How Digital Workspace is Transforming the Way Companies Work?

If you want to stay competitive in this fast-paced era, you need to quickly embark on the digital transformation journey, and shifting to a digital workspace is the first step towards it!

Even though the world is now returning to some levels of normalcy, many companies are still embracing the digital workspace culture, and with good reason. 

Digital workspaces have completely reshaped how companies do business. Along with alleviating the everyday work experience of employees, they’ve facilitated great levels of flexibility and productivity.

There are many more ways in which digital workspaces have revolutionized the ways companies work. In this blog, we are going to explore all of them! Let’s start with understanding what a digital workspace is.

What Is A Digital Workspace?

Before we dive into the nitty-gritty of a digital workspace, let’s first take a sneak peek at something we all are familiar with: the physical workspace.

What comes to your mind when you hear the term ‘physical workspace‘? Desks, copy rooms, departments, and other such things, right?

Well, it turns out, things are pretty much the same when it comes to a digital workspace. However, the possibilities are broader and much more diverse.

A digital workspace is the virtual version (or the modern equivalent) of a physical workplace. It is all about technology, and it ensures that you can get work done from any device at any time. 

Some of the most common elements of a digital workspace are real-time collaboration, file sharing, automated workflow, app/desktop virtualization, and more.

18 Ways Digital Workspace Is Changing the Way Companies Work

1. Boosts Productivity

Productivity is all about doing better work in the given time frame, and better work results from collaboration and seamless communication – two critical elements of a digital workspace.

These workspaces increase productivity by slashing down the time spent on commuting, administrative tasks, and more. But, most importantly, they remove those dreaded email chains and help you transform ideas into reality quickly. 

2. Improves Communication & Collaboration

We are living in a fast-paced world, and people prefer cross-functional and real-time collaboration tools to get work done quickly.

Tools like digital workspaces increase transparency amongst your employees and make it really easy for teams and individuals to have real, meaningful interactions with each other at any point in time – no matter where they are located in the world.

3. It Helps Hire the Best People

With a fully connected digital workspace in place, you are not limited to geography when it comes to hiring, recruiting, and onboarding.

That means you can seek highly skilled candidates from all over the world – despite their region, city, or country. Moreover, if your company is based in a non-traditional market or a less populated area, a digital workspace can help you grow.

4. Streamlines Training & Development

There are multiple ways in which a digital workspace helps in features for every employee training program.

For instance, you can use it to connect employees with all the relevant training materials, courses, and reference documents that they can cover in their own time.

The employees will certainly benefit from the flexibility, independence, and functionality of a solid digital workspace, as it gives them learning support when and where it’s needed. 

5. Creates a More Employee-Centric Workplace

Digital workspaces are designed to reduce the workload on employees and alleviate their work experience.

It focuses on anomalies that might lead to negative employee experiences and gets rid of them.

The well-being of the employee, work-life balance, health, productivity, professional growth, burnout prevention – all these elements are core aspects of these workspaces!

6. Gives you Quick Access to Information

According to data, almost 20% of a working week, i.e., one day per working week – is wasted by employees searching for information they need to do their job effectively.

A digital workspace provides a central location for all files, documents, weblinks, and other rich media.

This ultimately improves workflows by making sure employees have access to the right files and content at the right time – irrespective of their location or device.

7. Enhances the Business Performance

It goes without saying that a digital workspace reduces operational costs drastically – whether it’s investments on rental spaces or cutting down overheads for travel and administrative purposes.

In fact, studies have shown that organizations that adopted digital workplaces reported a 43% increase in revenue.

All in all, a digital workspace is a great (and less expensive) alternative to traditional work environments.

8. Paves the way for Flexible Office Arrangements

In the traditional, in-person, 9-5 jobs, employees are assigned to their own desks, and that’s where they have to sit and work.

Source: e2w.co

Whereas, in a more flexible workplace, something that a digital workspace provides, your employees can pick and choose the spot that works for them – whether it’s their living room or somewhere in the hills.

It’s all about utilizing technology in the best possible manner.

9. Reduces the Dependency on Paper

Switching to a digital workspace reduces the time spent on processing documents manually.

Furthermore, it dramatically lowers the dependency on paper and saves the additional costs of printing, storing, maintenance and filing.

Most importantly, going paperless is a sustainable and ethically correct choice, and it shows that your business is making a conscious effort to save the environment. 

10. Removes Organizational Silos

A digital workspace allows you to communicate with other departments and employees much more efficiently.

This ultimately leads to improved workflow, transparency amongst employees, and better interdepartmental relationship.

Whereas, in a physical workspace, the flow of information and knowledge is usually hampered due to organizational silos.

11. A Growth in Telecommuting

Telecommuting culture has grown tremendously – thanks to digital workspaces that allow employees to work from anywhere they want.

The employees are able to save commute time, which results in higher productivity, and ultimately leads to better returns for businesses.

More than 77% of remote workers have reported greater productivity, and 52% are less likely to take time off.

12. Eliminates the Repetitive Tasks

According to a survey, 54% of employees believe they could save 240 hours annually through automation.

Well, a digital workspace usually comes with some degree of automation, which makes routine activities simpler and gives your employees time to work on other crucial things.

