It’s no longer as simple as turning up at the office to do a day’s work. The modern market has dictated that staff and even members of management need to go out on the road to attend meetings with clients and customers, conferences or to work away from the office “on site.” Many companies, such as those in construction, have been working all over the country for years, so this is nothing new to them, but the reporting on the day’s work and getting sign-offs on projects has always been slow and laborious.
Today’s enterprise software offered by the likes of McLaren Software enables parties both on and off the site to search for specific projects and to view and edit them accordingly from any mobile device connected to the Internet. This means that the “old school” paper-based methods that needed to be sent by post or courier and then filed in a cabinet are a thing of the past and members of the management team can report what is essentially real-time information to the client each day.
Enterprise software has enabled people to keep working on their projects wherever they are, whenever they can. Before it came along people could only work on specific machines between working hours meaning that any time spent on the train to a business meeting, for example, was downtime and detrimental to productivity. It also meant that projects had to be put on hold for several days at a time if specific documents needed to be sent and signed by specific individuals before workers could move onto the next project.
With the enterprise solutions, however, project managers on the site – and those granted access – can upload the latest document into the system and everyone else with access to that file can see it, amend it or update it and progress can continue in an instant or queries can be addressed. Accessibility isn’t an issue, because many platforms have been adapted to work with all forms of mobile devices ranging from smartphones to laptops and tablets which, in the case of smartphones in particular, everyone seems to have anyway – all you need is an Internet connection.
Security is a key concern for businesses, especially when it comes to the sharing of information. It was touched on briefly earlier, but access in the enterprise software can be granted through a series of login details for anyone who is intended to be working on the specific project. This could be all project managers and then those actually working at the location or in the office as opposed to all members of staff at all parties involved because some files are meant to be confidential and many documents are only meant to be seen by specific people. With confidential information being shared, it’s important that files are secure and there are numerous risks associated with the electronic file transfers or through emails as attachments, and files can be encrypted through enterprise software so that anyone who does manage to find the file can’t necessarily access it.
This article was written by freelance writer and mother of three, Kathryn Thompson. Follow her on Twitter: @katht35