#HowTo #7. 11 technologies for supporting the hybrid office ??

Last week, in the traditional #HowTo article, I wrote about 5 ways to redefine teamwork for a hybrid world. I will continue this topic today by describing 11 technologies for supporting the hybrid office that I found in Peter Wayner's article , a contributing editor at CIO .

The connection between the topics is logical: you need to find the best technologies to work productively online and offline. Here are some of them:

1. Hoteling software

The ability to reserve desks, workstations, conference rooms, and more with a click is essential to provide. It helps to avoid conflicts between staff and save money when paying for rent due to understanding the demand for bigger or smaller offices, etc. Such vendors as Condeco, DeskFlex, iOffice, and EMS can help companies in managing this.?

2. Contact tracing

If a person gets sick for COVID-19, contact tracing will be a great tool to help others understand if they need to self-isolate. If it's important for a person that others stay away from her, they can use such a tool as sounding an alarm if people get too close. Check SaferMe or Mobile Programming to explore this aspect.

3. Better cloud productivity tools

Employees must be able to log in from a random server and start working because they work from home, a restaurant, or an actual office. Nothing can provide it better than a cloud. For example, Microsoft's venerable Office suite is now a collection of web applications that's part of OneDrive.

4. Better planning software

Software optimized for sorting and tracking tasks should help task management because face-to-face meetings with all team members are often almost impossible in the modern world. Key vendors here include Asana, Jira, Monday.com, and more.

5. Better messaging

In case you need help in maintaining team cohesion when half of them are at home and improving workflow management, think of adopting messaging and conferencing systems if you haven't done so yet - for instance, Slack, Discord, RocketChat, and Flowdock.

6. New telephony solutions

Hardwired phones on fixed desks are going out of date. However, new office phone networks that adapt to different teams and workplaces are evolving. For instance, Microsoft Teams and Google Voice have a bridge to the public switched telephone network (PSTN). If you wish, explore some others: RingCentral, Ooma, Line2, and DialPad.

7. More feature-rich video conferencing

Do not be afraid to use the features that different platforms are offering! For example, recently, Google Meet presented automatically translated captions for discussions between people who speak other languages. Keep up with such improvements because they might be handy.?

8. Conference spaces

Think about using virtual spaces that emulate the big convention centers where you can wander from the presentation room to the sales hall, but not just about conferences and meetings in Zoom. Some new vendors defining this space include Aventri, Accelevents, Eventzilla, Demio, and Hopin.

9. Training platforms

Videos, quizzes, and online courses are the modern world's training sessions. Don't make your teammates or workers come to the office. Give them more opportunities for modern education online. Coursera and Udemy have a lot of business-specific training.?

10. Workstation pools

If your team needs a little more than an average laptop, make it normal for the teammates to share the best devices that a company owns through previous-mentioned hoteling software.

11. New collaborative spaces

Again, think a little broader than just about Zoom conferences. Some game companies provide virtual workspaces where you can talk to your teammates in a virtual background as if you were in the same room. Explore the possibilities offered by Ronday, Gather, and MeetinVR.

These were 11 technologies for supporting the hybrid office. If you found them helpful, please, leave your feedback or share them with your colleagues. In general, do you agree with everything that I mentioned?

Also, if you have any questions, you can e-mail me at [email protected] . Remember that BITECC.de is always ready to help you implement digital projects, so contact us if you need help!?

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