The Future of Work

What will the future look like? This has been a popular question since… forever. In the 1950s the predictions for the turn of the millennium noted that common, universal interplanetary travel was something more probable over possible, as was finding intelligent life on Mars. Robots would be in every home, helping with the household chores, and our telephones would fit in our handbags.

Well, from our perch of 2016 we can see how wide-of-the-mark some of the predictions were and yet how close to the reality others remain. Take, for instance, the one about how our telephones will fit in our handbag. They do, and so much more besides.

Here’s a prediction of our own: the future of work lies in the world of mobile. It’s all about flexible working. The future will see more and more of us working remotely and in a more adaptable way. Today’s post is about the future of the enterprise, about how the workplace is changing, what we can look forward to in the next few years and how your business should be preparing to take advantage of innovations that are available right now.

Mobile working

These days not only do our cell phones fit in our handbags (and our pockets), they are an all-powerful source of information; a tool for getting both personal and professional tasks completed; an interactive map, a watch, an instant messenger, an email client, a conference call creator, a camera, a word processor, and a file sync and share tool among many other functions. In fact, actually making phone calls is almost the last thing we use our phones for these days.

And innovation isn’t plateauing here. At the rate of progression of machine learning, computers are changing what they can do and, by proxy, what we can achieve with them. The level of learning and automation is such that programs can successfully complete an even greater share of the our most tedious, banal, motivation-reducing tasks so that we can concentrate our energies on the more important aspects of our work and business. The goal for the immediate future will be for devices having the ability to anticipate our needs and allow us the space to be even more productive. But the ‘future’ is almost here already. The productivity we can achieve with our smartphones right now would seem incredible to someone even five or six years ago.

Remote work today has become much more feasible and much more popular than in the recent past. But it’s not without its challenges.

The rise of freelancing

There are multiple forces transforming the way we work. Companies across all industries, are undergoing a rapid disruption to how they do business thanks to IT innovations. There are now better ways to be productive at cheaper costs, but that also means these companies face more competition than ever as cloud computing has leveled the playing field – allowing smaller businesses the resources to compete against their bigger rivals.

One of the changes that has come about is the rise of freelance workers. Approximately 30% of the workforce in the U.S. are freelancers, and the expectation is for this to rise to 40% by 2020. With so many companies of differing sizes, there is a lot of choice (and work) out there for a freelancer. But it’s not all plain sailing: working freelance means you gain the added task of looking after your own marketing, taxes, benefits such as healthcare, etc. and also you may miss out on the more intangible aspects of being office-based, like the socializing, and possible on-the-job learning.

Combining freelancing with full employment

Perhaps the ideal of the future of work is to get to a happy medium which combines all the benefits of freelance with the security and engagement of being part of a team. That’s where the process of remote collaboration comes in. If you could be part of a great company but also work on your own specific schedule, whenever and wherever it was most convenient for you, that would likely increase motivation, productivity, as well as company loyalty, right? Data compiled from numerous studies, articles, and whitepapers suggest that it would.

We have you covered

With SharePlus from Infragistics you get the benefits of remote and flexible work with your team by mobilizing your SharePoint investment. Improve your organization’s collaboration instantly in the simplest, most cost-effective way. Your teams from across the globe as well as locally can access multiple file sources and content from on-premises and in the Cloud, enabling them to share, organize, and work together wherever they need to. Set up a custom mobile workspace for specific projects and share and store important content where everyone can see it. Build and manage projects remotely, work collaboratively with colleagues from two seats down to two time zones away.

As we move to increasingly more flexible ways of getting our work done, your business needs solutions that will allow you to stay ahead of your competition. Whether you are a team of freelancers operating out of a digital office, a traditional ‘brick and mortar’ company, or a combination of both, SharePlus allows you to stay connected and securely collaborate from anywhere at any time. Customize your workspace and how you work by mobilizing your business practices; reduce the cost of IT infrastructure, boost productivity and gain a significant ROI.

To find out more about how Infragistics can help your business move into the future and mobilize your business practices, visit us now. Or, for a free trial of our SharePlus mobile collaboration tool click here.