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The Office of Us: Empowerment through Productivity

In the first place…

Productivity matters to small (1-99 employees) businesses. A LOT. When you don’t have many people,

you need each of them to ‘wear many hats’ – to act in many different roles, to succeed in working with

customers, with suppliers, with partners and other important influencers, with each other. It’s no wonder

that Techaisle’s global survey of small businesses found that “improving workforce productivity” is a

top priority for 50% of small businesses.

Most small businesses can draw a very direct line connecting productivity with technology – and

especially, mobile technology. When survey respondents were asked about the role that technology

plays in their businesses, three out of every five small businesses stated that their key objective in

using technology was to improve employee productivity. And the ‘many hats’ reality of small business

shone through other leading responses: Small businesses consider technology to be essential in

achieving a higher level of responsiveness to customer needs, improving internal communications

and empowering successful employees.

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Small Business Productivity: technologies that matter

Unlike large enterprises that have the financial and staff resources to try many different solutions in

search of incremental gains, small business executives need to focus on approaches that deliver real

advantages with rapid payback periods. Longer-term strategies are important, too – but these visions

need to be assembled out of piece parts that each deliver real and immediate benefits.

Techaisle’s survey of small

businesses identified two ‘best

bets’ for small business owners who

are looking to use technology to

boost productivity: mobility and

cloud. Five of the top seven benefits

that small businesses obtain from

cloud – increased collaboration,

increased operational agility, more

productive IT and business staff,

and mobile enablement – touch

directly on issues that are

important to small business

productivity.

And the mobility story is even

stronger: one of the top two

“most important” benefits of

mobility is that it provides new

opportunities to improve

employee productivity, and the

other top-four responses –

“mobility enables employees to

work any time, anywhere and

from any device,” “mobility

provides new ways of engaging

with customers” and “mobility

enables new ways of engaging

with partners and suppliers” –

all touch on issues that are

critical to productivity…and to small business owners.

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Dealing with the challenges

If identifying the best areas of focus is of critical importance to small business management, so too is

identification of likely challenges associated with new technology investments. Each small business has

its own capacity for managing change, and its own appetite for risk. Small businesses need a clear picture

not just of the potential associated with new solutions but also of the potholes that can make the path

forward rough, or even unnavigable.

The challenges that small businesses have experienced in supporting a mobile workforce provide

detailed insight into the obstacles that they will need to surmount to obtain productivity gains from

technology. Several of the challenges relate to security or data management: ensuring compliance (as a

result of having corporate data accessed and distributed by multiple distributed devices); network,

application and data protection and security; and mobile device management. Other issues relate to core

IT business functions, including management of total cost of ownership (TCO) and identifying solution

and service providers. And one of the greatest challenges is integration – but this is also a key to gaining

maximum productivity benefit from mobility.

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Best options for small business productivity: the ‘office of us’

In industry circles, PCs, smartphones and tablets are often referred to as “personal productivity devices,”

viewed as enabling an individual to work more efficiently. But a recent trend towards unified workspace

challenges this assumption. Unified workspace technologies connect devices into a coherent office

environment. This is especially important for small businesses that have a limited number of employees

‘pitching in’ to handle a wide range of responsibilities. Technology empowers each individual to generate

orders and invoices, handle administrative tasks and communicate with current and prospective

customers – but unified workspaces that are built from integrated technology deliver accelerated returns

on these activities, making sure that tasks aren’t duplicated and that all team members have access to

current information.

The first is the starting point for Unified Workspace – why adopt the technology? Application upgrades,

support for BYOD and CYO devices, and support for applications that are outside the core IT ‘stack’, as

well as the need to support multi-location, remote and travelling staff members – that is directly linked

to productivity.

There is a strong link between unified workspace and productivity. Techaisle research found that a

unified workspace supports majority of daily tasks of an employee and is a key factor in driving

productivity.

The research also shows that enabling mobility and cloud and providing for security is at the top of a

small business unified solution evaluation list.

