Regardless of whatever your line of work is people want to communicate wherever they are. When it comes to the tools that help facilitate the work that needs to get done whether that be email, Microsoft Office, Google Apps, etc they want to be able to rapidly communicate to get things done faster and more efficiently.
Platforms that integrate with each other push productivity to whole other level that can’t quite be achieved with disparate systems. Example: While you can pick up the phone and call someone most people are not good at mutli-tasking meaning that once you are in that call you are only accomplishing one thing. Now image the ability to be able to communicate with that person while not breaking your flow on that document, email, etc. You can get multiple things done at the same time with converged systems.
Ultimately, over the past several years different types of communications platforms have popped up and they are great but multiple systems tend to be clunky because you have to look for different apps, login information, and the fact that these systems work on their own “island”. The idea or now the reality is having all of these different systems joined together – voice, instant message, presence, fax, email, web meeting.
So here are some tips on dealing with this new realm:
- 1.Go with the flow – don’t avoid it! Instead of trying to work with what you have empower your organization to take advantage of these new technologies now and become more productive today. Don’t let the “other guy” get ahead just because you don’t want to deal with change! The workforce is also getting younger and if you do not provide the tools needed to propel this new workforce they will simply go somewhere else.
- 2.Cater to the different roles of your organization. The fact is that a person’s role affects their technology experience. The person who sits a desk all day has a completely different reality than a road warrior or something who works remotely. Make sure you have the right technology to address different aspects within your team. Being able to have a communications platform that addressed multiple needs based on role makes all the difference.
- 3.Integrate, Integrate, Integrate – If at all possible leverage your existing investments whether it’s your email, file sharing, CRM, ERP, documentation systems do the homework to make sure you adopt a solution that can bridge as many systems together as possible. The more places you can interconnect your technology world the faster you will be able to adopt and facilitate efficiency and speed into your day-to-day tasks. In short, “ work smarter not harder.”