In simple words, you can free up creative resources while still accomplishing all the basic tasks. It’s a win-win.

13. Easier Knowledge Sharing

What happens if your Chief Marketing Officer decides to retire or join another company?

They take the knowledge with them, creating a gap in the organization which needs to be filled with expensive and intensive training!

But, with a digital workspace in place, you can preserve the know-how and experience of senior managers that can be easily accessed by current or future employees.

14. Creates an Evolved Work Environment

According to a study by Deloitte, 64% of employees would choose a lower-paying job if it provided workplace flexibility.

The study also revealed that an engaged and digitally supported workforce led to an increase in employee retention by 87%.

This shows that the modern workforce is looking for an evolved and future-ready work environment, exactly what a digital workspace offers.

15. Enriches Customer Service & Experience

Thanks to digital workspaces, you can have all the company information you need in one place – whether it’s FAQS, troubleshooting guides, how-to manuals, etc. The result? Your service reps can provide a better, faster, and more informed customer experience.

In short, a digital workspace allows your company to keep up with the customer’s expectations and thrive in a world where everyone is looking for quick answers.

16. More Time For New Ideas

When you use the right digital workspace which automates repetitive tasks, you can simply work life for your employees. The result? More productivity and better deliverables!

Your employees can use their spare time to solve problems and brainstorm new, innovative ideas.

They can easily share their ideas in the digital workspaces they’re using, building an open knowledge-sharing environment in the company.

17. Connect & Engage with External Partners Effortlessly

Through a functional digital workspace, your company can have seamless two-way communication with external partners like suppliers, clients, and consultants.

Your employees and your external partners are going to benefit from this flexibility and improved accessibility.

Source: grandviewresearch.com

The best part? You will have to spend less time traveling and, of course, less money on accommodations. 

18. Builds an Agile and Future-Ready Business

Uncertainty, whether they are in the form of competition or unfortunate global pandemics, is something that every company needs to keep in mind as they grow.

With a digital workspace, you can build a resilient and flexible workforce through technology, helping you pivot, adapt, and thrive during unforeseen disruptions. 

In simpler terms, a digital workspace allows companies to be agile.

As you’ve probably figured out by now, a digital workspace can do wonders for your business. The best part? It’s super easy to get started, as there are so many digital workspaces available out there!

One of the best digital workspaces is Bit.ai. It is built for teams and individuals to create, collaborate, and organize all company knowledge in one place – from anywhere in the world!

On Bit, you can create dynamic notes, documents, wikis, knowledge bases, projects, client deliverables, technical docs, training guides, and much more – while integrating across the apps you work with.

Before you go, we would like to share a few tips that you must keep in mind before switching to a digital workspace.

4 Tips You Need to Remember Before Switching to a Digital Workspace

1. Create a Strategy And Roadmap

If you want to reap the maximum benefits of a digital workspace, you first need to have a solid workspace strategy and roadmap!

Basically, you need to define what you want to achieve by shifting to a digital workspace. 

You also need to analyze whether your organization is currently strong enough for such a drastic transformation and its impact on specific processes and departments.

2. Keep Your Employees In Loop

Employees want their voices to be heard, so make sure that your employees are in favor of the digital transformation you’re planning.

Your work doesn’t end here. Make sure that your employees are able to adapt to the digital workspace efficiently, and keep asking for their feedback.

Moreover, the digital workspace you choose should allow top-down and bottom-up communication channels.

3. Smart Search is Important

What’s the point of information that can’t be found and accessed? Today, every organization is flooded with loads of information spread across different applications and databases.According to a report, employees spend almost 9 hours per week searching and collating information from multiple sources.

You can save this time by choosing a digital workspace that quickly helps you search and access documents and information.

4. Must Have Advanced Security Capabilities

It goes without saying that when you are accessing critical company data digitally from different devices, the threat grows exponentially.

In order to protect its data from ever-increasing cyber-attacks, every company needs to use digital workspaces that provide utmost security.

Get a digital workspace that offers firewall protection, high-caliber encryption, selected access, user authentication, etc.

What are the key trends that will impact digital transformation outcomes in 2022?

Remote Workforce

The baby boomer workforce is retiring, ushering in a new crop of ‘fluid’, sophisticated and fiercely independent workforce – the millennials. Because of the fierce battle for the talented workforce, most businesses are forced to dance to the tunes the millennials. The traditional suburban office parks are no longer impressive.

According to Robert Bach, director of research at Newmark Grubb Knight, a real estate advisory firm, “Companies have become more global, and they need to hire more people to have advantages all over the world.”

The proliferation of bandwidth and advancement in mobile technology makes it easy for employees to perform their jobs remotely. Besides, technologies like Enterprise Mobility, Cloud Telephony, Video Conferencing Tools, Live Chat Software, etc. make it easy for teams to communicate irrespective of geographical location.

While these systems might create some challenges especially with regard to employee engagement, businesses can easily tackle that by deploying a game-y environment that motivates employees to work harder. But the bottom line is companies that leverage remote workforce will have an edge over the competition.

