Modern businesses rely more on their employee’s flexibility than ever before. With office space costing a great deal of money, some companies decide to offer working from home as a way to cut costs. While this is fine in principle, there are some issues that can make it more of a problem than a solution.
The software you use has to be able to run on a number of different devices depending on what your workers are using. There also has to be an efficient way of sharing files and other documents between devices wherever they are. Otherwise, this can waste both time and cost, as well as become frustrating for your employees.
These are a few of the things you can do to help your employee’s work from the home or office on any device.
What Devices are you using?
Before you begin to answer the question of what applications are needed, you must look at the devices people will be using. If your workers are using laptops or their own PC’s at home, then there are not so many issues compared with using iPads or tablets. However, it is important to make sure the software you are preparing to use has an iPad or tablet version.
The same problems could also apply to mobile phones if they are used to check documents or open emails. Having mobile phones of the same brand supplied to workers by the company can eliminate this problem.
Most applications utilised in the work environment will have multiple versions for different devices, so choosing the appropriate one is not as complicated as it seems. However, it would be wise to check beforehand, otherwise your company may need to spend large sums of money to correct the issue.
Using the Cloud
Cloud-based computing is becoming increasingly popular among businesses. The freedom it gives you to share files and data can make it invaluable.
You can also consider using other software to help with productivity. Migrating to software such as an office suite can enable workers to access and collaborate on documents from many locations. Companies such as bytes.co.uk offer a subscription service to assist with owning a licence for the software and can offer a smooth migration process. There are often different packages depending on your need so choose carefully and find a plan which best tailors to your company’s needs.
Synchronisation
To make the most of your shared applications, you need to ensure that all the other data used is synchronised between devices.
Data such as contacts, emails and calendars are necessary so your workers know what is happening and meetings are unmissable. It can also improve and quicken the process of setting up important meetings as you could send electronic invites which automatically sync to other’s computers and save the date for any upcoming events. Using applications such as Google Apps can make synchronisation easier and in some respects quicker to set up than having to convert existing software.
Proprietary Software
If your company has developed its software, it can be difficult to get this working effectively across different devices. Consulting with the original developer can sometimes resolve the problems by either adapting the existing software or by using other compatible applications. Therefore, if you are about to startup your first business, it may be wise to invest in a pre-existing software to limit these problems.
Being able to use it on multiple platforms can increase productivity and streamline the process.
Making your data available to all your employee’s is good for your business and the morale of your workers. By doing so, it could mean more of them could work from home which would also lower costs and potentially solve recruitment and retention issues. Flexible hours are also highly sought for and could make your company more desirable for whenever you need to recruit more employees.
