business needs.

Read more: 5 Tips to Manage At-Home Workers and Boost Remote Work Productivity

Myth #3: Remote work hinders creativity and innovation

Proponents of this theory fail to realize that being in the office actually limits your chance to express your creativity to a handful of people around you. In contrast, the cloud technologies of a hybrid work environment enable reaching out to more employees, thus tapping more unique ideas and perspectives. Creative and innovative inputs from every team member are brainstormed, and the team jointly owns the final outcome. Therefore, it builds a culture of mutual trust and a sense of ownership. Unique perspectives never fail to be heard in a hybrid workspace. 

InfinCE enables real-time chat and communication among team members, and its centralized data, contacts, and documents help make informed decisions whenever online meetings are held. Intentional collaboration backed up by the tools that InfinCE offers will significantly drive innovation in workspaces.

Myth #4: Hybrid workspace models erode the corporate culture

This is yet another unfounded myth about hybrid workplaces that has gained traction. The fear that a lack of face-to-face sessions in a hybrid work environment erodes corporate culture is unfounded. Lack of future fitness and absence of key digital attributes like agility, speed, and autonomy in decision-making rendered several pre-pandemic work cultures sluggish. On the other hand, hybrid workspace models have the capabilities to reinforce corporate culture. Remote and hybrid employees have reported more culture satisfaction than on-site employees. Organizations must first identify the cultural norms they want to promote among their employees and the activities that reinforce those norms. Then plan measures to promote these behaviors in a hybrid model to create a common, shared purpose. For example, leaders could promote team bonding activities like movie/book club, contests, etc., to promote employee engagement and satisfaction.  

InfinCE can help foster virtual gatherings to enable intentional meetings of employees across diverse units and geographies. Online campaigns can be held to mark special and auspicious days to promote the participation of one and all. Such intentional collisions help them connect and interact with each other, which would be an unlikely scenario in the real world.

Watch: How to Keep Your Work From Home Staff Productive and in Touch – InfinCE Digital Workplace

Myth # 5: Speed and efficiency of hybrid work environment comprises reliability and efficiency of infrastructures

This myth reflects a legacy mindset that puts constraints on infrastructure speed and agility. As cloud technologies are constantly evolving, constant re-engineering and upgradation of IT strategies and infrastructures have become the norm of the day. Future-fit organizations employ “Everywhere Enterprise” strategies to empower dispersed hybrid workforces and widely distributed infrastructures to serve their omnipresent customers. 

Serving your ubiquitous customers ‘everywhere’ calls for a hybrid workforce, and what better way to make that happen than by embracing an efficient hybrid workspace solution like InfinCE? Being an efficient digital workplace, InfinCE has the tools and the technical and infrastructural capabilities to constantly upgrade our capabilities to ensure that organizations never miss out on state-of-the-art technologies. In addition, we provide individual dedicated servers for each organization with custom dashboards and tiles to facilitate smarter and simplified data analysis. 

Businesses must ensure consistent and secure network access for all employees to meet the ‘everywhere’ needs of a hybrid workforce. And InfinCE is here to simplify the IT operations of your business through a seamless collaboration of teams across diverse geographies and centralized management of tasks and documents. InfinCE is an infinite cloud enterprise for organizations at your fingertips!  

Reach out to our experts to know more.     

How to Ensure Optimal Workforce Productivity in Uncertain Times

The COVID-19 outbreak may have forced many businesses to adopt remote work policies that they were unfamiliar with earlier. However, with the right productivity apps and collaboration tools at their disposal, such organizations found managing their remote teams much easier than they initially thought. As the world embraced work-from-home practices, a lot of new productivity tools also entered the marketplace. Nonetheless, where this made managing the remote workforce simpler for some, it created further confusion for others when it came to choosing the right remote work tool for their business.

For instance, InfinCE team management software offers all the essential remote work applications and productivity tools you need to make remote work seamless. In addition, InfinCE allows you to pick additional productivity apps and third-party tools from its curated app marketplace and integrate them quickly. All these features of InfinCE simplify team management. With InfinCE, you can improve operational efficiency and employee engagement by ensuring that your teams have all the tools needed to perform their jobs.

