Let’s face it, today’s work is all about how fast you can juggle and deliver on initiatives and business objectives. Maybe you’ve got an amazing customer experience, but it is a struggle to get new products and services to market. Or you finally have all the right people in place to land that new client, but can’t communicate and collaborate efficiently to get things done and beat the competition.
Ultimately, it’s about whether your people have the right tools to remake themselves into an efficient, responsive team – and overcome the challenge of working across time zones, locations, and cultures. Driving a high level of collaboration is the hard part – whether you are an “official” or “un-official” project manager.
Clearly, there are many new ways of working in a digital world. In an article for IT Pro Portal, Planview’s Chief Product Officer Patrick Tickle discusses Why is Collaboration Software Suddenly Such a Big Deal?
In a 24/7 world, he writes, it is essential to arm virtual teams with the right technology and communication tools to keep every member motivated and engaged. This is especially true when it comes to ensuring access and visibility to shared documents and project status to get the job done. Here are some of the article’s key findings I think you will find interesting:
- A growing number of millennials require work-life flexibility and the ability to work from anywhere on any device
- Virtual teams are on the rise – nearly a third of staff collaborate with geographically dispersed colleagues, according to a study of 200 U.S. professionals
- Even in the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and Bring Your Own Software (BYOS) era, 73% of survey participants rely heavily on email to share documents and to understand project status, followed by spreadsheets (62%) and the phone (53%)
I think we can all agree that bouncing between 8 to 12 applications to get work done will only add up to wasted time and duplication. But how can you overcome collaboration challenges without wasting time and effort? Today’s workers need:
- A more centralized, seamless user experience to communicate faster and plan workloads more effectively
- A single place where all documents and deadlines are stored so projects and tasks are visible to everyone
- Mobility and flexibility to enable these dispersed global members to be more productive
This is just a short summary of what collaborative work management tools like Projectplace provide organizations (there are many more practical uses, features, and benefits). If you are interested in learning more about how work collaboration can help your team deliver on projects, stay tuned to the Planview Blog and read the Survival Guide for Successful Collaborative Work Management. It provides 7 practical tips to drive effective collaboration at your company, functionality to consider, and suggestions for working smarter not harder.
Let me know what you think about the guide. Share by leaving a comment below.
