1. More businesses will make redundancies in order to cut overhead costs

Businesses must stay ahead in this competitive world, and will crack down on staff in terms of inefficiency and unnecessary overhead costs. Outsourcing to freelancers removes the requirement for an office space and full-time employees. It also promotes the shift towards a ‘digital office space’.

2. An increase in remote working due to easily accessible technology

Remote working is a great way to attract digital workers in a competitive market. There are no limitations to what staff can do as long as they have remote access to the necessary tools. Flexible working improves productivity as it cuts down stressful commuting, whilst giving people more free time to spend with their families. Moreover, companies benefit from having the ability to hire talented employees available anywhere at any time instead of being restrained to hire locally.

>See also: The right side of disruption: why digital transformation is the new kingmaker

3. Offices will extend opening times in order to satisfy 24-hour culture

It’s as important to think about employees as much as your customers. A business that allows some flexibility in terms of work timings will have an engaged workforce. There’s an increasing number of consumers demanding real-time responses, and businesses will have to do away with the nine-to-five structure and mould their timings in order to accommodate them.

4. Business boundaries continue to expand

Digital technology does not stop at functional or organisational boundaries. In fact, it allows businesses to turn themselves into global organisations. Digitally transformed business will be able to take advantage of global synergies while remaining local, and consequently scale faster.

5. Consumers will expect more responsive interactions

In the past, businesses worked on a one-way communication model where there was little or no interaction with customers. However, digital technologies have created change and people are more connected than ever before.

In 2017, organisations will change their model to manage the business and adjust to consumer demands as they want a more responsive and interactive environment. Moreover, consumers now expect all data stored about them to be targeted precisely to their needs or used to personalise what they experience. Business models that involve customers will ensure the improvement in product quality and the efficiency of service.

6. Businesses will find it easier to outsource services

Due to the technology and resources available, as well as the increasing trend of flexible working, outsourcing services have been on the rise. It has revolutionised the way businesses operate to match industry developments. Both small and large companies can benefit from outsourcing to increase their bandwidth, productivity and output as they can outsource various services on a long-term or adhoc basis.

7. Co-working spaces will continue to grow

In the past, every company had its own office where people gathered to work. Today, the global rise of shared workplaces and co-working spaces encourages staff to expand their professional connection as well as invest in personal connections that will boost creativity and benefit the business growth.

8. Agile working will become much more prominent

Adopting agile working is the key to innovation and surviving in a rapidly developing digital world – it’s about responding and adapting quickly rather being a rigid, structured business system.

Agility ensures feedback is gathered so that bugs are found and there’s room for continuous improvement. Projects are more flexible and it’s easier to control costs as the business will know exactly what can be accomplished and refine budgets throughout the project.

>See also: 4 intelligent elements of successful digital transformation

9. Training groups of people remotely will become easier than ever

Innovative and collaborative techniques encourage the use of digital platforms and allow remote working and training. With the rise in remote working, digital tools help enable employees to work smarter, not harder.

Tools revolutionise the workplace by increasing productivity, collaboration and improving communication so that employees are able to access documents from any device as well as be trained globally and virtually, anywhere and at any time.

10. An increase in video consumption

There have been significant changes in the way that media is produced, distributed, consumed and archived. We are becoming used to a world in which we can access almost any music or video instantly through our laptops or smartphones.

The attention-span of the younger generation is becoming harder to grasp through traditional channels. The increase in video streaming choices allows businesses to connect globally, removing the need to be in the same country to communicate.

Sourced from Sarra Bejaoui, client services and operations director, SmartPA