How Technology Changes the Way Your Business “Works”

By the DynaSis Team

On August 14, Forbes published an interesting article entitled Technology Will Change Your Job: How to Prepare. It’s no secret that technology changes our work lives (and our personal lives). It increases productivity enormously, for example. It also makes it easier to stay “plugged in” to the workplace―a double-edged sword that gives us more mobility but also lets others track us down when we would prefer not to be connected.

However, this article wasn’t about that aspect of technology. Rather, it referenced a book, by attorney Richard Lieberman, entitled Your Job and How Technology Will Change It. In the book, Lieberman postulated that technology won’t simply let us work more efficiently; it will change the intrinsic nature of our jobs. He also suggested that those who do not adapt to this change will find themselves out of work.

“Bemoaning new technology is very much like those people who said passenger airplanes were terrible because they did not provide the comfort, leisure and sociability of a long train trip,” Lieberman stated. A more accurate analogy, we submit, would be to compare the value of a technically astute, well-trained administrative assistant to one who clings to an early version of WordPerfect or Word―or heaven forbid, a typewriter.

The message was, essentially, “Adapt or die,” and we believe that this message applies not only to workers but also to the businesses for whom they work. Emerging technologies from robotics to cloud computing are being adopted much faster than most people had predicted. Young people are embracing these new technologies far more rapidly than their older counterparts, and they want their employers to adopt and provide cutting-edge solutions, as well.

Conversely, many older workers and managers (the Baby Boomers) are not staying abreast of technology. However, they retain the majority of cultural and institutional knowledge that makes a company “tick,” and they often make the rules regarding who can do what, and when.

Frustrated by the pace of technological change, younger workers are bringing their more advanced, personal technology to work, much to the consternation of the older, inflexible executives and managers. In doing so, these younger workers can put businesses at risk.

So, the challenge for business owners is to adopt a more aggressive technology stance that will attract the younger stars without endangering the business. They also need to identify and retain older corporate leaders that do appreciate technology―those who can bridge the generation gap within the firm. In doing so, companies can develop a tech-forward, integrated workplace where all players can embrace secure corporate solutions to foster a collaborative, productive work environment.

The alternative is an unspoken “war” at work, where older, hide-bound executives and IT pros attempt to “control” the activities of younger workers, and the workers either become frustrated and leave or they simply find workarounds and do what they want. Neither is a satisfactory, long-term solution for anyone.

Now, here’s the good news. Companies do not have to make major IT purchases and plan exhaustive implementations every year or two in order to have an up-to-speed IT infrastructure. Solutions exist, such as DynaSis Ascend platform, that let firms pay a flat monthly fee for deployment and use of modern, secure IT solutions upgraded on a regular basis.

Such an approach keeps everyone happy. To learn more, please fill out our inquiry form or give us a call at (770) 569-4600.