It’s the season of simplifying, streamlining, and decluttering! When you’ve been in the IT services industry for as long as RCI, you can easily look around the office and take stock of office mainstays that are well past their heyday and have innovated or replaced entirely. Offices everywhere are taking a minimalistic approach to operations and are looking to consolidate functions into a few select devices instead of relying on antiquated machinery. You might be wondering which common items your office can ditch and which ones you can hang onto. So today we share our top common items your office can ditch.
While we at RCI live by the motto of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” (or ditch it in this case), even we acknowledge that philosophy doesn’t necessarily apply to technology. Keeping archaic amenities in place typically only serves to slow down your daily operations and potentially opens you up to security and communication issues.
It may be the way everyone knows how to do things in your workspace, but is it the most efficient way? Let’s list some examples by name.
Don’t Be Chained Down By A Desktop
When you picture a typical office space, your mind probably defaults to a traditional desktop computer, a rolling chair, sticky notes, and maybe a humorous calendar tacked to the wall. That might be the image in our heads, but that reality is decreasingly common.
Laptops and tablets have gained noticeable favor, especially as the COVID-19 pandemic forced so many employees to work from home. As of the time of writing, 41% of employees in the U.S. work from home at least part of the time in a hybrid schedule. Many find it simpler to bring their work device to and from rather than deal with the fatigue of frequently alternating between devices.
Desktops are far from obsolete, especially since more powerful devices better suit tasks like heavy video editing and 3D modeling, but for most intents and purposes, they just take up space and tie you down for no good reason. We say that desktops are one of the common items your office can ditch because they’re just less practical for getting work done and general computing.
Sure, you might like the idea of a bigger monitor or using multiple monitors for spreadsheets and other programs with a lot of data to analyze, but that certainly doesn’t necessitate an entire desktop computer. Simply using an HDMI cord and a docking station with your laptop can achieve the same functionality, with the difference being that you can pick up your laptop and venture elsewhere when circumstances call for it.
Laptops and their built-in processors have come a long way, so speed and performance don’t pose the same concern that they once did. If you like working remotely, having extra desk space, and don’t want not being confined to one room, then consider the best work laptops of 2025.
Is Sending Faxes Dead? Let’s Check The Facts
We understand this one is debatable as one of the technologies you can ditch, but it made the list since their usefulness really depends more on your industry. For day-to-day operations, many businesses could easily get by without the presence of a fax machine.
Simply emailing or sharing information across digital file sharing services like Dropbox or Google Drive will get the job done. The purpose these resources serve is basically the same as faxing, it’s just accomplished through different media.
However, we understand our Roanoke, Virginia customer base and neighboring businesses are comprised of industries of all varieties and sizes, so which ones should consider keeping the fax machine plugged in?
Any business that still requires physical signatures for documents, contracts, etc could still find convenience in faxing. Faxing is also a viable option for those sending sensitive information. If your company offers insurance or financial services, legal services, or healthcare, this may describe you.
Industries like marketing, tech, education, retail, and travel have largely already shifted to digital means of transmitting information. If you work in these spaces, you probably don’t even notice the fax machine collecting dust in the corner, making it one of the common items your office can ditch in 2025.
Filing Cabinet – Common Items Your Office Can Ditch
The cloud has revolutionized everything, and the business landscape is not exempt. While it has made its way into our beloved business phone system industry, we’re thankful that it has only evolved it.
Contrarily, digital and cloud storage solutions have made bulky filing cabinets unnecessary. Secure cloud storage applications can store virtually everything from a filing cabinet just as securely and more conveniently.
It’s not a bad idea to keep a small file around, but shifting the bulk of your files to the cloud makes them more accessible and shareable with others in your company.
Organizing them is also a breeze with plenty of layout options natively built into cloud storage programs. You can give file access to everyone who needs it and exclude those who don’t, with secure servers keeping them safe from individuals outside of your organization.
You get the benefit of freed up space and no more getting up and down to run to the filing cabinet! You’ll have to find something else to lean on while you’re chatting with your coworkers.
Lifestyles Change, Your Office Should Change Too
RCI could admittedly take some of our own advice here, but as your Southwest Virginia’s technology partner, we fully acknowledge the need to keep up with the times on all fronts. There are plenty of other old-school common items your office can ditch, but these are the big three that may be slowing down your progress.
We’re here to make sure your technology keeps up with the changing business landscape, and we hope this helps you make some game-changing decisions for your office too!
