Technology plays role in tapping top talent
Technology plays a pivotal role in today's office environment. Besides the obvious work-related need for technology, it also enables companies to retain top-notch young employees.
After recruiting and hiring the best and brightest recent college graduates, you want to make sure you give them modern tools for new ways of working.
Millennials are digital natives. They've gone through school with tablets, smartphones, social media and video, so they naturally latch on to new technologies. When they arrive in the workplace, they expect similar capabilities.
Therefore, high-tech conference rooms are one of the most important places businesses can invest their money, according to Victor Miceli, co-owner of Des Plaines Office Equipment in Elk Grove Village.
State-of-the-art interactive boards allow meeting participants or instructors to write on a large display board using their finger and what is written there can be saved (even on a thumb drive), emailed or printed out for meeting participants around the world. Participants can use a screen app on their tablet or phone to capture the images created or to send their ideas to the instructor or meeting leader.
The board, which is attached to a computer with a high-speed processor and state-of-the-art software, also allows meeting participants to bring up high-definition images instantaneously and move from image to image by sliding their finger back and forth as if the screen is a giant iPad or iPhone, Miceli explained.
Video feeds of those participating in the meeting from remote locations can also be shown in the corners of the screen during the meeting, using Skype, Go To Meeting or other such software programs. People in all locations can see each other and the interactive board.
"If you are holding a meeting or a training session, you want your people to get the most of it. Otherwise, you are just wasting time," he said. "With this modern technology, you don't have to turn down the lights in the room and risk people falling asleep," he said.
"Millennials coming into the workforce instantly grasp this type of technology because it is all Windows-based and they take to it like a duck to water. They instantly seem to know how to use it to give entire presentations from their thumb drives," Miceli added.
Incorporating technology like this into a business increases its level of organization and workflow. It also enhances communication.
"For instance, you can save time and money by collaborating on documents more easily. You can discuss a contract and work up proposed changes on the interactive board. To use the modern buzz words, it is all about Business Development Optimization (BDO) so that you can do more with fewer resources," Miceli said.
Des Plaines Office Equipment also sells copiers, printers and scanners, provides cloud and internal network solutions for document management, and offers maintenance contracts under which they repair or replace clients' IT equipment and provide ink and toner, as needed, for one monthly payment.