Business Services legal, consulting, real estate
CIOs and their teams have a key role to play facilitating the switch to hybrid working within the business services industry – digitising key systems and processes, providing a single, real-time project status and ensuring information is available to team members on any authorised device with network access.
Leveraging technology in this way allows distributed teams to streamline their workflow solutions, increase their efficiency and respond to their clients faster when working from home, resulting in an improved client experience.
Following the rise in hybrid working models, CIOs need to expedite new ways of working, including transitioning to the cloud. Not only does cloud remove the need to be physically present in the office to view a document, it also increases data security and secure document management thanks to complete data encryption and multi-factor authentication. Another major cloud benefit is that authorised team members can access mission-critical information from any device, at any time from any location. Here are three other sector specific IT solutions CIOs should consider.
1. Document management software
The days when firms stored their client data in storage rooms are long gone. The pandemic forced many older and traditional companies to start using document management software or move to cloud storage for easier communication and data sharing. Improving the way documents are handled, especially when working from home, is the key to the success of hybrid working. Easy access and excellent organisation eliminate the risks of any delays and ensure that important information is kept safe. Document management software usually includes digital collaboration tools that allow colleagues to edit documents together in real-time from a remote location.
2. Practice management software
Cloud-based practice management software has become a popular digital tool which allows real estate agents, law firms and consultants to manage their practices better. Timekeeping and billing software features allow firms to track and record time spent working on clients’ issues. This ability to track time electronically has resulted in huge time savings and increased billable hours, especially for those working from home. Remote employees no longer have to rely on administrative staff to manually enter their hours towards the end of the month. Practice management systems also provide a centralised system for managing tasks and meetings, billing and invoicing and conflict checking. Employees can easily use this software to manage their workflows, supervise their juniors and check the progress of a project without having to visit the office.
3. E-signature platforms
The modern alternative to the traditional signing of documents with paper and pen is e-signature software. This contains advanced cryptographic techniques to ensure authenticity, integrity and nonrepudiation of digitally signed documents. E-signature platforms are also cost-efficient as they eliminate the expense associated with printing, scanning and mailing documents to obtain a signature.
Speedy access to data
Efficient workflows are essential to maximise productivity within the business services sector. Freedom of data movement must come with checks and balances however to ensure sensitive data is protected. HP Intelligent Workflows, facilitates data sharing while enabling companies to track and analyse documents and processes as well as enforce compliance standards, provide audit information and document privacy and security.
Device selection tailored to the individual
There’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to hybrid working. The goal of the CIO and their team should be to ensure employees are equipped with the best device and software to fit their individual needs. Z by HP Workstations is a complete hardware and software solution to power the hybrid workforce. It enables employees to power through the heaviest workloads with high-performance workstation laptops, desktops, displays and solutions. From data analysis and visualisation to real-time rendering, 3D design and animation – Z by HP Workstations drive the heaviest professional workflows.
Meetings with presence
Hybrid teams may not always be able to have a spontaneous huddle or ideas session so virtual alternatives need to be as slick as possible. HP Presence is a suite of scalable, bundled options with hardware and services for meeting spaces of any size. It works with Zoom and Microsoft Teams rooms, interacting intuitively with users to provide an intelligent meeting experience and deliver useful real-time analytics back to IT.
1 MyCase, “2021 Legal Report” https://www.mycase.com/reports/industry-report/
