Hybrid working: Moving office & moving with the times

With hybrid working becoming increasingly commonplace, many companies may be looking to move to alternative office spaces, perhaps to reduce rental costs and make a fresh start, now fewer workers need to be accommodated on-site. So, here we look at how this is also the perfect opportunity to update your technology, to future-proof your business and really move with the times.

As we gradually emerge from the pandemic, businesses continue to re-evaluate the way they work, with more and more moving to a hybrid working model, involving employees based both in the office and remotely. In fact, a recent poll of 121 UK organisations by Willis Towers Watson found that 41% will be shifting to hybrid working by 2023. Perhaps an inevitable consequence of this is that many organisations may also be considering relocating to smaller, or less centrally situated, premises to cut costs when they no longer require all workers to be on-site. Indeed, according to research conducted in 2020, by YouGov for HR technology firm Applaud, 26% of UK businesses intended to either close, downsize or consolidate their offices in future. Interestingly, the research also found that 46% of companies would be implementing better remote working tools to ensure continued engagement and efficiency in a more remote working future.

So, if you are contemplating an office move, this really does present the perfect chance to review the technology your organisation is using, to make sure it is more in line with the modern, hybrid way of working. In fact, with the right IT in place, you can future-proof your business and set it up for success in this new era of work – enabling easier workforce mobility and improving efficiency. Perhaps number one on the list, to ensure you truly move with the times is to update the communication system that your company employs. For fully efficient hybrid working, it is essential to make sure that your workers can collaborate closely wherever they are – whether in the office, on the go, or working from their kitchen tables. This calls for a unified communications system you can depend on, which can work how and where you do. Indeed, the state-of-the-art systems offered by Prodec Networks allow users to communicate via voice calls, team messaging, videoconferencing, file sharing and more, all from single, simple-to-use applications, wherever they are based.

Furthermore, in the modern, hybrid working world, doing everything you can to enable easy communication between colleagues and with customers, really is key, and another important way to do this is by ensuring that the meeting rooms in your new premises are up to the job. As the meeting room equipment you use may have become outdated during the last couple of years of upheaval, this could require a fair bit of refreshing to bring it up to speed, so it can cope with the specific demands of today’s workplace. This should not be overlooked as dated meeting room technology can cause delays, be difficult to use, be less cost-effective and prevent collaboration and teamwork-based meetings from being as productive as they could be.

So, to ensure that your new meeting rooms are the vital hubs of collaboration you need them to be, you could consider fitting innovative tools, such as interactive screens and wireless presenting systems, to bring them up to date. You may even want to adopt more touchless technology, to minimise any risk of COVID-19 transmission. For example, you can now enter a videoconference room and join your meeting by voice control alone, and operate in-room facilities via an app on your personal device, thus avoiding the need to touch any central console. In addition, you could consider employing one of the latest room booking systems which would allow you to book a meeting via an app on your device, and this can also monitor room occupancy for no-shows, so you can maximise usage and make the most of these vital spaces. 

Moreover, if your major motivation for moving office is to reduce the size of your premises, and cut down on rental costs, now hybrid working means fewer workers will be on-site, you could further reduce the amount of space required by switching to cloud technology solutions. Indeed, with cloud services you can have all the up-to-the-minute technology you need without having to house the bulky hardware, and associated servers, on-site, giving you the freedom to downsize even more. In fact, adopting such cloud-based technology could help you to cut your costs yet further, as you will not need to invest upfront on expensive hardware, pay for its maintenance, or replace it when it is outdated, but instead can just pay for the exact amount of service you need. What’s more, with Prodec’s managed cloud services, you also have access to high-quality, 24/7 technical support, freeing up your in-house IT team to concentrate on more productive, business-critical projects. Indeed, the cloud could even help you to cut costs on energy consumption as well, as reduced power usage is among the various green benefits cloud computing can also offer.

In addition, cloud computing is most definitely a friend to hybrid working, as it can help you make your workforce as mobile as you need it to be. For example, with a cloud-based contact centre as a service (CCaaS) solution, you can provide top-quality customer service staffed by workers based virtually anywhere, and, again, this can enable you to save yet more space, as there will no longer be a need to have a sizeable customer contact centre on-site. Similarly, a cloud desktop as a service solution can also provide flexibility and freedom for your workforce, by allowing users to access business resources securely from any location. Furthermore, such services could give you the freedom to move your office to a less central location, perhaps offering lower rental rates, if daily commuting for your whole workforce is no longer required.

However, if the prospect of upping sticks and making the move to new offices, while reviewing all your IT needs, seems just a bit too complex and daunting to manage alone, you may need a little help and support to put your plans into action. An office relocation project can undoubtedly be a particularly demanding and time-consuming activity, so Prodec offers specialist office move and relocation support to remove some of the stress this can cause, and help you maximise the potential benefits it could bring. Indeed, our experts have certainly gained a great deal of experience in helping customers to take this opportunity to modernise their technology and make a fresh start. For example, we successfully helped long-standing Reading estate agents Haslams with its office move, and provided a modern, cloud-based IT infrastructure that enabled its staff to have more flexibility in the way they work, resulting in increased resilience and agility across the whole organisation.

So, if you’re planning an office move and want to make the most of this ideal opportunity to modernise your technology, contact Prodec today, to discuss how we can help.