Collaborate if you want to innovate 05/10/2009
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(0 Votes)SMEs can gain a competitive edge by working their employees smarter, not harder, focusing on innovation as well as productivity. Real-time collaboration tools can help foster a more open and flexible approach to work
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- Innovation is key to productivity
- Are better collaboration tools the answer?
- Collaboration is broken
- Fixing the problem
- Good tools make good business sense
- Remote working
Jasper Westaway, CEO and founder, oneDrum
Innovation is key to productivity
Streamlining processes can help achieve greater productivity, and in turn increase the potential for innovation. Creating a smooth process chain helps workers manage their time more efficiently and allows moments for creative thought. The value of creative thinking is immense as it can be responsible for spearheading innovation and the development of new processes and methods of working. Therefore, an open environment should be created inside an organisation's framework in order to drive innovation.
There are a couple of ways companies can do this, namely by evaluating the needs of its employees and fostering conversations among its workforce. Sometimes it might just be a case of relaxing rigid protocol that has become indoctrinated within an organisation, which will allow new ideas to flourish and innovation to grow. For instance, in recent years, working outside of the office or 'mobile working', has become increasingly popular as more organisations have embraced the concept of the mobile office.
In an economic climate where the words 'time is money' have been given fresh meaning, businesses need to look at every option on how to cut back on financial cost and also drive profits. However, working outside of the office has always been subject to issues of security, information accessibility and productivity.
Companies will need to find a balance between effective process and flexibility for creativity in order for employees to work satisfactorily outside of the office.
There are a couple of ways companies can do this, namely by evaluating the needs of its employees and fostering conversations among its workforce. Sometimes it might just be a case of relaxing rigid protocol that has become indoctrinated within an organisation, which will allow new ideas to flourish and innovation to grow. For instance, in recent years, working outside of the office or 'mobile working', has become increasingly popular as more organisations have embraced the concept of the mobile office.
In an economic climate where the words 'time is money' have been given fresh meaning, businesses need to look at every option on how to cut back on financial cost and also drive profits. However, working outside of the office has always been subject to issues of security, information accessibility and productivity.
Companies will need to find a balance between effective process and flexibility for creativity in order for employees to work satisfactorily outside of the office.
Are better collaboration tools the answer?
This year, and for many more to come, collaboration will be the key to making the most productive use of a company's workforce and gaining that all important competitive advantage.
Greater collaboration will be enabled by new developments in computer software that will encourage and facilitate the adoption of better ways to communicate online. The idea is to transform the way documents and rich media are shared in order to enable more effective team collaboration.
With new technologies available and being developed that allow real-time collaboration, there will be less emphasis on being in the same place at the same time as other colleagues in order to communicate. Working outside of the office will become far more straight forward, and, from a business' perspective, a lot more valuable.
Greater collaboration will be enabled by new developments in computer software that will encourage and facilitate the adoption of better ways to communicate online. The idea is to transform the way documents and rich media are shared in order to enable more effective team collaboration.
With new technologies available and being developed that allow real-time collaboration, there will be less emphasis on being in the same place at the same time as other colleagues in order to communicate. Working outside of the office will become far more straight forward, and, from a business' perspective, a lot more valuable.
Collaboration is broken
There are two key barriers to collaboration today. Collaboration is broken from both a cultural and a technological point of view. The way we share information at work is often subject to a lot of processes and not always easily available to everyone in the company.
Information only accessible to some can be perceived as hierarchical and lead to frustration and a feeling of only having half the facts to hand. Without being part of the complete picture, errors can be made and time wasted in getting the right information. This closed approach is typical of enterprises such as the now bankrupt General Motors.
Even in organisations where a more open approach is adopted, the tools we use rarely enable effective collaboration. In small organisations, we tend to create documents in Microsoft Office and share them via email. The resulting problems with version management are familiar to everyone and are perpetuated when remote working comes into play. In larger organisations, we try to address this by adopting complex collaboration tools. However, the problem with many of these is that they require staff to adopt a brand new way of working. The time and investment required for this often creates resistance.
Information only accessible to some can be perceived as hierarchical and lead to frustration and a feeling of only having half the facts to hand. Without being part of the complete picture, errors can be made and time wasted in getting the right information. This closed approach is typical of enterprises such as the now bankrupt General Motors.
Even in organisations where a more open approach is adopted, the tools we use rarely enable effective collaboration. In small organisations, we tend to create documents in Microsoft Office and share them via email. The resulting problems with version management are familiar to everyone and are perpetuated when remote working comes into play. In larger organisations, we try to address this by adopting complex collaboration tools. However, the problem with many of these is that they require staff to adopt a brand new way of working. The time and investment required for this often creates resistance.
Fixing the problem
Organisations need to foster conversations across the company if they want their employees to work towards the same goal. Information should be quickly and easily available to those who need it. The right collaboration tools will allow the correct information to be processed and an increase in productivity among workers.
Companies are looking for technology that will be low-cost and offer high yield solutions. Allowing employees to adopt new methods of working efficiently, in and outside of the office, will give the flexibility to work seamlessly and without disruption. It will also give employees the right resources to choose how they make the best use of their time. In practice being time efficient means higher margins for businesses.
It might take time for organisations at the enterprise level to be open to change; but for SMBs and startups who must adapt and embrace new practices to survive, there will be less resilience in adopting collaborative practices and technologies.
Companies are looking for technology that will be low-cost and offer high yield solutions. Allowing employees to adopt new methods of working efficiently, in and outside of the office, will give the flexibility to work seamlessly and without disruption. It will also give employees the right resources to choose how they make the best use of their time. In practice being time efficient means higher margins for businesses.
It might take time for organisations at the enterprise level to be open to change; but for SMBs and startups who must adapt and embrace new practices to survive, there will be less resilience in adopting collaborative practices and technologies.
Good tools make good business sense
Collaboration technologies are now emerging that blur the lines between documents and conversations and seamlessly integrate the tools we’ve spent years learning how to use. These real-time collaboration tools allow teams, whether in the same room or in different geographical locations, to work together in a way that suits them best; and that makes the most efficient use of time.
By adopting new collaborative technologies it will be possible to reduce error-prone and inefficient means of communicating information. It will also be possible to create meaningful documents from real-time conversations, and vice-versa.
By adopting new collaborative technologies it will be possible to reduce error-prone and inefficient means of communicating information. It will also be possible to create meaningful documents from real-time conversations, and vice-versa.
Remote working
Better collaborative technologies will make remote working more straight forward and allow organisations to be more accommodating to employees working outside of the traditional office environment. The nine-to-five office may become a thing of the past or at least be given a radical makeover.
Those businesses who embrace change will allow innovation to flourish and gain that all important competitive advantage.
Those businesses who embrace change will allow innovation to flourish and gain that all important competitive advantage.
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