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Future Office.2

The document discusses the evolution of the modern virtual office. It describes how new technologies allow employees to work remotely and track each other's availability and locations. Intelligent workspaces can also sense when employees return to their cubicles and alert others. Offices are becoming more comfortable with amenities like ergonomic chairs and couches. Advances in communication technologies mean employees can collaborate and conduct business from anywhere through tools like Skype, social media, and language translators. The modern office is adapting to allow knowledge workers to be more flexible, mobile and productive.

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Maja Francisco
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83 views1 page

Future Office.2

The document discusses the evolution of the modern virtual office. It describes how new technologies allow employees to work remotely and track each other's availability and locations. Intelligent workspaces can also sense when employees return to their cubicles and alert others. Offices are becoming more comfortable with amenities like ergonomic chairs and couches. Advances in communication technologies mean employees can collaborate and conduct business from anywhere through tools like Skype, social media, and language translators. The modern office is adapting to allow knowledge workers to be more flexible, mobile and productive.

Uploaded by

Maja Francisco
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The Cutting Edge Virtual Office

The time-space continuum is slowly shrinking, but millions of working individuals do not shirk away
from the multitude of tasks they would have to do inside and outside their office. The traditional
office environment is slowly being replaced by a more hip and cutting edge “virtual” office. Speed of
information and communication systems are now being given top priority for a high-performance
office. As the future business transactions becomes more oriented towards a virtual paperless
transaction, and as people acquire more mobility and flexibility in their work hours, the office of the
future would have to evolve.

BlueSpace, an office workspace created and innovated by IBM and Steelcase is one intelligent office
assistant. It senses, monitors and tracks the movements of indivuals working inside the cubicle. For
example, identity chips change colors when the BlueSpace cubicles senses that an employee has
gone back to her cubicle. This sends an instant message announcing the arrival and availability of
said employee to entertain and engage in tasks. In like manner, tracking devices and software such
as Foursquare allow co-workers and bosses to monitor and track the whereabouts and work
routines (i.e. work productivity) of employees.

Workspaces are also evolving. Office cubicles are sporting ergonomic workchairs and keyboards,
and large screened LCD monitors. Soft couches, coffee tables and coffee cups, with mini-
refrigerators or an office pantry provides a homey feeling conducive to relaxation. Built in outlets
for plugs and other devices, to ease of reach and in handling equipment such as printers, copiers and
fax machines. All these aim to provide comfort and less stress to the already stressful and fast-
paced life of an employee.

In the Internet, advances in social media and communications have allowed users and employees to
engage in work, have private meetings, close business deals and contact customers even outside
their office. Voip such as Skype and wifi have enabled employees to bring their contacts with them
wherever they go. Speech recognition and language translator devices have allowed many business
transactions to become global, catering to people from different cultures and backgrounds. Social
networking sites have paved the way for new marketing and advertising strategies to reach and
target specific customers, based on their specific needs, lifestyles, values and goals. Such advances
have eliminated barriers to communication and has speed up access to information. As such,
teamwork, cooperation and collaboration have been possible without the need for the physical
presence of co-workers.

Office work spaces now have become more covenient and comfortable for the office worker. As the
future becomes more knowledged-base, the office has been re-engineered to cater to basic human
factors.

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