Nowadays, it’s odder not to utilize technology in the office environment. This, if
anything, only makes it more important for you to embrace the proper technology
that matches your office’s approach to the responsibilities and tasks of every
day. For this week’s tip, we’ll look at a few reasons why you may want to make
laptops the office’s standardized device.
Mobility
Of course, the main advantage of utilizing a
laptop is the fact that you can move about with it, able to bring your
productivity from place to place - something that certainly can’t be replicated
conveniently with a desktop. When did you last try to hoist an entire
workstation down the hall for a meeting?
My money’s on never.
For related reasons, business travel is much
simpler when the traveler in question has a laptop that they can bring with
them very easily, regardless of their method of travel. By virtue of their
size, a desktop computer would need to be either stowed away or shipped ahead
of time. Not only is there the chance of it sustaining damage via either of
these options, you are also sacrificing the use of the device (and any
potential productivity you may have had) until you reclaim it. On the other
hand, a laptop can come with you. Airport security screenings aside, including
a laptop in your carry-on luggage is just more convenient, and far more secure.
The growing mobility of today’s businesses
makes the laptop the more sensible option.
Consistency
Let’s face it - your employees likely have
their own devices that they could also use if their mobility was a
consideration, which would more-or-less eliminate the need for further
organizational investment for mobile devices if you instead enacted a Bring
Your Own Device policy. However, you may still want to provide them with a
laptop for their work purposes for the sake of uniformity.
Look at it this way - you have no guarantee
that an employee’s personal device is capable of working with the solutions
your business utilizes, or that it is capable of everything that your
operations will require of it. Let’s say you want to use a two-factor
authentication measure to enable your staff to sign into your encrypted data
with their thumbprint. If an employee’s device doesn’t have a thumbprint
scanner, they’re pretty much out of luck.
However, if you standardize the devices that
your business utilizes, you can ensure that everyone is on even footing. In
fact, depending on the general level of computing in your business, you could
find that you could save a bit of money by procuring pretty basic laptops, with
the addition of specialized solutions for those who need them.
Concision
Of course, some business leaders with the
requisite funds might assume that it makes sense to provide each employee with
two devices: a desktop for the office, and a laptop for home and travel.
However, there are some issues with this course of action, beyond the financial
impracticalities.
First, there’s the fact that it becomes that
much more difficult to be sure that an employee will have the resources they
need, as they need them. How would you feel if you sat down at your desktop and
realized that a key component to what you were about to do was back home on
your laptop? Granted, a cloud solution could effectively remove this issue from
consideration, but why spend the extra money on a second device when one can do
everything that an employee needs it to do?
Emerge is here to help you determine your IT needs and implement the right solutions in your business. If you’re ready to boost your productivity, reach out to us at 859-746-1030!