Workplace Platform on Steroids Post-Acquisition: Merger News in the EX Vertical

17 November 2021 | 328 Shares

Source: Appspace

Distributing essential and engaging information to an entire workforce would be so much easier if every employee spent every day sitting in front of a computer, using the same apps, day in, day out. That’s certainly never been the case, and in fact, it’s even less true now – many employees are dividing their time between the workplace and home too. Many jobs are always mobile, like those of front line workers, but regardless, people tend to be mobile, either around the workplace, working from home, or commuting. Employers have woken up to the need for a mobile-first platform that keeps everyone in the loop with announcements, company news, rich media, and more.

In the early days of tech in the workplace, the role of publisher-of-information in a business was traditionally a website, populated with information that needed to be hand-coded by technically-competent staff. That limited the scope of what could (and should) be published, plus of course, websites tend to be one-way communication devices: people read, see, and watch to learn but can’t feed back or request information. Intranet websites were often supplemented by emails, or written memos on a noticeboard: both one-way communications that could be, respectively, missed or ignored. Today’s employee communication software platforms (the best of which we’ve been covering on these pages) run on all employees’ mobiles (and the web, too), but also have multi-functional capability, like resource booking, building access systems baked-in thanks to NFC technology, and have intuitive back end systems so that content creation is easy and simple.

Hybrid Working

Source: Appspace

The Appspace platform is a case in point. It’s a portal-in-your-pocket, through which all employees can keep connected to all that’s going on across the business. It effectively replaces several “traditional” modes of communication, plus it creates ways that employees can better interact with discrete systems all over the business. Workers can see the status of and book resources (like rooms, projectors, audio facilities), browse information relevant to them, and stay right up to date on company news. Employees can be proactive, remain engaged and informed, and can be given self-service capabilities.

The power of the back-end systems also includes full granularity and privilege level settings, so all communications and news (as well as building and resource access) can be set by administrators on a per-site, per-geography, per-team, or per-individual basis. That means staff are never presented with irrelevant information (nor lists of options to resources a thousand miles away). At the same time, the organization gets more secure premises, and sensitive information is only ever shared with properly vetted personnel.

The publishing power of the organization using Appspace has been significantly boosted recently, thanks to the company’s acquisition of Beezy, an employee information and EX (employee experience) platform. With the increased capability now on board, the Appspace platform gives team leaders and decision-makers across the business the ability to publish rich, impactful media much more easily. That’s because the new capabilities extend to putting the publishing facility right in the heart of most people’s core software. Appspace, with Beezy, now allows media to be presented to employees through the Office 365 suite, and staff receive updates through one of the tools they use daily too – Microsoft Teams.

That means that as soon as information becomes available (like meeting notes or a town-hall video recording), media can be posted out to staff, who can watch, read or listen at their leisure, wherever they are. The platform creates amazing, responsive content that displays on the smartphone, tablet, or laptop screen of every employee. Access to this library of rich, immersive information means better communication from managers to employees, team member to team member, and group to group. Engagement is simple to achieve, and the easy-to-use software means everyone is in the loop of what’s happening as it happens.

Hybrid Working

Source: Appspace

The publishing engine is available using the same tools and layouts users are familiar with inside Microsoft Office, so today’s internal content creators don’t need a degree in Computer Science, nor any background coding HTML and CSS. They also don’t need to switch from app to app to book meeting rooms or resources for staff members, or manually grant access to premises out of hours. Instead, one platform handles the work of many, and thanks to the latest tech, even the simplest message is presented using pre-built, beautifully laid-out templates that render content perfectly across a range of devices.

The business can engage with employees and employees with one another pretty much in real-time. Empowered staff are kept in the loop, with all messaging and capabilities presented attractively and in mobile-friendly formats.

To learn more about Appspace and its increased capabilities post-Breezy acquisition, click through here. You can also read the companies’ official statements here about the merger of the these two EX powerhouses.