Business Mobility Continues to Drive Productivity; Agility

By the DynaSis Team

In the last few weeks, we’ve come across more studies and reports that highlight the value to businesses of mobility and availability, and we wanted to share them with you. First, Forrester Research last week released a brief entitled, “Microsoft Office Crosses The Cloud Rubicon: The Focus Is On Business Agility, And Here's Why It Matters.” In it, Forrester talks about recent moves by Microsoft that confirm the future of its Office portfolio is in the cloud (Office 365). Microsoft kicked this messaging off at the SharePoint Conference 2014, Forrester noted, and then put an exclamation mark on it with the release of Office on iPad for Office 365 users. Forrester completed the brief by predicting that these moves will facilitate sharing, communication and individual mobility for organizations, helping them “become more agile and responsive to a customer-driven marketplace.”

We concur, and believe that although communication and sharing are important, what really sets Office 365 apart is mobility. For workers to be able to access their Office productivity tools anywhere they have an Internet connection (availability), and to always work with the same (and latest) version of Office, is an enormous productivity booster.

We’ve worked with companies whose workers were nearly hamstrung because they were trying to work with different, outdated, and in some cases nearly incompatible versions of Office in the office, at home and on the road. On their mobile devices, many of these companies’ workers were limited to Office “reader” apps that weren’t really letting them work, at all. When we helped these firms transition to Office 365 (with an affordable, per-seat pricing model), worker productivity and satisfaction soared.

At the same time this report hit our desks, we saw another one, released late last year, about office productivity in the UK. The report found that the adoption of information and communications technology in the past 40 years has increased office worker productivity by 480% over its 1970s levels.

This productivity report, released by the Centre for Economic and Business Research, determined that these technologies, including the mobile phone, “paved the way for a revolution in the use of technology in the office.” It also forecast that over the next five years, productivity will continue to accelerate, driven by “ascendant technologies such as high-speed mobile internet access and tablet computers that will allow office workers to stay connected and productive wherever they are.”

Here again, we see central themes―mobility and availability. At DynaSis, we call it “Modern Officing”―the ability to be connected and productive anytime, anywhere, provided you have a computing device of some sort and an Internet connection. We have long believed that mobility and availability (along with security) are the three key drivers of business success. Now, the entire world is echoing the call.

Where are you on your road to Modern Officing? Whether you are just getting started or are ready to take another step in the process, our technology experts can help you plan for and make the journey securely and cost effectively. To learn more, fill out our inquiry form or give us a call.