Tech has always been a great enabler and now so more than ever. Helping us get things done so quickly and seamlessly that we are now being held back only by the limits of our own imagination and motivation, technology is currently advancing productivity in all manner of new ways and places…
What would you do if you wanted to know when Google was incorporated?
Well, you’d Google it. Obviously.
What you might not realise is though, is that we’ve only been able to do that – Google things that is – for 20 years. Just 20 years. Which makes you think. What did we do before? And not just without Google, but any number of the ‘basics’ that we now take for granted?
Skype? Cloud computing? Mobility? Never heard of them. If you weren’t in the office or at home you were nowhere. Or nowhere you could be reached anyway.
How times have changed. In fact, with the innovations now boosting flexibility, agility and scalability in all manner of new ways, productivity is very nearly becoming a way of life for many people. Here are just eight of them:
- Chatbots
Where customer experiences were long compromised by convoluted phone menus and other-call-centre frustrations, chatbots are having a massive impact; answering FAQs, ordering products and services, providing tech support and so on.
- Workforce connectivity
Whether working from home, on the road, or dialling in from another country, workforces are better connected and equipped than they have ever been thanks not just to fast, robust internet connectivity, but a range of cloud services too.
- Time management
Where processes like goal progress, project management, and time tracking used to be perennial management headaches, productivity and collaboration platforms are making them easier and easier.
- Enhanced communication and collaboration
From major stakeholders to sales teams, from accounting to HR, every business function can now stay on the same page in real time thanks to a growing array of software and hardware based collaboration tools. Minimising errors and delays, and maximising productivity and margin, such tools are gaining huge traction.
- Instant expertise
Outsourcing and contracting are giving companies a means by which to scale their teams and their knowledge pools – and therefore their agility and profitability – on demand.
- Greater focus
With the temptations of social media, online shopping and so on continuing to prove professional distractions, focus tools such as Pomodoro timers and site blockers like SelfControl are growing enormously in popularity.
- Multi-channel, multi-metric marketing
“I know 50% of may advertising works, I just don’t know which 50%.” Not any longer. Thanks to today’s martech palette delivering the audiences businesses want and need to reach, the marketing game has changed forever.
- AI: less work, more value
From chatbots (see 1) to self-service apps, automation and AI are playing an increasingly key role across almost every facet of business, driving speed and efficiency, streamlining the customer journey, and helping organisations refocus expert resource where it is needed most.
Could one of these areas spawn a category that we’ll be talking about in 20 years-time in the same way we talk about Google now? Who knows. But there’s every chance.
