Digital innovation is fundamentally changing our workplace. As more businesses become increasingly digital, maintaining a mobile workforce is crucial to remaining competitive, not just locally but even on a global scale.

This is how we envision the future of work: an environment that allows employees to collaborate and be productive anywhere in real time.

This digital shift is true not just for us at Globe, but for other local companies as well. I have previously read a study stating that at least 79% of employees in the Philippines consider themselves to be mobile workers, spending a fifth of their time working outside of their offices.

Given the present-day realities of business, this kind of flexibility is not just desirable but is essential. Flexible and productive, a digital workforce is able to adapt easily to today’s disruptive technology.

The First Step is Always the Hardest

The initial phase of rolling out new technology and convincing employees to embrace change is always the hardest challenge to hurdle. We experienced the same when we began our out-of-office initiative in 2013.

At that time, we shifted from running office applications on on-premise servers to G Suite, a cloud-based solution that offers a wide range of wireless data platforms.

Some employees have either become accustomed to the traditional face-to-face set-up or were simply intimidated by new technological tools. Resistance eventually gave way to acceptance, as they found that the new set-up allowed them more flexibility and greater space for collaboration.

Cybersecurity Issues with a Digital Workforce

The introduction of cloud-powered software at the workplace frees up time to work and collaborate on other tasks. However, as our reliance on mobile devices increases, so does the need to secure data and minimize cybersecurity risks.

According to an Avast press release back in 2017, there was a 40% increase in mobile cyberattacks worldwide, from 1.2 million (Q2 2016) to 1.7 million (Q2 2017) attacks per month. These security threats are increasing in frequency and scale as more users carry valuable data in their smartphones or other portable devices.

A digital workforce faces at least two security issues—what employees bring into the business environment and what employees take out of it. Employees may pick up malware or viruses even as they are logged in to the company network. They may also inadvertently expose confidential information with a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) scheme. A wrong move could send millions down the drain as illustrated in my previous article, which is why companies should always take proactive steps in maintaining security.

For our employees, taking the digital leap meant a more efficient and secure manner of doing tasks and the ability to work anytime, anywhere. For Globe, this allowed us to be more cost efficient and reliable, affording us the opportunity for continuous innovation.

Without incurring additional expenses, we are able to enjoy data migration capabilities for all common legacy systems while Google continues to add new functions without the need for system updates, patches, or downtime. Our corporate data remains safe with a network that is engineered for security, reliability, and redundancy.

Better Data, Better Decisions

Part of our efforts to cement our digital transformation was to adopt, and eventually offer, GoCanvas, a platform for creating and editing mobile forms and applications that integrates service functionalities.

GoCanvas has helped us automate our office processes, allowing us to capture real-time information such as e-signatures, images, GPS, barcodes, and QR codes electronically on a smartphone or tablet and send it to customers or colleagues in seconds. This eliminated the need for paper and manual processes, which can be tedious and prone to human error, improving workflows and providing Globe with cost savings.

We have come to think of GoCanvas as a reliable data collector that has enabled us, as well as our customers, to become mobile heroes. With no coding required, we conveniently use GoCanvas for processes such as event registrations, promo sign-ups, employee service unit liquidation, and application filing—tasks that could have taken longer if done manually through paper.

The convenience it provides is just the icing on the cake. It is the data we gather that makes all the difference. GoCanvas’ advanced features such as its built-in calculations enable us to analyze information for both business and customer insights. With better data, we come up with better decisions.

Digital Consumers First

Any telecommunications service provider worth its salt cannot afford to ignore the gains in mobile technology. The transformation that we as a company had to undergo was unavoidable to future-proof our business. The goal was clear from the onset: to deliver more for our digital customers, we had to start with enhancing the mobility of our own pool of employees. We had to become digital consumers as well.

Given the increasingly mobile business environment, the proof of the pudding is, indeed, in the eating. Since all our employees at Globe are digital consumers, too, it only makes sense that they be the first to use and experience the products we offer.

By remaining digitally agile and secure, we extend the same peace of mind to our customers who are assured of systems that protect their confidential information. In the end, we not only provide them with data privacy and security, we also optimize the way they do business by empowering them to harness the inevitable digital changes.

Interested to learn more about our products and solutions? Arrange a consultation with a Globe Business Advisor today.