7 Reasons why Agile Systems are perfect for the Modern Workplace

1. The flexibility of agile IT systems is unrivalled: Microsoft Office 365 provides a stable foundation that can be used by your licensed users from any location they desire. In the present, this is a necessity, as the government’s guidance has asked workers to revert to remote work where possible.

MO365 gives businesses flexibility, though. When the time comes for entire workforces to return to the office, a new IT system won’t be required. No, continuity will be ensured – whether employees are working from home, the office or even a coffee shop. This gives it a huge advantage over other types of IT systems.

2. Save money in the long run: By moving to the Cloud and flexible systems, you are investing in stable systems that can help your company to plan for the long-term. This eliminates the requirement to splash out on expensive on-premises systems at your office. As energy bills and costs look set to rise in 2022, this is an area of huge importance for businesses to get ahead of.

Instead, you are able to subscribe to cheaper, but more powerful Cloud computing options, of which Microsoft is one.

3. The Cloud: The ‘save’ options made available by the Cloud are revolutionary for businesses who have not utilised them in any way to date. Gone are the days of duplicated documents, emailing attachments or having to request a colleague to send across a certain file. No, with the Cloud, users have access to allotted areas of a shared ecosystem.

Which areas they can access depends upon their privileges and needs to fulfil their job role. It means that the entire business, as well as individual teams, has a shared workspace – even if everyone is working at a distance.

4. Productivity increase: In turn, this leads to a productivity increase. Teams can work efficiently on projects simultaneously with the help of the Cloud. With communication maintained through applications like Microsoft Teams, departments can maintain or increase their work productivity levels, despite the adversity many have undergone.

As an example, Neuways’ Support Team was sent to work from home during the dawn of the pandemic in March 2020. Since then, the team has managed to maintain its fantastic rate of meeting 100% of Service Level Agreements (SLAs) agreed with customers. In addition to this, the Customer Satisfaction Rating rose to 98%. This helped prove that the team were more than capable of maintaining the high level of service that they provide Neuways customers with – and that properly implemented flexible systems work.

5. Safe data backups: Another benefit of Cloud-based technology is the way data is backed up. The Cloud’s capacity for data backup gives unrivalled access to data for employees, as it can be accessed from anywhere by those with the correct privileges.

Disaster Recovery as a Service, (DRaaS), from Neuways ensures any backed up data is ready to be used whenever required. Regular saves ensure that customers do not have to worry about their backed-up files, with photos proving successful backups are being taken every hour. In the event of an outage or sudden loss of files, a business can access their restored data and files with ease and get back to work – even if Microsoft are hit by ransomware, a data centre outage or any other disaster.

6. Voice over Internet Protocol: VoIP, as it is better known, is the future.  VoIP platforms, such as Business Voice, offer businesses a different way to stay in touch. By using an internet connection to make calls, rather than traditional phone lines, it allows the user to make calls directly from any device, such as a mobile, tablet and laptop, among others.

Lots of businesses have made the switch to VoIP since the start of the pandemic. Leaving the office left traditional Private Branch Exchange (PBX) phone lines effectively redundant. This is down to the fact that PBX phone systems are powered by hard-wired lines, laid at a business’ office and cannot be used outside of the office.

In the meantime, the likes of Microsoft Teams stepped in to help out. Teams gave businesses a way to communicate internally and externally, as it worked to give colleagues a way to engage others in audio, video and text-based chat. VoIP is an extension of that and gives extra functionality for businesses which require it.

7) Things can only improve: The Modern Workplace as we knew it before 2020 looked very different to how it does in the present day. Many organisations scrambled when the order to work from home arrived in March 2020, and have been playing catch-up ever since. By now, most will understand the rigours of hybrid working, having worked out the kinks and challenges offered by a different way of working.

But for those who have struggled, know this: things can only get better. By investigating the problems you have encountered as a business, and talking to business IT experts, you can get the help you need.