New digital technologies play a truly fundamental role in any person’s daily life, in every possible sphere. This is also valid in a professional context, where precisely because of digital, the concept of work has expanded, making physical space “virtual” through the principle of Smart Working. This means that communication and collaboration are freed from a physical operational location.
In this article, therefore, we will look together at how new technologies can be incorporated into current organizational models, and clearly what these technologies are in practice.
Sommario
Organizational models and new digital technologies
Even before starting any Smart Working activity, a careful analysis of what technological equipment is available should be completed. This phase is of crucial importance to understand the real feasibility of the project and to assess whether it is necessary to introduce new working tools. Conversely, incorporating new information technologies without considering what are the impacts on organizational models could prove to be a mistake.
We are talking about a situation that, by the way, used to occur quite frequently in the past, and that ran the risk of not fully exploiting the potential of such innovative tools, or even understanding the impact they had on people’s behaviors. Incidentally, apart from Smart Working, introducing digital skills and technologies is necessary in order to lay the foundation for future initiatives that may make changes precisely on the organizational model.
In other words, the primary difficulty lies not so much in introducing the new tools or in choosing them, but rather in finding ways to get them used in the right way. The aim, then, is that digital technologies can positively influence how people work, so as to create more engaging and mature collaborations and innovative relationships.
Smart Working: technology areas
Smart working digital technologies allow for a more flexible type of work for people, and this concept applies both inside and outside of corporate offices. We can group these technologies into four major families:
– Social collaboration.
In this first group we find all those tools useful for facilitating communication flows. The purpose of these tools is to create innovative opportunities for relationships, sharing and collaboration. The main ones certainly include video conferencing and instant messaging tools. The proper use of these technologies leads toward better interaction between colleagues and customers, thus toward renewed communication and collaboration between people who do not necessarily have to be in the same physical location. The benefits of social collaboration are obvious and undeniable. For employees, we find positive implications in the organizational aspect of their daily lives. For companies, on the other hand, lower costs to be incurred related to travel.
– Security.
In the second family we find technologies that allow flexible and immediate access with any device to an environment containing data, applications and information, in a totally secure manner. All this clearly preserving what is the integrity of such data. This group includes both more traditional tools such as VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) and others based on Cloud virtualization. When implementing a Smart Working project, it is of paramount importance that a truly secure channel for remote access can be ensured. Thus, we are talking about essential solutions designed to protect data sent and received, which were originally more widely adopted only by large organizations, but nowadays are also necessary for small and medium-sized entities. This is one of the most important sections to consider, because in addition to the tools, careful training of employees is also needed to make them aware of how important the right behaviors are. The error of an individual in fact, can compromise the integrity of the entire system.
– Mobility.
In this case we are talking about devices that are now almost naturally present in every home, and that allow access to professional services on the move. So we are talking about smartphones, PCs, Notebooks and tablets that can be used to work from home or wherever you are. Although the prevalence of these tools has increased significantly in recent years, they are not always sufficient for regular work performance. This situation clearly goes to affect the way such work is organized. The reason is very simple: very often devices are assigned according to job classification, rather than based on actual specific needs. One solution to this issue could come from “Bring-Your-Own-Device” policies, which provide, subject to special agreements, for the use of personal computing tools by employees. This solution offers an added value that should not be underestimated, namely that such personal tools do not require an initial learning phase because they are already well known to users.
– Workspace Technology.
The fourth family includes technologies that enable the most flexible and effective use of physical environments. This allows for better usability of the same, but also improves the quality of work life in corporate offices, benefiting the productivity and ultimate performance of employees. Among these tools we definitely find the wireless connections, the video conferencing tools o i centralized printing systems, which allow you to operate each printer only by entering what are your credentials issued by the system administrator, or alternatively by confirming the printing process only with your company bagde.
Digital technologies and deployment in companies
In large companies, whether or not there are Smartworking activities, some digital technologies that enable remote work are now widely used. These especially include those related to security and data accessibility from remote locations and different devices. A typical example is specially designed mobile applications. Just as often we can also find “social collaboration” services that are integrated to support knowledge sharing and collaboration among employees.
Decidedly less employed, on the other hand, are technologies related to workspace, which allow for easier use of environments, and which encourage what is known as mobile work within corporate offices. The big problem, however, lies not so much in the diffusion of all these technologies as in the actual capacity of their use, which in some cases is not even sufficient to enable the normal performance of work activities in Smart Working. In any case, a standard technological equipment usually includes:
– Laptop PC
– Virtual Private Network (VPN)
– “Social collaboration” services
Only when strictly necessary instead, devices for mobile work, such as smartphones and tablets, are also introduced.
Smart Working: cultural and technological limits
Smart Working also inevitably implies a rather profound cultural change, which in the current state of affairs is still an obstacle, although over time it has been softening anyway. In any case, to date some critical issues and certain barriers emerge that limit the real potential of new digital technologies.
For example, among the main obstacles we find a digital transformation that has not yet been completed. Looking at the situation more broadly, we can see how Europe sees us as the tail end of the table precisely with regard to digital transformation. We talk about limitations of mindset that lead to the second major obstacle, which is that of low effectiveness of virtual collaboration.
In other words, there is little belief in the system, and the quality of work suffers as a result. In any case, even at the time when the initial technological equipment is not yet at the right level, it is still appropriate to start a Smart Working project. In fact, only by acting in the field can we highlight what tools and applications the company will need to work fully in this mode.
