The mobile app ecosystem has millions of applications and billions of downloads. This has led businesses to integrate apps as part of the organization to improve their workflow, but it has been a struggle.
Small Business Technology Challenges
The first edition of FileMaker’s Workplace Innovation Report concludes as much, stating 94% of businesses struggle with their existing apps and software. An almost equal number or 95% also struggle with technology designed to address their business problems.
FileMaker is calling the collection of symptoms affecting organizations ‘Work Rut’. This includes everything from spending time on error-prone manual processes and administrative tasks to disparate data sources and off-the-shelf apps.
For small businesses who are not in the technology industry, these data points ring very true. And the solution to these problems is being solved with the adoption of Workplace Innovation Platforms (WIP).
In the press release for the report, Ann Monroe, vice president of worldwide marketing and customer success at FileMaker, Inc., addressed the impact of work rut in the workplace.
Monroe said, “A work rut occurs when teams exhaust or outgrow the capabilities of their appliance apps or enterprise systems, resulting in stalled progress and frustrated employees.”
Monroe adds a WIP allows organizations to escape the work rut and focus on the innovation and growth of their business.
Before and After the Adoption of Workplace Innovation Platforms
In addition to struggling with their technology, existing applications, and software 96% of business also said they have a problem with their businesses processes.
Some of these problems include filesharing (72%) and wrestling with information living in disparate sources (85%).
These two problems go hand-in-hand because if an organization can’t find the information it needs, it won’t be able to share it. For people working within this environment, this means they will have to spend more time looking instead of being productive.
If businesses choose to adopt WIP, the numbers improve across the board. In the survey, 85% of business users saved time, while 67% of them said they increased employee satisfaction.
More than 3 in 4 or 77% of businesses also created more efficient processes for their mobile workforce. As remote and freelance workers increase in number, an efficient mobile ecosystem is essential. Finding the information they need quickly and efficiently brings everyone in the organization on the same page.
With overall improvement in the workplace, 41% said it also translated to increased customer satisfaction.
The Survey
FileMaker started the Workplace Innovation Platform survey in January 2019. The research was conducted by Macadamian Technologies Inc.
Although the survey included companies with up to 1000+ employees, the vast majority or 48% had 5 to 49 employees. Another 20% had 50 to 199 employees, with the rest of the respondents having 200 to 1,000+ employees.
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