If there’s something positive that has come out of the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s innovation. Many companies have discovered brand new opportunities for online document management and remote work. These have resulted in a quick switch to paperless operations that are also highly flexible and beneficial to all employees.
Will offices be affected permanently in a world after the Covid-19 pandemic? Obviously, online document management will shape up as a primary solution but what else is likely to change?
Main Changes in the Corporate World
We’ve already talked about paperless offices and remote work as a result of the Covid-19 lockdowns and social distancing measures introduced across the world.
Can such changes, however, be anticipated to remain permanent?
Data is showing that since the beginning of 2020, digital collaboration has been growing. In the public sector alone, a massive increase of 142 percent in digital collaboration has been registered.
Digital workflows have been benefiting from a bigger number of apps being utilized, including cloud document storage, video conferencing and instant messaging solutions.
While these are all good news for the developers of such solutions, we still need to determine whether the switch to digital and paperless is going to stick once we go back to normal.
Analysis of the work patterns in many economic sectors suggests that professionals are still postponing a complete return to the office, regardless of the fact that lockdown measures have been lifted in many parts of the world.
In the real estate sector alone, for example, 84 percent of professionals questioned report they’re in no hurry to go back to traditional work methods.
Not only that, the perception that workers have of remote work are also changing.
New surveys suggest that 2/3 of respondents have a better impression of remote work than what they initially anticipated. Most people seem to enjoy the flexibility and the boosted productivity that stem from the adoption of such work methodologies.
Online Document Management and the Office of the Future
The surveys quoted above offer a little glimpse into the way our mindsets and attitudes towards remote work are starting to change.
This change will have several key effects on the way that we do work.
Distributed offices and rotating shifts are likely to remain effective for some time.
The aim of such measures is to bring down the number of people who are sharing a workspace at any given time.
To enable such work methods, however, businesses will have to speed up the adoption of online document management and remote collaboration solutions.
When such solutions are put in place, employees will be the ones to determine if they’re going to return to the office (to benefit from the shared corporate culture) or they’ll be adopting a more cautious approach that will involve working from home for a longer period of time.
Attitudes towards the role of the office are also going to permanently change as the Covid-19 pandemic showed everyone that being together in a central hub isn’t a prerequisite for getting the job done.
Covid-19 and Document Management: Lessons We Learned
When it comes to document management specifically, Covid-19 has exposed some vulnerabilities and the pandemic has also hinted at some opportunities for growth and innovation.
For a start, key issues have come to the surface. The State of the Digital Workplace report for 2019 reveals that only 12.6 percent of questioned professionals believe that document management at their organization is effective enough.
This survey is from 2019 and before the rapid change that many businesses were forced to introduce in the heat of the moment.
Online document management has been overlooked, regardless of the fact that it is a highly scalable and affordable solution.
The acceleration resulting from Covid-19 lockdowns is potentially going to benefit the more widespread adoption of online document management solutions. The pandemic has shown many businesses just how vulnerable they are when standard operational procedures have to be altered. Needless to say, managers will now be much more focused on emergency plans and alternative strategies to ensure continuity in the event of extraordinary circumstances.
Moving to online document management does necessitate investment in digital infrastructure, the adoption of the right solutions and the training of employees.
When these elements are tackled strategically, however, they yield a high return on investment.
IT and tech companies that already have online document management and collaboration solutions in place are the ones that recovered from the initial shock of the Covid-19 pandemic the fastest. And since such solutions abound today, most companies (regardless of their size or the field that they operate in) can start making their first steps towards a digital transformation.
Will the first months of 2020 change the way we work forever? We will have to wait and see as Covid-19 measures are still largely in effect. One thing is certain – a shift in mindsets has already started and employees will probably keep on pushing for more flexibility, better collaboration and reduced time at the office in the future.