Will the Digital World Be the Same Post Pandemic?
EK Ajeesh, CTS, Associate Director - Eyte Technologies Pvt Ltd.
Every year we sign New Year resolutions. During the start of 2020, no one could have ever imagined how the rest of the year would be. The severe impact of the current pandemic situation has not only affected individuals but corporates at large too.
EYTE interacted with many individual professionals and organizations for Post-Covid requirements in terms of technology and following are few challenges and changes that the industry is looking to address and find solutions to.
- Health, Safety and Security
Most corporates are concerned about employee’s safety, security and health. In fact, as per government directives health insurance will be made compulsory.
- Social Distancing and Office Space Requirement
Organizations are concerned about maintaining social distancing norms and finding ways to follow norms without major changes in the office space designs
- Distancing and Utilization of Public spaces
Meeting rooms, Cafeteria and other public spaces need solutions that can make offices touch free in terms of operating the equipment deployed.
Work from Home which is a major and immediate relief for organizations in the current situation, is gradually being made a norm. Addressing the challenge is the biggest requirement.
There are technological answers and solutions to address all the above, and if I say that the solutions to all of these existed with us for almost a decade now, then that won’t be wrong.
Health, Safety and Security Solutions
The health monitoring fit bits connected to your hand phones are being used by most of us for years. The digital temperature readers existed for decades. Now a combination of these IR based sensors with security cameras is giving us the most trending solution for health monitoring.
Many companies are offering cameras which can read your temperature easily at the entrance gates. These temperature sensing cameras, combined with mask detection and facial recognition is not only adding to security, attendance but also health monitoring. All the data can be cloud based and can be monitored.
The UV light cleaning, the UV light treatments of HVAC are also the added features in office facilities.
Social Distancing Solutions
Social distancing norms have emerged as a major challenge for existing offices. But to let you know, besides solutions from architects and workspace consultants to have physical large offices, there are technological ways to address the issue. Hot desking and asset management solutions are there for our rescue. The hot desking solutions and IOT sensors can not only identify the occupied spaces in any office and guide the employee to vacant locations which he can occupy, but also give real time utilization of spaces in terms of occupancy and energy consumption.
The app-based solutions enabling employees to book their seats in the particular zone with the team they belong to, aids in maintaining applicable social distancing norms.
This is is not limited to office space only; the asset management systems can also allow booking of meeting rooms. Scheduling a meeting through the app or your laptop can give you a touch free meeting experience, wherein all the devices can be scheduled to start at a given time without even a touch screen or voice command. Again, the real time energy consumption and utilization reports are added features.
Utilization of Public Spaces
Cafeterias are very crowded during lunch hours and this is a major cause of concern. Organizations will of course look at dividing the employees into groups and scheduling break hours, but we have technology solutions too to help. Proximity sensors can not only keep count of the people in a space but can help them to maintain the distance in queues and seating arrangements by force and alarms. The doors can be locked from outside if it has reached the target number.
Geofencing can force the employees of certain floors to use the designated café for their floor only. The pre-booking of their meals through app can also help save time.
Work From Home
It was only the availability of high-speed internet and the data on cloud that helped companies survive during this unprecedented time. The cloud meetings using your laptop microphone and camera can be further enhanced using pro cameras and headphones offered by many companies at quiet affordable rates. Adding virtual background can make it look more professional and home pods and some acoustical panels around you with an addition of an ergonomic chair can give you a studio feelings at home.