Technology in the Workplace: The Importance and Benefits

Over the past several years, technology has become an essential part of our day-to-day lives, both personal and professional. For businesses specifically, technology in the workplace has completely redefined operational processes as well as consumer behaviors and expectations.

In fact, according to a McKinsey Global Survey of executives, 93% of companies surveyed said they had to shift to remote work, 62% said they had to deal with increasing customer demand for online purchase and services, and 34% said there was an increase in migration of their company’s assets to the cloud due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

There are numerous benefits of technology in the workplace. Continue reading to learn some of the reasons business owners want to ensure they are keeping up with the latest IT trends and have a plan to implement innovative technology solutions.

The Importance and Benefits of Technology in the Workplace 

The importance of technology in the workplace cannot be understated; after all, it has become a core component of any modern-day organization’s success. Let’s take a closer look at some of the advantages of technology in the workplace.

Make Your Business More Competitive  

If your organization is not leveraging modern technology solutions today, it has likely already fallen behind when compared to your competition.

That said, it’s never too late to begin your digital transformation journey, which in turn will cultivate a more technology-centric (and competitive) business model.

As mentioned, we have seen a dramatic shift in consumer demands and expectations, and the impact of technology on the customer experience is more prevalent than ever before.

Long gone are the days of consumers being content with a two- or three-day response time for a query such as a password reset.

Today, a nearly instantaneous resolution is the norm and what you must be delivering to remain competitive. This is due largely in part to customer service channels such as social media, live chat, and email.

Couple those support channels with technologies like AI, automation, and self-help resources, and your customers have the ability to choose their support preference for a quick and efficient resolution, leading to a better overall customer experience.

When your customers are happy, they will continue doing business with you, and possibly even refer you to their community which increases profits.

Enhance Communication and Collaboration 

Technology has made communicating with others easier than ever, which is important in today’s corporate environment where many organizations are still working from home and face to face interaction is nominal.

Cloud based platforms such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and others continue to provide a pathway for organizations to remain connected and achieve a level of communication that is arguably better than pre-pandemic and the shift to remote work.

That is largely in part because productivity platforms and applications supply features such as chat, file storage and sharing, and document collaboration to significantly enhance collaboration.

What’s more, this technology actually increases productivity for an organization and its employees, as feedback on a specific project or task can quickly be sent via instant message, limiting the number of emails and reducing response times.

Increase Security  

With cyber criminals’ attack techniques increasing in volume and complexity, it is of the utmost importance that organizations have sophisticated security measures in place to help prevent infiltration of their network and systems that could lead to a costly data breach or worse.  phobeyond.com

While security technologies like antivirus and multifactor authentication are necessary and effective tools, organizations must also implement controls at the employee level. After all, nearly 9 out of 10 – or 88% – of all data breaches are caused by human error.

As employees are oftentimes the last line of defense in an attempted cyber attack, it is critical to equip them with the knowledge to recognize when such an attack is taking place and what steps they should take to mitigate the threat.

This can be achieved through implementing a security awareness training program. These programs aim to educate users on threat vectors and attack techniques and even provide real-world scenarios via simulated campaigns.

For employees that are phish prone, additional training can be done to improve their detection skills. This will go a long way in creating a “human firewall” and increasing security for the organization.

Improve Productivity and Efficiency

With the use of technology in workplaces, organizations have been able to increase their productivity and efficiency at a rapid pace.

Processes that were once manual and time-consuming can now be achieved in a quick and efficient manner with digital tools, applications, and systems.

Because of this digital shift, employees have the ability to focus on more important tasks that generate revenue and drive the company forward.

Additionally, leveraging business programs and management software can actually improve the accuracy and effectiveness of departmental functions, as it decreases the likelihood of human error while providing real time data and analytics through dashboards and reporting.

Achieve Compliance  

In addition to making your business more productive and efficient, technology can also help you achieve and maintain compliance.

Given the significant role compliance plays in today’s digital landscape, coupled with the growing amount of regulatory requirements that must be satisfied, it is not far-fetched to say businesses cannot effectively achieve and maintain compliance without the help of technology.

Certain software and applications can help your teams review, analyze, and securely store overwhelming amounts of sensitive data across your organization and third-party systems.

When using automation as a compliance technology, recurring workflows can be triggered that streamline tasks associated with documentation collection, auditing, and review scheduling.

By taking advantage of technologies that perform these types of functions on a regular basis, your organization is better positioned to realize compliance risks as you work to stay up-to-date with changing regulations.

Support Your Technology With an MSP

So, why is it important to keep up with technology? As you’ve learned in this blog, the benefits of technology are far-reaching and impact almost every business unit across an organization, from sales and marketing to accounting and human resources.

While the adoption of technology is critical to the success of a modern workplace, the upkeep of that technology is just as important to ensure operations remain efficient and day-to-day processes are not interrupted.

Oftentimes, organizations opt to fully outsource their IT operations to MSP due to flexible support models, cost savings, and other factors A managed service provider can act as an extension of your internal IT team to take on more routine tasks, such as infrastructure monitoring, level 1 support tickets, cloud licensing management, and more.

If your organization is seeking support for its technology stack, employees, and/or customers, contact Buchanan and let us know how we can help.