Could this global pandemic permanently change the way we work?

There appears to be a growing global trend, a slow realisation that perhaps the dogma of ‘you can only work effectively in the office’ is in fact outdated or perhaps just plain wrong.

Many businesses (including PacSol) have for many years embraced the use of remote working rather than the occasional ‘treat’ of getting to work from home. Modern technology allows us to fulfill many of our daily work activities, interact with colleagues & collaborate on projects / documents as if we were still tied to our dreary, artificially lit, plant-less offices. For those employees that do not work from home, it is not that they do not understand how to work effectively from a remote location, it is usually the older (sorry) higher management ranks unable to see past how it has always been done. But now every business and employee with very few exceptions is having to find a way to adapt their work processes – paradoxically, home workers (like me) have had to adapt to changes in our normal work environment as children requiring homeschooling and partners with their own home office setup, have invaded our peaceful havens! (For clarity, I love my wife and children but dear me, the noise!).

Tied to all of this is the big question of how to maintain effective collaboration. We are all familiar with lightweight versions of virtual meeting tools within social media like WhatsApp or Apple’s FaceTime but now even grandparents are in weekly Zoom or Webex conferences with friends and relatives. What this event is really highlighting for many is the power of electronic document (content) management (EDM) platforms that allow former office workers to continue to create, store and collaborate on a whole range of documentation related to their daily business – whether a small office using Google’s G-Suite (not really an EDM solution) or Invu, a medium sized company using DocuWare’s hybrid cloud platform or a large corporations’ own Azure hosted platform. Storing, protecting, sharing documents and their content has never been so important, allowing the now dispersed workforce to continue working effectively and within compliance.

EDM platforms used to be sold as a means to enable the modern paperless office. Now EDM solutions should be considered an essential part of the modern office solution to support the head office hot-desk, remote home worker and continental branch office employees of now and the future. As an extra bonus we not only now save the trees (less paper), but with less commutes required, we can also save the planet for our children and theirs.

Toby Gilbertson, Customer Services Manager. May 2020