Shaping the workplace of tomorrow

Consider the typical office space from two decades ago. Clunky computers, miles of cables running across the length of your workstation and armies of office assistants who would manually process so many of the administrative functions that are today taken care of by smart software.

Concepts of the cloud, internet of things and connected devices were alien in the office – that workplace landscape has now drastically changed.

It is now predicted that by 2020, 50 per cent of the workforce globally will work remotely without even going into an office. Their business will be conducted via cloud computing where they will be able to log in remotely onto their secure business networks.

For those who do work daily out of offices, there is expected to be plenty of technology that will aid their everyday operations. The smart office market is expected to be valued at $46.11bn by 2023, at a CAGR of 12.94 per cent between 2017 and 2023.

For example, artificial intelligence and machine learning can study the behaviour patterns of its employees and automatically take over mundane operations like adjusting the temperature of the office based on the number of employees present, playing music through the speaker in the reception area when guests walk in and adjust the lights of the conference room as employees shift between powerpoint presentations and group discussions.

Within the conference room and during team discussions, smart speakers will be able to pick up the chatter, summarise the key points of the discussion and then email the minutes of the meeting automatically to all those who attended.

Smart desks and chairs will be able to save user preferences (much like the memory seat function in your car) and will also be able to feed data to the office administration department as to when they are in use.

While there’s still some time to go for these devices to become ubiquitous, there are other devices that are already future-proofing our workplaces. Take for example, the Xerox Easy Translator App on the ConnectKey printers that can proofread and translate your document – feed in a document in English, and have it translated and printed in Arabic (or any of the other 40 languages available). If you’d like an audio version of a printed document, the Xerox Audio App can do that as well.

Read: Video: This Xerox printer can proofread and translate your document

At a recent event at Caesars Bluewater Island in Dubai, Xerox Emirates showcased some of that technology, apps and solutions that enables it to create these devices, including sharing information about its push towards 3D printing in the near future.

With smart devices relying on cloud services and connected to the internet, security of data and business operations is always a concern – a topic that was also discussed at the event. Xerox has teamed up with McAfee and Cisco to provide customers with a layer of security that will protect their data from theft and misuse.

The potential for smart office devices connected to the cloud are enormous and can have obvious benefits for employers and employees like reducing overhead costs, optimizing business output and streamlining operations. Get ready to step into your workplace of tomorrow, today.

Contact Xerox Emirates on [email protected]