How people work has changed rapidly over the past decade, and new tools can help employees function even more efficiently than in the past, especially when it comes to working in teams. But before you implement new procedures, or buy new products or services, you should understand the nature of your work and make clear what your needs are.
First, and most important, the world of work is not flat, no matter what the buzz is out there. Working across geographic boundaries unleashes talent, but it can be a very real barrier, one that can prohibit employees from collaborating with other people in their company. In theory, more minds are better, but too many can wreak havoc without effective communication.
However, the correct tools can enable the work force to communicate more efficiently, regardless of location, making multilocational teams much more productive and successful. The key is to find the right balance and collaboration tools.
Real-time collaboration has its quirks. If employees are not in the same time zone, waking up at 5 a.m. or working until 1 a.m. is not necessarily a realistic option. But there are real advantages to be gained by working as if all the team members are in the same time zone – it produces what is called dynamic collaboration. To determine if it really is possible for you, consider the one-document paradigm.
If an employee is working on one document with five people who are not in the same physical location, changes are difficult to track. A document sent out to five others for feedback and review doesn’t encompass all of the changes from each person into one document without wasting time and energy. Getting all of the information in one location is a difficult task.
But you cannot cut out the personal connection that having all those five people involved can produce without degrading the quality of the work. In today’s world, each and every person is a potential subject-matter expert and may have knowledge that other people want to use. And what about those who leave the company or those who no longer work on the project? What happens to the knowledge a subject-matter expert has, and how do others retain and use that information when needed?
In addition, what if something happens to the information on an individual computer? Is it retrievable? And if so, how fast can a business be back up and running again after a problem surfaces? The questions start to pile up, but there are solutions.
The most prominent barrier in the new world of work is ensuring that everyone is able to retrieve and access necessary information. For instance, an employee may be traveling and need to easily and quickly access customer data. Implementing a server into a business allows employees to do more with less by using available resources. Servers give businesses the tools to back up and protect data that is critical for an individual or a company. Servers offer many collaboration tools that allow employees to connect in a team environment. Some servers provide a set of virtual work spaces in a live location so people can get information whenever needed. These work spaces are a depository for all knowledge and information related to a project, allowing increased productivity.
Ideally, a server that is implemented into a business would offer companies a portal site accessible through a Web browser that most would already have on their computers. This is ideal for a company that wants to create an internal Web site to house several projects and share documents with others. Since collaboration is done via a graphical user interface, no programming is involved to add more pages or elements. There are no new tools to learn; it is easier to use and therefore saves more time.
The ability to create a document repository in a server is also an ideal feature to keep a knowledge base within the company when an employee leaves. Another benefit is the ability to post a document in the portal instead of e-mailing it to a group of people internally, letting users access it when they need it.
Certain servers also offer the option to “check out” a document. This diminishes the confusion of one employee changing a document and uploading it to the server while another employee does the same thing. With servers, users can check out documents so no one else edits it at the same time. It works like a library book in the check-out section.
Several companies are already at the starting point, having established a single, central location for storing and managing documents, making it radically easier to find and use vital business information.
Influential business leaders are reporting that this type of unified approach to providing employees powerful collaboration tools has improved communication and productivity. The productivity and collaboration benefits of these solutions can be tremendous. Companies can now implement tools to help their employees work collaboratively and efficiently without duplicating efforts, spending additional money or using extra resources, at locations all across the globe. Think of the upside.
The end result: early adopters of emerging server technologies can create a competitive advantage over others by gaining faster access to the information they need to make more informed decisions. •
Brian Neirby is the general manager of Microsoft Corp.’s Small and Mid-Market Solutions and Partners (SMS&P) group for the New England Area.
