Page 29 - FWG_Issue 1_Feb_2022

Business

Technologies such as Zoom, Skype, Microsoft Teams and Google
Meet allow virtual meetings to be held and, in many instances,
these have now become the norm. One thing we saw companies
embrace are integrated systems like with Microsoft, where work,
collaboration and communication happen within one business
ecosystem. With Teams, for example, employees can share files,
organise meetings from their calendar and sync with other office
apps, all remotely.
PRODUCTIVITY – DATA FOR MANAGERS
The productivity of your employees is the driving force of your
business. And in the fast-paced new world of teams working both
offsite and in the office, making sure everyone is achieving their full
potential is a challenge for most companies.

Productivity technologies have emerged, which provide workforce
analytics to help you understand your people and how they work
on their computers. Innovative employee monitoring software
allows managers to gain real-time insights via easy-to-understand
dashboards, graphs and reports to keep track of how their team is
doing and decide when to take action if necessary.

VIRTUAL . . . WELL EVERYTHING
Virtualising almost everything is definitely here in a big way.
This means that your company can use a virtual server, network,
operating system, or storage device. Some of the benefits you can
take advantage of is having quicker backups and easier disaster
recovery if something should go wrong – you can literally move,
for example, a virtual server quickly and be back up and running
in no time. Also, virtualising your environment means lower costs
because you don’t need expensive hardware.

MANAGED SERVICES – OUTSOURCING TO SPECIALISTS
As controlling costs become key in a downturn, looking for ways
to ensure accurate budgeting or reining in IT costs is key. Through
managed services, which means outsourcing parts or all of your IT
to a specialist, you can focus on your core business while saving on
high IT resource costs.

These companies have invested heavily in smart systems, which
allow them to provide a host of services for SME’s at an affordable
fee. From IT support, anti-virus protection, backups, cybersecurity,
network management, you name it, these days most managed
service providers can take care of your IT, while you focus on
growing your company.

company PBX and employees can make and receive calls as if ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE – LET’S GO AUTOMATION
they were sitting at their desk. Automation is one of the biggest breakthroughs in business today,
essentially allowing you to use tech to deliver or get services
CLOUD BUSINESS SOFTWARE – HELLO REMOTE WORKING without any human intervention. From an IT perspective, a
Even in times of disruption, your employees need to continue human can only do so much in the time they have. But you can
using business office technology with which they are highly now automate thousands of routine IT tasks, plus by using AI tech
familiar. They need to be able to access these systems wherever you can anticipate, diagnose and fix any issues that might crop up
they are on any device. With software such as Microsoft 365 in before they become a problem. This kind of proactive approach to
the cloud, employees are able to stream all their applications, tech means that your IT environment is not constantly breaking
data and tools – including their personalised settings – from down and hampering productivity.
the cloud to any device, whether it is a laptop, computer, iPad
or mobile phone. Employees can work from anywhere, provide So, there you have it, the six technologies businesses are using to
a consistent customer experience, and they can keep up their take full advantage of digitisation, to help them adapt to the new
normal, steady work rate. world of work.

Fourways Gardens • 27 • February 2022