Here we all are, a year into what has begun to feel like a new way of life. Where once business owners were skeptical of employees working from home, many now are re-evaluating whether they’ll ever again need as much—or any—office space. And as organizations have adapted to the distributed workforces they couldn’t have seen coming, they’re more dependent than ever on collaboration and productivity tools like Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Amazon AWS, and so on.
Maybe you were utilizing these tools before. Maybe you’ve had to adapt quickly or are still struggling to get there. There’s no one way forward toward effective collaboration when everybody’s elsewhere. There are some important steps toward implementing these tools and ensuring they do as much for you as they can.
Step 1: Take Stock of Your Present
What processes have had to change as you’ve adapted? Which ones have outlived their usefulness? Do your teams share sensitive data? What’s your top concern about implementing new tools?
Any road to success has to start with a clear evaluation of what’s happening now among your teams, what they need, and what will best support your business strategy and whatever unique security concerns you have. If you’re like, well, every one of our clients, that means you’ll have to face a few hard truths about challenges. Doing this work now is essential so that you can find the tools that will best serve your needs—and an implementation strategy that keeps your teams happy.
Step 2: Collaborate Toward Effective Implementation
Change is tough, and we’ve all had quite a lot of it, thank you very much. You can do a lot to ease any transition in how your teams work by involving them in the process. Yes, you get essential feedback for shaping your strategy, but you also get an engaged workforce who feels valued and is far more likely to embrace change.
That’s great for your culture and your ROI.
Step 3: Evaluate Constantly, Forever
We work with a lot of clients who’ve been hesitant to embrace cloud solutions. Hesitancy about that level of change is understandable, and we’d never advocate for jumping into something that doesn’t feel right. Showing skeptics the benefits of the cloud is easy—and compelling. One of the big ones is that after you’ve moved, you have a universe of potential ahead of you.
Nothing stands still. (You certainly wouldn’t want your business to.) Taking stock, over and over and over again, of how your teams are working and what tools would serve them is an important part of keeping your strategy on track. There are infinite ways for chaos to creep in and only a few to maintain order. Throw in constantly evolving technology, economic shifts, social change, staff changes, and the occasional polar vortex, and the paths toward chaos multiply.
You can’t stop change, but you can help your organization meet the challenge with the right tools. Keeping a close eye on their day-to-day realities positions you to utilize new technologies that are tailored to your business.
Find out more about our approach to collaboration and productivity tools.
