Find out what the digital workplace of the future looks like, where your employees work effectively at their own pace and in their own way kcan. The Corona crisis has greatly accelerated the incipient change in the world of work and its digitization. Many jobs were relocated to the living room table at home almost overnight. According to a recent study by the DAK working from home has almost tripled and the use of digital forms of work, such as telephone and video conferences, has doubled.The classic office is losing importance
This development is giving digitization a boost that has been necessary for a long time and is also forcing companies out of their comfort zone. Thanks to the networked world of work, in which you can access all data and information at any time, it no longer matters where you work from.
Personal space in the office is becoming less important: open offices with desk sharing are already the order of the day in many modern companies. Desks are used by different employees, things are done on the go or from the sofa at home. When personal meetings take place in the office, employees prefer attractively designed, spacious meeting areas or a cafeteria as a meeting place. This means a significantly lower need for desks and workstations - and thus also a considerable savings potential in office space for the company.
Home office: The new working reality
We are at the beginning of an era in which home office is becoming the new working reality and not only the place of work but also the type of collaboration is being redefined. Because not only Generation Y rates the concept of "home office" as extremely attractive. There is a great desire for mobile working models: people not only want to be able to work at home, but also on the go.
The advantages of the home office are convincing: long journey times in the rush hour and wasted time in rush hour traffic are eliminated, the time flexibility ensures a high level of family friendliness. an essential one Improving the work-life balance, more time for family, friends and hobbies and more independent work are the big plus points of the new work model for all age groups. But there are also challenges when working from home: Many people lack personal contact with their colleagues and the separation between everyday work and private life is made more difficult.
The digital workplace of the future: How do I equip my team for the home office?
In order to create the perfect digital workplace of the future and to enable employees to work and be productive from anywhere, suitable collaboration and communication tools are required. These tools can increase effectiveness and flexibility in the team in equal measure. A VoIP telephone system is a key basis for the new way of working: It bundles the most important functions in one solution and equips the entire team for the digital workplace of the future.
Pay attention to the following features, which are essential for smooth and locally flexible teamwork:
1. Accessibility on all devices
In order to be able to work at a flexible, digital workplace like in a classic office, employees should be able to be reached on different devices under their telephone number and also be able to make calls using this number. With a virtual VoIP telephone system, like the one from bluePBX, employees are always connected and able to work via desktop computer, laptop, tablet or smartphone. Telephone calls are made via the computer with the softphone program and headset or with the mobile app via smartphone and tablet. No private phone numbers or mobile phone numbers have to be used and your employees can be reached anywhere as professionally as in the office.
2. Chat function for quick discussions with colleagues
In the case of short queries to colleagues, which would often have been clarified personally in the traditional office, lengthy emails are often typed in the digital workplace. A tool for chatting saves your employees valuable time at this point and reduces the flood of emails. The contact person in the team is just a mouse click away and messages can be exchanged quickly and easily with individuals or groups. Own chat groups can be created for project groups or teams and files can also be easily shared. The result: Efficient teamwork instead of a flood of emails.
3. Intelligent call control
Expensive call forwarding is a thing of the past in the digital workplace of the future. Thanks to intelligent call control, your employees can be reached on any device at the desired office hours - even when working from home. You can set up the rules for forwarding flexibly: for example Mondays from 9 to 12 in the office, Wednesday mornings in the home office and Fridays on the mobile phone. Incoming calls can also ring on all or only certain terminals at the same time (parallel call). So you can easily answer calls to the office number at home or on the go - without any forwarding costs.
4. Conference Rooms
Conference rooms are indispensable for quickly getting a colleague into a conversation or arranging a telephone conference with customers. No matter where you are, customers and colleagues can join your conference call. Make sure that external participants can also dial in – ideally at a local rate, as with bluePBX. With this solution, a conference can also be started during a call and other participants can simply be dragged and dropped (with the bluePBX Communicator) to be invited.
5. Phone book always at hand
In order to be able to work smoothly anywhere, access to your business contacts on a laptop, smartphone or tablet is essential. Therefore, pay attention to the possibility of integrating the telephone book in a virtual telephone system. So you always have the contacts to colleagues and business partners immediately at hand, even when you are on the road or in your home office. The contact data from the usual phone books, eg from Outlook or Google, can be integrated into the bluePBX software and are then available on all your end devices
6. All customer data ready when you call: CRM integration
bluePBX can be coupled with the common web-based CRM systems. So your employees have the address book, customer history and helpful facts immediately at hand. All important information about the customer is displayed as a popup when a call is made. bluePBX supports all common CRM systems such as Plentymarkets, Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, SugarCRM, Bullhorn, Zendesk, ZOHO, Infusionsoft, Collmex, webclapp and many more. In addition, your phone book becomes really smart with a suitable ERP/CRM interface: You can store call notes directly in the caller's data record. In addition, calls can be logged and assigned to the customer.
7. Presence indicator
If not all colleagues are together at one location, you lose sight of colleagues quickly and valuable time is wasted on unsuccessful calls. The presence display of a virtual telephone system gives you a quick overview of which colleagues are currently available, are in a meeting or are on vacation. This saves time and futile call attempts. In addition to the availability status of each employee, this also keeps the team together and motivates colleagues to spontaneously chat or call.
8. All ears: A good headset
Using a headset makes working in the digital workplace much more pleasant. A good headset improves the voice quality and ensures the best voice sound - so that both parties can hear each other crystal clear. When choosing the device, attention should be paid to good noise suppression (noise-cancelling), which filters out the ambient noise and only lets speech through. Whether office environment, dog and children in the home office or noises on the go - a valuable feature. Good headphones also protect against volume peaks and acoustic shocks.
Conclusion: The digital workplace of the future is locally flexible, networked and always ready for use. The new working reality requires companies to have a well-equipped digital workspace that networks their team and enables decentralized collaboration. The right VoIP telephone system is a key success factor here, which bundles many valuable tools to enable employees to work on all devices.
bluePBX brings your team to the home office without any worries. We look forward to advising you.