About 70% of the world's companies are on their way to getting rid of physical offices, according to surveys conducted by Ericsson Consumer & IndustryLab.
The number is based on surveys of more than 2,000 ICT decision makers and over 3,000 white-collar workers in 11 countries including the US, China, India, UK, Sweden and Saudi Arabia.
Internet-based operations without offices entail use of cloud computing services for remote working, and compared with operations with offices can save energy as well as hike work efficiency and profitability.
Increasing use of mobile devices has been driving the shift towards operatins without offices, and the coronavirus pandemic has accelerated that shift, said Michael Bjorn, head of research agenda at the head for Ericsson Consumer & IndustryLab.
According to the surveys, 60% of ICT decision makers are satisfied at reducing operational cost from remote working; 66% of them believe most enterprise meetings will be held online in 2030; and 43% think there will be no offices due to remote working in 2030.
Based on the surveys, the lab predicts that 59% of employees will work outside their enterprises in 2030, compared with 42% based on surveys in 2019.
Despite increasing remote working, physical social activities among employees are still necessary to form corporate cultures, according to Chafic Nassif, president for Ericsson Taiwan.
Ericsson Taiwan president Chafic Nassif
Photo: Shihmin Fu, Digitimes, March 2021
