Many workplace procedures are still just an online version of their analogue predecessors with clunky, manual processes that get in the way of doing business. Employees have grown accustomed to the friendly, intuitive experiences that smartphones and tablets deliver. Businesses need to come to the party and deliver the same experience in the workplace.

Often, businesses use outdated practices not because there aren’t better alternatives out there, but through force of habit.

While technology doesn’t necessarily mean less work it does hold the promise of bringing new, intuitive tools into our work lives to make it better.

Five digital workplace trends on the rise

1. Digital contract-signing. Signing a contract can still involve a surprising amount of hassle and take days to complete, with printing, signing, scanning and emailing. With e-signature services like Adobe Echosign and Docusign, a contract can be sent, signed and delivered with a few clicks. e-signatures can lead to a bigger deal size, shorter sales cycles and higher win rates.

2. Smartphone as your wallet. Wallet-free living is coming soon. ApplePay ensures that we’ll see much more innovation in this area very soon. Google, PayPal, Visa and MasterCard are all in various stages of developing mobile banking systems.

3. Conference calls that work. New solutions like UberConference automatically call you when it’s time for the meeting to start, show you who’s in the meeting and who’s speaking, plus how long they stayed, all without lifting a finger.

4. Hands-free commuting. Office culture exploded in the post-industrial era, which meant that the morning commute became accepted as a torturous, yet necessary, part of working life. With advances like driverless cars, adaptive traffic signals, and road trains bumper-to-bumper traffic may soon become something of the bygone era.

5. Paperless receipts. The promise of paperless offices has long been with us and yet only now with smartphones does this vision seem to be within grasp. Evernote’s ScanSnap is one example of how painless it can now be to capture and organise important documents, like receipts. With a single button, you can ditch paper-bound methods for good.

Matt Goss is managing director – SMB at Concur, a provider of spend management solutions.