7 Business Items on the Brink of Extinction
Life moves so fast and technology changes at such a pace that the gadgets which were innovative and essential 10 years ago are on the brink of extinction today. Equipment and processes for business are among those that have changed the fastest, making many business items almost museum pieces in today’s offices. Here are 7 items you’re no longer using, or at least thinking about relocating to the storeroom:
1. Fax Machine
There may be a few old fax machines dotted around the place, but this technology is just about finished. With email, SMS, and Internet calling, it has never been easier or quicker to get in touch. The fax machine just doesn’t cut it anymore. Plus, no one has the time to print out and feed documents into the machine – and then find a place to store the reply.
2. Cubicles
More and more of today’s workers are mobile, meaning that more than half of assigned offices and cubicles are empty during the working day. The traditional cubicle or box doesn’t actually make today’s employees more efficient, and it can even have negative effects. Businesses are more innovative and creative when workers have the technology to move around and interact with each other during the working day.
3. Filing Cabinets
An increasing number of businesses strive for a paperless office to reduce costs and impact on the environment. Rows of bulky filing cabinets are disappearing, leaving more space for open-plan shelves, art displays, and desks – anything other than boxes filled with files you are never going to use. For businesses that must hold onto paper copies of certain documents, off-site document storage is a better option – click here to see how document storage facilities are making filing cabinets obsolete.
4. DVD Drives
Did you see the size of a DVD compared to a tablet or laptop? Many modern computers are now made without the DVD disc drive to save space. There is less of a need for DVD drives when you access images and videos through the Internet and store data on cloud servers.
5. Office Server
And speaking of servers, the bulky office server is on the way out. Cloud-based applications are removing the need for a physical server located in the office cupboard. Save space and work more efficiently online by sharing documents remotely.
6. Photocopier
In an increasingly paperless world, the need to copy documents and store them has been largely eliminated. Once, photocopiers were an integral part of the office landscape, but now they have been relegated to a forgotten corner of the building – workers share documents online and can access their own copy of a memo or briefing by finding it online.
7. Answering Machine With Tapes
Are there still any of these in operation? The once-useful pieces of equipment have now largely been replaced by digital answering services attached to smartphones and linked to email accounts. As with all technology, the answering machine needed to evolve or die out. Many other items are also going the same way – evolving in design or being removed from circulation.
Image attributed to FreeDigitalPhotos.net John Kasawa
