Financial needs, freedom and several other factors are responsible for some of the changes we have seen in today’s workplace. Many jobs are no longer cast in stone. Requiring employees to be at the office by 8am and closing by 5pm is fast fading away.
The workplace can be anywhere an employee can access his or her computer, tablet or phone; depending on what he/she needs to do and connecting with the Internet to fix and sending it to the right channel. ‘Telecommuting’ has changed this and the yardstick used to measure progress is the ability to meet deadlines and tasks in the required form.
The success of this has helped organisations, especially small and medium enterprises, to cut down on overhead cost. The rise of outsourcing has also helped companies to shed cost and offer roles to individuals with advantage for execution. In all of this, however, there is the dire need to communicate. Emails must be replied within the hour, else it becomes stale. Calls must be picked without being intrusive. Documents and folders fly across the Internet space to enable other parties to get on the same page.
The need for communication in a way that helps collaboration is what has led to the development of several business communication tools that are gradually gaining good ground. The Nigerian space is also not left behind with geeks that are trying to support small organisations with tools that will leave social communication out of business-related communication. It can be distracting when members of staff have to check Facebook messages or WhatsApp to retrieve information that is meant for office purposes. A quick response to a friend’s message and a few minutes are lost by the organisation to these social responsibilities.
Team collaboration tools ensure that everyone in the organisation has a clear picture of what is going on. One of such tools is Trello. It helps to give a sound view of all that is ongoing using the board approach. The interface/board is divided into three main columns – “To Do”, “Doing”, “Done”. On the other side of the column are features that make Trello tick. Users can leave comments; add attachments like images, among others. It can also be used to source for views about a particular issue. On Trello, the different boards ensure that the all team members know what the organisation is planning and doing.
Another communication tool that seems to rank high on the list is Slack. It is the workstation without an address. Its use of dedicated channels and rooms allow for private conversations among team members and this makes it the real McCoy. It is both mobile and desktop-friendly. Slack allows users to drag and drop files and decide on which of the channels it should fall.
Slack was inaugurated in 2013 and it has since integrated with a number of third-party applications like Dropbox, Google Docs and GitHub. The statistics from Slack shows it currently leads the market. It has over two million people using the app and the average person sending nearly three hours on the app daily. About 570,000 people also pay to use the premium features on the app.
Slack allows users to cut off from work impediments like emails. Already, the figures show that machines send about 90 per cent of emails. Slack has the capacity to integrate with other software. It additionally allows for formatting of text to add some uniqueness and form to messages. There is also the feature of customer support and option for change in the user interface. When a user is offline, an email notification drops and so the user is connected through every means.
Homegrown Smartag app is also a decent effort at ensuring a teamwork that is more effective. Integrated with Dropbox, Google Calender and Google Drive, the app brings all the “tools your team needs to collaborate and capture knowledge together on a single intuitive interface.” Integrated into Smartag app are shared activity channels and HD video chats. Its effectiveness feature also makes it possible to see if teammates are delivering on results while a chart is plotted to reveal this.
Another unique feature of Smartag app is its quick chatter component, which allows teammates to chat in a group. The platform also welcomes members to share anything through channels on the app. Like most business communication apps, Smartag app provides an opportunity to keep track of everything. It saves all projects and conversations around it in a single location making retrieval easy. Produced by Einsight, Smartag has enjoyed support from Nigeria’s YouWin intervention to enable its expansion. Interested users can sign up for free on www.smartagapp.com.
Other alternatives are Bitrix24, Glip, Yammer, Fuse, Microsoft Lync, HipChat, Hall and Pie. Also available are eXo, Skype, Quip, Zapier and a number of others. Business communication tools such as Slack and Smartag are free but they have premium plans that offer better security features and more options.
One hopes that these tools begin to find their ways into project management curricula to ensure that employees or teammates learn more about collaboration through aided business communication.
Source: Punchng.com