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

Remote work challenges

Remote workplace culture brings many benefits to the company in the form of cost savings, while it benefits employees by letting them work from the comfort of their homes. But, yet again, the work-from-home approach is not devoid of challenges either. For example, managers find it very difficult to establish a personal connection with their employees and build trust without direct contact. Likewise, they do not have much insight into the daily work of their teams and are required to experiment with different practices to keep the processes going.

Read more: 5 Best Practices To Enable Seamless Communication For Your Remote Workforce

1. No face-to-face supervision

The lack of in-person interaction between managers and employees makes leaders presume that their teams are not working efficiently, especially when they do not achieve the expected results. Though the deficit could be because of many other metrics, managers are likely to think that employees did not meet their targets and failed to perform to their potential due to no face-to-face supervision.

2. Limited access to information

Often, remote teams have to put extra effort into finding the information they need to perform their jobs. Getting even simple answers from their colleagues can take an entire day if they are located in different time zones. At the same time, interpersonal issues and low motivation to collaborate can also create a significant obstacle to keep the teams functional.

3. Lack of office culture

Social isolation, loneliness, and remote working can be stressful and lead to operational inefficiencies in many different ways. For example, without the usual interactions in office settings, employees can feel disconnected and lose their sense of belonging. On the contrary, home distractions and personal responsibilities can also affect remote working practices and impact overall productivity.

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

Five practical ways to manage remote workforce better

Different enterprises have come up with distinct methods to manage their remote teams and overcome the related challenges. While that is a great way to explore the potential of remote working for your company, there are a few ways to simplify the approach. Here are some tips that will help you to manage your remote workforce in these uncertain times.

1. Set out with a proper plan

Everything should start with a proper plan when it comes to business management. It is significant for creating a healthy remote work culture as well. Therefore, you need to determine the best approach for running the day-to-day operations and communicate effectively with your team.

2. Define the expectations

Clearly define the expectations to your teams, set the targets, and communicate the respective timelines for each target with your employees before the start of the project. This will avoid confusion and allow you to track the performance of your teams.

3. Monitor project progress

Tracking the project’s progress periodically will help you update your teams about what they need to do next. This will also help you ensure that everyone is playing their part as they are supposed to.

4. Keep your team motivated

Do not let social isolation or lack of face-to-face interaction sneak in to affect your team’s productivity and the company’s overall operational efficiency. Instead, use different communication channels to interact with your teams and keep them motivated to ensure that they work to their best potential.

5. Ensure seamless access to data 

You should make sure that your teams have all the data and information accessible at all times to perform their duties efficiently. This will ensure that all employees can complete the tasks without waiting for someone to share the files.

Employ the right productivity apps

This is the golden ticket to seeing success with remote working policies. From planning the process using project management software to providing access to files via cloud-sharing tools, you can tackle all the challenges in adopting a remote workplace culture with the right productivity solutions. With an all-in-one platform like InfinCE, you can combine all the productivity tools for effective communication, collaboration, and performance tracking in a single suite.

Read more: How InfinCE Simplifies Multi-app Management for IT Managers 

Here are some of the most critical productivity apps that you should have to manage remote teams efficiently.

• Project management software helps you plan and sync the different tasks assigned to your remote workforce.
• Instant messenger app ensures that you can communicate important information to your teams in real-time.
• Documents sharing tool facilitates seamless information exchange among your employees so that they can work anytime.
• Video conferencing solution resolves the gap of face-to-face meetings to some extent while allowing effective communication.
• Time tracking app allows you to monitor the performance of your teams and keep everyone motivated to get the job done.

InfinCE gives you all these productivity apps and collaboration tools in a single platform to make remote team management much simpler. Besides, when you have multiple remote desktop tools for different purposes, it can quickly become chaotic to stay on top of everything, not to mention having to bear considerable subscription costs. With all the productivity tools in one platform, InfinCE also helps you avoid juggling different apps to manage your remote teams. Contact us to learn more about InfinCE.