The world is changing fast and it seems the key driver behind this change is technology. So how will the advancement of technology affect the workplace in the next 10 to 20 years?
We are already seeing progression in terms of how we communicate and share information on the web with the introduction of cloud computing and Google Wave, both of which will certainly have a massive effect on the way we work together in the workplace, but more importantly remotely.
Will the 21st century office become mostly virtual? Virtual offices have grown in popularity in recent years. This is due to SME’s realising the benefits of outsourcing basic tasks to other companies in order to focus on their core competences. As well as this many businesses choose to use these services to enhance their image, providing an impression of prestige, size and professionalism.
Google Wave is set to change the way people communicate and work together online with richly formatted text, documents and other media. It is basically a shared virtual workspace whereby people can enter, leave and participate in real-time, essentially it’s a live transmission. As a result it will enable people to work remotely with greater flexibility, but also integrate with colleagues and friends more closely. For virtual offices this will present lots of opportunities to provide more services and integrate with clients more closely.
As well as this cloud computing will render the need for most companies to store and maintain large servers on-site. It will mean all of our information and photos etc will be safely stored and accessible from anywhere anytime.
Google Wave and cloud computing will no doubt have a major impact on the way we work together and how we do it. The businesses which quickly adopt and learn how to use this technology will benefit and perhaps gain an advantage. The virtual office industry will no doubt adapt and incorporate it to offer a variety of services which will help SME’s. The workplace is definitely changing and it will be interesting to see how it evolves in the next 10 to 20 years.
