Hack your way to productivity in 2017

Damian Michael, MD iNNOVO Networks

From self-driving cars to automated-brewing coffee machines and everything in between, we've seen a perversion of smart technologies invade our workplaces and homes, but it has it helped increase our productivity?

We still fail in the productivity department because our attention waxes and wanes, moving in one direction, then the next. The technology available to help us be more productive also lends itself to life's distractions.

We aren't more productive thanks to tech; we're far more distracted. But is this the fault of technology or are we inherently more inclined to get distracted for one reason or another? Is this some kind of increasing trend or is there a way to buck this status quo of declining productivity thanks to the technological invasion that's only growing in its reach?

There are ways to increase productivity using the same tech that we already own and while smartphones might be at the root of your decline in productivity, they can also be used as a source for increasing it. It just requires a little bit of attention and organisation. Streamline the tools and programs you use to ensure all employees are working off the same system.

1. Use unified communications

Mobility in the workplace has become an increasingly important topic within recent years. Offering employees greater mobility and the ability to work at home is also linked to increased productivity and greater job satisfaction. However, with the rise of remote workers and the increase number of companies using hot desking, employees need to be able to answer their desk phone from a variety of devices and from wherever they are working.

UC enables greater mobility in a number of ways, including the one number concept and the provision of softphones. Thanks to unified communications it is now possible for employees to participate in a web conference when working from home, receive voicemail messages to their email when travelling, and see whether their colleagues are available to take calls. Utilising a PBX system ensures everyone is available at any time from the same number.

2. Don’t waste time or drop quality when working remotely

Working remotely has become the way of the world. as a business owner or employee, you will be expected to work from home or while on the road at some point or another and cloud-based products like Microsoft Azure, Gmail or Dropbox are some tools that can make document storage and access as easy as connecting your Wi-Fi.

A recent survey by Frost & Sulivan showed that companies investing in collaboration technologies increased productivity by as much as 400%. Cloud computing allows for easy collaboration between employees. Workers can access relevant files and documents from wherever they are: prospects headquarters, on a plane, or at home.

When you eliminate the time-consuming and often insecure process of sending files back and forth over email, you create a more streamlined process. A more efficient collaboration system that enables employees to access files from one central location ultimately leads to an improved business bottom line

3. Collaborate

The number one thing that holds people back is trying to do everything themselves. Collaboration is essential to business and has become an important element to driving results and promoting an efficient work environment. The key is in understanding the power of mutually beneficial partnerships and how you can learn to leverage their resources more. We are seeing businesses put more budget behind learning how to collaborate effectively because of the significant impacts it can have on growth; but employees don’t have to be in adjoining cubicles to achieve it.

With the abundance of cloud-based products, staff members working from remote locations can collaborate and share documents easily. Custom cloud solutions offer more robust solutions with greater security for sensitive data. UC systems allow for various types of communication, so you can choose which would be the most effective: a phone call, an instant message, a conference session, or video chat. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems like allow your sales team to save time by keeping track of the status of a prospect in one shared location. These solutions increase consistency in your customer relations, which, in turn, increase productivity and profitability.