Working smatter and currents technology trends are playing an important role in how people work in offices. Technology controlling how people work in offices be it video conferencing, controlling temperature, keeping a check on employees and having an office that recognizes you.
Our ancestors didn’t work the way we work today and they would be shocked if the woke up today and find out how we work. Rome is the home of offices among many other inventions and before that many tasks were carried out in personal homes. Daily accounting, house tasks, and paperwork were carried out by clerks who were employed by homeowners. In the 1726 century, the most dedicated buildings meant for offices were built in Britain. It was built for the royal family. It still exists today and it is now referred to as Ripley Building. Although it has been renovated for sometimes, its offices, lords rooms, and staterooms are still intact. East India house built in 1729 was another great multipurpose office built. With the rise of bureaucracy which was complex because of the long-distance trade with Asia and India. The offices were characterized by working long hours and many employees were not happy with the office making them depressed and even some could commit suicide. The 20th century is marked with the birth of an open office plan. It had poor air conditioning, lighting and workers sat on their desks in rows while their managers kept an eye on them. Later these officers were replaced by ‘socially democratic’ offices in countries like the Netherlands and Germany due to activists who were fighting for their employees.
There are many types of offices depending on the needs they are fulfilling. They could be, Leased offices to be used for a certain period of a contract you agree with the owner. A rental office is another type where you can rent on a monthly bases. Others include home office, co-working space, and Virtual office.
With the rise of technology, many offices will now be like smart homes, self-controlling lighting, appliances which help in sustainable energy consumption. The offices will now be more comfortable for many employees and productive for many businesses who aimed to make profits. While the smart offices are the way to go, it may be a bit complicated because it aimed at making high revenues, uses a lot of data and has complex communication flow. How will smart offices apply technology?
Internet-of-Things in smart offices
IoT will help to interconnect many office devices for real-time transfer and process of data automatically. This interconnection technology of devices will make office life easy by changing how workers relate with their customers through messaging platforms, mobile apps and scheduling of duties.
PiPA BroadSource
This is the coolest system that can use your mobile data to provide a real-time presence in the office. It uses the hardware sensors of a smartphone to record the behavior of the user around the office like movements, locations, orientation, calender, and proximity to indicate whether you are around the office.
Smarter conferencing
There are many conferencing technologies nowadays and now the next step is to make them real-time and efficient using virtual reality and recognition solutions. This helps show who is talking, adjust audio and video automatically, start meetings, invite intended attendees only, switch to the relevant speaker and can change the theme of the room.
A very good example of such an office is the Deloitte office building in Amsterdam. The office has an app that can schedule your daily activities, assign you your favorite desk, help you control the lighting and heat. It can recognize your bike and car and guide around the office parking.
Technology AI and IoT are making smart offices transition real. Soon all offices building may be connected making office work smart and efficient. The process may be at its infancy but we need to wait and see how far it will go.