Techblog
Anytime, Anywhere Information Work is the new normal
Chen Wei Li, business owner of a social content marketing agency called Kontagious, shares his thoughts on how the new trend of Anytime, Anywhere Information Work is changing the business landscape and how a SaaS application like ONEOffice can benefit his company and many others.
Guest blog by Chen Wei Li
In the 2013 Mobile Workforce Adoption Trends report published by Forrester, it states that one of the three trends to emerge in 2013 is that "Anytime, Anywhere Information Work" will be the new normal.
Anytime, Anywhere Information Workers are people defined by Forrester as those who use three or more devices, work from multiple locations and use many apps for their work. The number of such workers around the world has risen from 23% of the global workforce in 2011 to 29% in 2013.
In addition, Forrester estimated that by 2017 there will be an estimated 905 million tablets in use for work and home globally.
This was the key takeaway for me during Singtel and Google Singapore's joint workshop for SMEs on 20 August that introduced ONEOffice, a suite of web-based office solutions comprising of email, calendar, and document services by Google. With some add-ons, you can also enhance your communication with customers using eSMS and eFax services.
As a social content marketing agency that collaborates with many freelancers, Kontagious is no stranger to the concept of Anytime, Anywhere Information Work. The very nature of Kontagious’ business allows project managers and its stakeholders to work on the go without being confined to the office table. A freelance writer covering an assignment can be filing his story in a cozy coffee house while the photographer can be editing and filing his photos from home.
The best part is that Anytime, Anywhere Information Work is not limited to specific industries - it is increasingly widespread across diverse types of occupations. As Singapore has the highest Internet penetration rate in South East Asia, it would not be surprising if many employees here are also Anytime, Anywhere Information Workers as well.
Looking at it this way, if you have, at one point in your career, used your personal phone to send a work email or view files on a tablet, you automatically fit the profile of an Anytime, Anywhere Information Worker.
To do Anytime, Anywhere Information work, businesses rely heavily on cloud-based applications to access their documents. This is where ONEOffice comes into the picture. With its cloud-based applications like the user-friendly Gmail and Google Drive, the core objective of ONEOffice is to streamline business operations like communications and collaboration.
Using my agency as an example, I can use Google Drive, ONEOffice's cloud-based data storage solution and let my project stakeholders access project work anywhere and anytime.
Mine was not the only company that operates this way.
At the Singtel-Google workshop, I got to know of Lee Kwok Yong, business owner of Focus Point Image, which specializes in videography for large-scale events.
Lee was interested in signing up for ONEOffice because it will help to speed up his project deliveries. He sees tremendous value in getting his video edits quickly done and easily accessible on the go.
You see, as business owner and project manager, Lee's work involves collaborating with videography freelancers on video projects. This requires a lot of collaboration and communication between the two parties, especially because video projects require ample client feedback and rapid turnaround time. Moreover, because video file sizes are large, it takes a long time to send and receive multiple video edits. Using Google Drive to store and edit these video files means that both Lee and his freelancers save time from uploading and downloading files.
"ONEOffice's all-in-one solution means that I can manage from the communication aspect through to the file-sharing aspect with my client," Lee said, "it is much more convenient that using different email accounts and cloud storage solutions separately."
Also, the calendar feature in ONEOffice lets Lee sync up his schedules with his freelancers. Easy-to-use calenders like ONEOffice's Calendar are integral to smooth business operations. With Google Calendar, it lets Lee keep himself updated about his freelancers’ availability and delegate his work accordingly.
To conclude, Anytime, Anywhere Information Work is here to stay. For new business owners like Lee and myself, it's hard not to see the tremendous value in a cloud-based solution like One Office, which helps Anytime, Anywhere.
If you are a business owner reading this, take this advice from your peer and do some research on cloud-based solutions to see how it can help your business. Singtel myBusiness has some useful resources like Cost-saving tips with cloud computing and How cloud computing meets SME needs that you can read up on.
You can also find more information about ONEOffice here at Singtel myBusiness.