Not only do you need a pool table, free breakfast and Friday drinks for your pampered staff, now you need to use the latest technological developments to drag them into their Smart Office. Yes, we’ve got smart cards, smart phones and now some smart arses say everyone deserves a smart office.
There is nothing wrong with being nice, making offices less formal than they traditionally were, more airy and open, and more focused on collaboration and shared spaces. Some offices have even focussed on creative comforts like comfortable furniture to help their professionals relax to become the best they can. But really?
ZDNet/TechRepublic has produced an e-book; a special edition, exploring the ways companies are taking advantage of tech innovation to improve collaboration, productivity, and employee health and safety.
The challenge is that while companies have invested in these types of office upgrades, the technology in offices has remained pretty stagnant and so many of the old office frustrations–like trying to connect to a conference call or present a PowerPoint from your laptop–are still as annoying as ever.
That’s where the new trend toward the “smart office” is kicking in. It’s about using tech to amp up workspaces so that they are more efficient and employee-friendly. Here are three trends to watch as the smart office takes off:
1. Making desks smarter
Standing desks and sit/stand desks have gained a lot of momentum in offices over the past five years. The act of standing or alternating between sitting and standing is known for helping some workers remain more alert and productive throughout the day.
Humanscale is using data to make the sit/stand experience more scientific. Its OfficeIQ sensor can send you alerts when you’ve been sitting or standing too long and show you data on your sitting/standing habits. For companies, Humanscale also offers a program to gamify the experience so that departments can compete against each other in scores for healthy activity. Companies can also use the sit/stand data to better understand utilisation and occupancy, especially for shared desks and hot-desking. If you work in an office like this, leave and go for a little walk.
2. Making conferencing easier
Despite Polycom phones, video conferencing, and projectors for PowerPoints being prevalent in conference rooms for the past couple decades, it’s still often hit-and-miss to connect and too much employee time gets wasted in the process.
A number of different technologies are converging to simplify the process. Big screen TVs are replacing projectors. Chromecast and Apple TV are making it easier for guests to quickly connect their laptops for PowerPoint presentations. And products like Zoom are making conference calls and video calls as easy to join as entering a 9-digit number or a name into an app.
3. Voice-enabling the office
The next-gen solution for making conference rooms even smarter, for example, would be for an employee to walk into a room and say “Connect to 10:00 video conference with the Atlanta office” and then all the systems fire up automatically.
That’s a dream scenario for some workers. And some people are starting to get a taste of it with Amazon’s Alexa for Business. The service lets workers multitask by using their voice to manage calendars, tasks, and data requests. It also aims to streamline IT requests, conference calls, ordering supplies, and reporting problems with the building. Using shared voice devices in the office sounds like the perfect recipe for open-plan mayhem and entertaining punch-ups.