From promise to performance

What is the key to translating the promise of unified workspace into the reality of better productivity?

Techaisle’s research uncovers a straightforward path: start with the PC, and embrace collaboration.

The PC: At the core of the Office of Us

When asked why he robbed banks, notorious thief Willie Sutton famously replied “because that’s where

the money is.” The rationale for starting the IT path to productivity with the PC is similar: the PC is where

the work gets done. Organizations need to take the time to understand the ways that PCs are and can be

used within their business processes, and then invest in current-generation technology that build in

advanced functionality. These firms can embrace agile and mobile work styles that are attuned to the

realities of today’s business world, and which attract – and capitalize on – ‘digital native’ staff members

who have applied technology solutions to challenges in all aspects of their lives.

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Older PCs diminish employee productivity. When improving employee productivity is among the top

business priorities of small business it is natural to assume that the businesses explore all options to

achieve their priorities. However, in the daily grind of work sometimes productivity improvement

solutions staring in the face get overlooked. One such important opportunity is replacing older PCs with

new PCs to avoid number of hours lost due to downtime, slow performance, inability to efficiently work

from anywhere, anytime with any data. Techaisle’s global survey shows that small businesses using

newer PCs have felt several positive impacts including employee and business productivity

Collaboration – the foundation of “us”

Once capable core PC systems are deployed to users across the organization, and complemented by

technologies (such as tablets and smartphones) that extend mobile functionality, small businesses can

move on to collaboration, which enables productive individuals to form agile high-performance teams.

Techaisle’s research has found that high-performing small businesses display attitudes that emphasize

collaboration as a core business attribute: these firms support innovation and risk taking, encourage

cross-functional teamwork, and invest in collaboration technology to enable face-to-face meetings, both

as a feature of mobility and through sophisticated virtual presence applications that rely on both

powerful PCs and cloud-based applications. These firms reap important, tangible benefits from their

‘office of us’ approach: survey respondents report that collaboration technology yields faster decision

making and better overall productivity.

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The straight line

In small business, the best approach to new technology is almost always a straight line: a direct

connection that links a business drive, a well-defined solution and a target outcome, and which includes

selection guidance that small business executives can use to avoid mis-steps in the journey.

The ‘office of us’ meets this straight-line definition. The drivers – a need to ‘do more with less’ while

keeping pace with changes in the market’ – are well understood by anyone who is responsible for a small

business. The solution, which starts with current, capable PCs and expands into collaboration systems, is

built from technologies that are well proven. The guidance, which focuses on addressing security and

management issues, highlights factors that need to be considered during the evaluation and roll-out of

new capabilities. And the target outcome, better productivity, is at the top of every small business’ list of

critical objectives.

Small businesses have many challenges and limited resources. The Office of Us gives small business

executives an opportunity to reap real, tangible benefits through employee empowerment.

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Techaisle is a global SMB IT Market Research and Industry Analyst organization. Techaisle was founded

on the premise that Go-to-Market strategies require insightful research, flexible data, and deeper

analysis. Understanding the value of data consistency across markets to inform strategic planning,

Techaisle has remained holistic in its approach to Insights and provides globally consistent SMB and

Channels analysis across geographies. To achieve its objectives Techaisle conducts surveys with SMBs

and channels to understand market trends, opportunities, buying behavior, purchase intent, and IT

priorities. Besides covering emerging technologies such as SMB cloud computing, managed services,

mobility, social media usage, virtualization, business intelligence, big data, collaboration, networking its

channel research coverage provides in-depth understanding of resellers and channel partners globally.

Techaisle’s insights are built on a strong data-driven foundation and its analysts are conversant with

both primary research and industry knowledge, which is a rare combination. Techaisle offers its clients:

Syndicated Research, Custom Primary Research, Consulting Engagement, Competitive Intelligence, and

Segmentation. For more information, visit www.techaisle.com

About Techaisle

Contact:

Ph: 408-4597751

5053 Doyle Rd, Suite 105, San Jose, CA 95129

www.techaisle.com

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