Johannesburg, 23 Feb 2023
The world has changed. Digital has arrived. The workplace will never be the same again. We've heard these sentences said ad nauseam, alongside the examples of this transformational shift: remote working, hybrid offices and collaboration culture. They all speak the truth – it's just, yes, we get it. But now what? What happens next? How do we use that momentum?
It's a thought that sits on the mind of Alison Alberts, Liquid C2's Managing Executive of Cloud Voice and Applications: "Now that we have this new appreciation for collaboration and all the tools and processes that go with it, where do we go? What can we do? I think companies have a lot of questions and uncertainty. We know we're in a new era, but do we make the most of it?"
Fortunately, many of the answers might be in front of us already. Several major collaboration-capable tools are already in organisations, but with unrealised potential. The COVID era has also introduced some new candidates, albeit through the dark horse approach of shadow IT. And the opportunity to teach employees how to embrace collaborative tools is already among them, if you know where to look.
How do we expand our use of collaboration tools? It may not be as daunting as we think.
A culture change
The primary point to note is that several collaboration tools are not new. Instead, they became more functionally prominent in modern organisations, says Alberts: "The pandemic years enhanced several of the popular collaboration tools, things like e-mail, chat, voice, video, calendars and scheduling. The adoption of these applications grew significantly. Now that we are more comfortable with them, especially thanks to hybrid working, company cultures are moving towards new capabilities, like file sharing, whiteboarding, shared calendars, project management platforms, employee and company engagement tools, and those types of services."
At least, some companies are. Many, to their detriment – particularly medium and small firms – hold onto old habits. Data remains spread across multiple devices and vulnerable systems, such as someone's desktop or laptop.
"Smaller companies can list reasons why they don't use these tools more often. They mention security risks with putting data in the cloud, or they are concerned about costs. But not using cloud applications doesn't necessarily make them more secure or save them money. The reluctance has more to do with dealing with the unknown."
Many enterprises have progressed further, but often because their policies and governance require a high degree of control over digital systems. They experienced the greater realisation of established collaboration applications. Still, even here, many companies fail to realise the greater potential of applications they already access. It's not unique to new tools. Companies often make this error.
"I'll use the example of a telephony system. A company invests in this major technology. They deploy it onsite at their premises or in the cloud, but then only use 30% of the features. A lot of it has to do with really understanding particular features. And if you don't implement those features, yet they could be useful, then employees will find alternatives."
In other words, shadow IT – the practice of using unauthorised applications in an enterprise, which is a massive compliance and security risk. Easy access to software services has brought this practice back with a vengeance. Yet, if companies pay attention to what they have and their users want, they can find a middle ground and advance their collaboration efforts.
It's all about change
If organisations already have the software features at hand, yet employees look elsewhere for them, how do they close the gap? The answer is change management. As Alberts points out, companies often introduce new software without providing sufficient training and support to assist with adoption.
"It can be a really simple thing to overlook. For example, suppose an organisation deploys a communication tool like Microsoft Teams. In that case, staff can virtually collaborate in meetings using Whiteboard, find each other instantly via messaging and share and edit content in real-time. Additionally, applications like Viva can help increase employee engagement and company knowledge, but nobody ever trains the staff. Instead, they get a video to watch, with the expectation that they will be able to work with it. I’ve seen employees afraid to ask for help, meaning – they never really use the features properly. That, or someone shows them an easier shadow IT way to do it."
She suggests taking a bottom-up approach to exploring what software can do. Many popular collaboration suites have features such as whiteboards, file sharing and project management. Are people using those? Why not? Are they using alternatives? Why? Ask these questions, and then find ways to introduce what is already established to what they need to do.
"You can also look for champions in the office," says Alberts. "There are always savvy people, who figure these systems out and get the most from them. These champions help others to use those features. If you use a structured approach for training and support, and enable the intuitive users to help others, they'll start using systems that you can control."
This advice is not just for enterprises. Most businesses today enjoy affordable access to excellent cloud tools that used to only exist in large companies. They should talk to their power users to explore potential features and bring all employees up to speed.
"It's money on the table, " says Alberts. "If you use the software, you have access to additional features. Find out if they apply to your business. That's the collaboration opportunity today. We've come this far – now, how do we make use of what we've collected along the way?" Every business should do more with less.
Share