Collaboration in the Digital Age: Using the Cloud for Effective Teamwork

The rise in the number of remote workers has come with many benefits for both business owners and employees alike.

The reduction in overheads and space for owners wanting to save money is matched by the cost and time saving made by a workforce spared the daily commute.

There are also downsides to this, though. The lack of face-to-face contact between employees (and employees and managers) can mean that workers feel like they are working in isolation, which can affect communication, productivity, and morale. For many businesses, moving to a cloud-based platform can go a long way to solving this problem and has benefits that can take your business forward.

Update and Work in Real-Time

The first of these benefits is that even a team that is separated by continents can all work on the same files in real-time, making it a true collaboration. This is much more productive than a file being worked on and then forwarded by email to various people. Updates can be lost, and there could be several different versions of the project file going around, which can end in confusion and delays while the whole thing is put together again.

Using a platform like acumatica cloud can avoid all of these problems and allow all of the participants to work together and see all of the progress that is being made.

Improved Communication

Adopting this solution also means that everyone involved knows who is doing what and when, so there is no confusion about assigned roles and progress. With this initial communication problem solved, you also have the benefit of team members being able to give feedback in real-time, rather than retrospectively, saving the amount of rework, as problems are nipped in the bud as soon as they are seen to be going the wrong way.

By the same token, support can also be offered this way. So ,rather than one team member struggling in isolation, a more collaborative effort can see faster results and cut down on stress.

Meetings and Innovation

This collaboration can be taken one step further when it comes to holding successful meetings. Video conferencing software can be used in conjunction with the cloud-based platform to look at progress and make decisions that all participants can see the logic behind. Again, feedback can be made in real-time, and minor adjustments made to look at possible results so that all of the team are collaborating, rather than just being informed of the way forward without much in the way of explanation.

Final Thoughts

Remote working has many benefits, but the flip side is that there can be little or no face-to-face collaboration. One solution is to use a cloud-based platform to aid collaboration, allowing team members to work on files at the same time, offer feedback, and receive support when needed. This also provides a framework for innovation, as people can use this same structure for brainstorming further improvements, and this is a fantastic feature.