Make Your Workplace More Productive With These 5 Tech Tools

Offices used to be about bland cubicles, fax machines, and Rolodexes. Now they are all about getting the job done. Offices used to be about hierarchies and rigid structures, now they are about getting the job done and maximizing productivity. Managers are breaking down doors, sometimes literally to increase transparency. Leading the way in this revolution is a slew of tech tools that have transformed the workplace.

1- Slack

When emails were invented, they were considered a blazing breakthrough. They signaled a seismic shift in communication. No more writing letters, no more stamps. Fast forward to 2018 and emails, though ubiquitous, have become the bane of every executive. Open your phone in the morning and you have a hundred or so emails.

Enter Slack, the new workplace communication tool. Instead of shooting an email for every trivial task, just send your co-workers a message through slack. You are engaged with your co-workers in real time even if they are a continent and five time zones away. Slack is about to have its IPO this year and it's one of the hottest, most anticipated public offerings of the decade.

2- Zoom

In a world where traditional ways of working are being challenged every day, today flexibility and autonomy are valued above all else. According to some estimates, a sizable percentage of the workforce will work remotely in the coming years. Add this to the sizable shift in mobile devices and suddenly traditional workplace hierarchies are getting upended.

Zoom, unlike other apps, uses the digital to enhance the physical. It fosters a sense of community between offices that are miles or oceans apart. Here employees can have seamless interactions with clients, co-workers, through a bevy of devices such as phones, laptops, tablets, conference rooms.

The technology is so impressive that you feel like you are in the same room and are separated only by a TV screen.The technology is designed in such a way that even in poor bandwidth you don't suffer a breakdown in communications. Zoom aims to truly integrate the workplace through chat, videos, messaging, etc. Its all about creating a more dynamic workflow that enhances productivity and gets the most out of your employees.

3- JAMF

JAMF, you might know it as Casper Suite, creates management software meant exclusively for Apple systems. It is geared towards large scale enterprises and education oriented environments. JAMF’s goal is to create a better workplace environment. It includes a suite of applications which can be used to create packages for deployment, access to client machines, imaging and enrollment. It also includes applications for the end user. The goal here is to bring a whole host of Apple machines under management.

Now you can see all sorts of information regarding the devices under your management such as hardware information, software information, user and location data. You can then group them to make managing them that much simpler. You can then deploy things like email configurations, passcode and security configurations to clients and users. You can even deploy packages such as apps, software updates, etc at your discretion. The great thing is here is that the organization still retains ownership even after deploying said updates.

4- OnTheClock

Factory workers and all sorts of other employees had punch cards, we have OnTheClock. After all when an employee signs in can be indicative of a number of things such as his commitment to the workplace, keeping track of how long you work. It even determines how much you get paid, your overtime allowances, your end of the year bonuses.

If an employee is about to be canned then one of the more significant reasons would be that he or she was rarely on time. In an era of evolving workplace norms, coming to the office on time is still considered a time-honored practice. OnTheClock, can track employees at a wide variety of locations and hold them accountable. You can even provide this info to payroll services. OnTheClock is available on the web, iOS, and Android devices.

So these are just a small number of apps that are shaking up the workplace. Keep an eye out for OnTheClock, it feels like a winner.

5- DigiCert

The cornerstone of any business is trust. When a customer pays you for goods or a service, he trusts you will come through in delivering said goods or services. But in the digital world where anonymity brings out the worst in certain individuals.

So how do you feel safe while making online transactions, how do you hold the person on the other end accountable? Digicert aims to remove that ambiguity by using what is called an SSL certificate. These keys comprise two keys a public key and a private key, which when combined establish an encrypted connection. Sounds something out of a fantasy book right.

Two keys when combined shall unleash encryption that will protect you on your quest. But Digicert has been used to encrypt everything from credit card transactions to login data. It is even making meaningful strides in IoT or Internet of Things which as you know will be huge in the coming years. The technology is reliable, scalable and extremely fast. All hallmarks of a digital product on the rise.

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