As businesses reckon with the ongoing fallout from the coronavirus, one thing’s for certain: the office workplace will never be the same again.

While the shift to remote work, video conferencing, online collaboration and cloud-based technology was a sudden and – for many businesses – challenging transition, it’s similarly difficult to imagine that things will return to the way they were when all this is over.

But according to Daniel Johns, head of services with business technology and security experts ASI Solutions, there’s an opportunity in this moment of flux to put in place new ways of working that will help futureproof your company.

Building the modern workplace

“The way we see it is there are four pillars to building a modern workplace: enabling agility, enhancing efficiency, streamlining costs, and optimising IT environments,” explains Johns.

“Fortunately, putting in place digital systems that can help you achieve all four is more straightforward than you might think.”

For Johns, it starts with a transition to cloud-based ways of doing business.

“We all had to become a lot more agile during the pandemic, but that was purely reactive,” he says.

“Moving forward, we need to actively leverage software-as-a-service (SaaS) in order to move our workloads further into the cloud, liberating ourselves from the costs and complications of hardware and centralised equipment.”

Daniel Johns, ASI Solutions.

Moving to the cloud

Moving your operations into the cloud can also open up new business efficiencies. “These software packages offer powerful tools that let you analyse your data and automate all these time-consuming menial processes,” says Johns. “That means your workforce can be put to more cerebral and value-adding tasks.”

Johns says one thing he’s seen first-hand during the pandemic is that those companies who had already pivoted to a digital-first model were able to cut costs more rapidly and effectively than those who hadn’t.

“It was hard enough for companies to have to temporarily or even permanently lose staff. But if those companies also had their own servers and their own IT infrastructure sitting back at the office, it was much harder to scale back all the associated costs.”

Boosting IT

Optimising your IT environment can be something as simple as an electronic signature, says Johns.

“Think about all the time and overheads that go into printing out a 100-page document just in order to sign it, scan it and send it back.

“There’s simple, secure software that can do all that for you, but for many businesses making the change wasn’t apriority. Now we know that business as usual just won’t cut it.”

ASI Solutions helps organisations looking to make the digital transition. “We do a comprehensive survey of the company’s existing processes and then offer a clear, end-to-end strategy built around those four pillars,” explains Johns.

It’s all about saving money and streamlining workflows, while also maintaining security and resilience.

“I think resilience has become one of the biggest themes of the pandemic,” he continues. “It’s not only building the resilience of your staff, it’s also about building the resilience of your organisation so that if the unexpected does happen you’re ready to go on day zero.”

“It’s not only building the resilience of your staff, it’s also about building the resilience of your organisation so that if the unexpected does happen you’re ready to go on day zero.”

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