- What Is A Digital Workplace?
- The Importance of a Digital Workplace Strategy is Now Greater Than Ever
- Digital Workplace Immediate Benefits
- A Closer Look at the Most Crucial Factor for a Successful Digital Transformation
- What Essential Features Should Be Present in a Digital Workplace?
- Digital Sovereignty: A Closer Look at Your Privacy in Your Digital Workplace
In today’s digital world, the digital workplace is an essential component of any successful digital transformation. Digital workplaces have revolutionized the way businesses operate, allowing employees to collaborate, communicate, and work remotely. They provide a secure environment for teams to share information, collaborate on projects, and make decisions quickly. Digital workplaces also offer the flexibility to access work from anywhere, at any time. This article will discuss the different components of a digital workplace, the benefits it provides, and the challenges organizations may face when creating one. It will also explain why digital workplaces are the most crucial factor for a successful digital transformation.
What Is A Digital Workplace?
Digital workplaces are the modern, digital version of traditional workplaces that enable employees to collaborate, share information, and work remotely. Digital workplaces have revolutionized how businesses operate by creating an environment that is both efficient and accessible.
We prefer to analyze a digital workplace from two distinct perspectives: a technical perspective and a business perspective.
Technical Standpoint
From a technical standpoint, a digital workplace is a technology-enabled environment that allows employees to remotely collaborate, communicate, and work. It is powered by an internal network of servers that typically consists of an integrated suite of collaboration tools and applications such as
- document sharing
- document editing
- instant messaging
- video conferencing
- event management and calendaring
- and email management
It also provides access to data and business digital assets. The digital workplace is designed to enable teams to work faster and more efficiently and to improve communication and collaboration between employees.
Business Standpoint
From the business standpoint, a digital workplace is a corporate strategy that leverages an interactive and adaptable working environment to boost staff digital literacy, motivation, and ability to utilize technology for increased business potential.
A successful digital workplace necessitates a well-defined strategy, suitable software, and reliable infrastructure. Merging these components into a unified architecture enables organizations to guarantee effective operations and maximize productivity.
The Importance of a Digital Workplace Strategy is Now Greater Than Ever
The surge of digital resources for businesses to build a digital workspace in recent times has been remarkable. A Gartner survey taken in 2018 and 2020 reveals the sharp rise in demand for a digital workplace program within two years.
In a few years, the digital workplace is expected to expand greatly, providing new opportunities to businesses and employees alike.
| The year 2022 | The year 2023 | The year 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| More than 66% of employees will consider flexible working arrangements to be a differentiator when selecting an employer. | Fewer than 33% of digital workers will select the corporate office as their preferred place to work. | Remote work and changing workforce demographics will impact enterprise meetings so that only 25% will take place in person, down from over 60% today. |
A digital workplace solution is not just a convenience; it’s a necessity.
Digital Workplace Immediate Benefits
Transitioning to a digital workplace offers instant benefits, even if you’re not working from home. For example, the sales team wants to use the conference room between 2 and 3 p.m., but the marketing team already booked the room for that time. In a digital workplace, the sales team can send a message to arrange a better time and submit their booking, which is instantly available. Everyone gets an e-mail reminder and instructions, whereas, in a non-digital workplace, this process can take half a day or more, or worse, in some cases, they don’t even notice that the room is booked until the conference day which can ruin the whole schedule.
A Closer Look at the Most Crucial Factor for a Successful Digital Transformation
As the Internet of Things (IoT) advances, there are plenty of technologies to equip a digital workplace. A company could opt for a combination of Slack, Zoom, Outlook, or any other option, but nothing rivals a comprehensive solution that includes every requirement of a digital workplace in a single platform.
A single platform that includes all the features of a digital workplace offers several advantages over using multiple software solutions.
- First, it simplifies the management of data and applications, as all the necessary tools are provided in one place.
- Second, it streamlines the workflow, as all the tools are integrated, and tasks can be completed in a more efficient manner.
- Third, it reduces operational costs, as the cost of managing multiple software solutions is eliminated.
- Finally, it provides a more secure environment, as all the data is stored on one platform and is less vulnerable to security breaches.
What Essential Features Should Be Present in a Digital Workplace?
We can group features every digital workplace should possess into several categories.
- An Email management and calendaring platform
- A communication system including chat and video meetings
- A File management and collaboration solution
- Mobile Device support
By incorporating these features into its digital workplace, an organization can ensure its employees have the necessary tools to work productively and securely.
An email management and calendaring platform should provide users with an intuitive interface for managing their emails, contacts, and shared calendars. A communication system should include features such as chat, video meetings, and file sharing, to ensure effective collaboration between team members. A file management and collaboration solution should provide a secure environment for storing, sharing, and collaborating on documents. Finally, mobile device support should enable users to access their digital workplace from any device.
Digital Sovereignty: A Closer Look at Your Privacy in Your Digital Workplace
Digital sovereignty is the right of an organization to be in charge of its digital data and infrastructure, keeping them safe and private. It is much broader than data sovereignty, covering not just data, but also the infrastructure, processes, services, and technologies that accompany it. This idea has become increasingly important in the digital transformation era, as organizations aim to have autonomy and control over their information in an interconnected world.
Achieving digital sovereignty is a key focus of digital transformation efforts across the European Union, largely driven by the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). A recent article in The New York Times revealed that over 50 countries are currently attempting to gain control over the digital data generated by their citizens, governments, and companies. Factors such as security, privacy, economic incentives, and even territorial disputes, have prompted governments to take steps to safeguard such data within their own borders and determine where it can and cannot be transferred.
We developed a unified digital workplace: Zextras Carbonio. It is an advanced digital workplace tailored to uphold digital sovereignty. It facilitates a successful digital transformation and guarantees compliance through its design.