Moving to the cloud and hybrid IT systems

The cloud platform is not just for delivering on-demand SaaS applications. Cloud computing platforms are quickly becoming the cornerstone for every aspect of the business. The cloud offers a fully functioning IT infrastructure that responds to change, and enable possibilities businesses and individuals can exploit to build systems, deliver and scale fast.

According to findings from 2016 RightScale State of the Cloud Survey,“17% of enterprises now have more than 1,000 VMS in public cloud, up from 13% in 2015.”

Besides, “private cloud showed even stronger growth with 31% of enterprises running more than 1,000 VMs, up from 22% in 2015.”

It looks like the sky’s the limit. In fact, at SoftwareSuggest out of ~8000 monthly inquiries, 64% are inclined towards cloud-based solutions.

So what makes cloud computing even more impressive? Cloud computing can be easily deployed across the small or large organization at fraction of the cost that goes with on-premise software. As a result, most businesses executives are increasingly involved in buying cloud-based IT solutions that cater to the IT needs of an enterprise.

Artificial Intelligence

Machines are increasingly becoming smarter. Today, AI-powered machines can handle more complex tasks that initially were a preserve of the humans. For example, USC Institute for Creative Technologies created “Ellie” a virtual therapist that outperforms human therapists extracting sensitive personal information from patients and diagnosing various psychiatric conditions. That makes AI one of the most disruptive technologies today.

The advancement of AI is pushing businesses to the edge. Stressing on the impact of advancing AI, Satya says the technology is forcing Microsoft to aggressively shift their mantra from “Cloud First, Mobile First” to adopting intelligent edge and intelligent cloud position.

Gartner also believes that AI-driven “digital assistants will recognize customers by face and voice across channels as soon as 2018.” We expect AI to power new, server-less computing power, drive predictive insights across devices or steer multi-sensory interactions.

Powering the engines behind Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) technologies, AI is poised to treat your business to a Pokémon GO experience. Nowadays, these technologies are no longer limited to gaming – they are will improve analytics and it easy for customers to qualify leads. In fact, 30% of consumer-facing companies are experimenting with VR and AR to spur their marketing efforts.

Internet of Things (IoT)

Businesses are waking up to the array of opportunities presented by this technology to their business. According to Constellation 2017 Digital Transformation Survey, nearly 50% of the respondents confirmed that their organization had established an IoT strategy, while 28% others have pilot IoT projects underway.

The number of IoT devices is poised to grow, fostering a giant network of connected devices. Gartner predicts that there will be over 26 billion connect IoT devices by 2020. While this kind of connectedness ushering new ways to enhanced engagement the volume of data generated also poses security concerns. As a result, it will prompt business to adopt security-oriented solutions like the DevSecOps.

‘DevSecOps’ to mitigate CyberSecurity

To achieve any customer value, digital transformation initiatives requires cultural shift across your business to align your employees’ efforts with customer priorities. However, cyber insecurity presents the darkest underbelly to this customer-value focused initiative. A good example is the Uber security breach where hackers gained access to large volumes of confidential information, forcing the company pays $100,000 in ransom fee to have them delete the data.

Unlike the DevOps that focuses on adopting cultural shifts that bring together various departments to achieve optimal software solutions, its cousin, DevSecOps is more focused on the security aspect of the systems.

That means for business to deliver value, they need a development team that addresses the security challenges posed by a vast amount of data generated by IoT, analytics, social media and the growing trust in cloud infrastructure. That means DevSecOps will become the standard approach to delivering quality and secure software/solutions in 2018 and beyond.

Today, digital transformation is changing the way businesses contact a business.

The ever-evolving digital technologies are fast changing the scene of business by providing new platforms that will fuel the modern business vehicle. I strongly believe that gaps in computing technologies – cloud computing, artificial intelligence, etc. – will spur the next wave of transformative and dramatic impacts in the next decade.

The mega-trends will enable a business to connect their ecosystems to platforms that will drive change in new and dynamic ways. In order to remain relevant and competitive, most businesses are struggling to identify solutions that align digital technology to their corporate strategy. That way, business will grow, reduce risk and a hell of other inefficiencies.

Wrapping Up

To meet the ever-evolving needs of the world we’re living in, you need a fresh, modern, and solid approach to working, i.e., a powerful and connected digital workspace. Even though switching to a digital workspace can sometimes be a complex, lengthy and multifaceted process, we can assure you that it’s something worth doing!

After all, a digital workspace can streamline workflows, improve communication and collaboration, encourage knowledge sharing, and increase productivity. Furthermore, a digital workspace leads to more efficient resource management, better customer experience, and enhanced employee engagement and empowerment. 

Not to mention, moving to the cloud allows for remote work, which replaces commutes and makes employees more productive. What more could you possibly ask for?

Paras Kela

Paras Kela is a highly skilled SaaS content writer with over 7 years of experience in the IT field. His expertise lies in simplifying complex technical concepts for easy comprehension. With a portfolio of over 100 high-quality blogs covering various SaaS topics, Paras’s writing style is engaging, informative, and SEO-friendly, ensuring maximum effectiveness. He continuously updates his skills and knowledge to stay current with industry trends, making his writing relevant and reliable.