Commercial Integrator June 2022 - Special Section 2

C llab rati n
TODAY and TOMORROW
chat to let us know when something is overdue.
Collaboration tools also drove increased co-editing on
documents. Because the documents are all in one place,
users actually open and edit the single document, and then
they realize they can co-edit it, too! Co-editing was around
before these team-working tools, but adoption was not very
high because everyone was in the habit of working on a local
copy and emailing it around.
Collaboration Tools: Needed Now More Than Ever
The pandemic was a key driver in the adoption of teamcollaboration
tools. For most organizations, the ability to communicate
was the initial driver. Everyone is remote. We all need
online meetings now. In pushing out these tools for meetings,
it also put team-collaboration tools into the hands of millions
of users. That wouldn't have happened nearly as fast or as
pervasively if not for the pandemic.
After the initial burst of 100% remote working, we all realized
that being in online meetings all day was not productive. It was
sucking all our mental energy and leaving no time to get actual
work done.
So, how do we stay in sync but not spend all day in online
meetings? The answer is asynchronous collaboration. Not just
" chat " but also using planning tools to understand what everyone
is working on efficiently and their status - seeing when a
document was edited, who edited it and what changed. Being
able to reach out for help or input in chat, without having to
call a meeting. We don't need to be in a meeting to review a
document. Review it at a time that suits you, add comments
and track changes. Come together for an audio or video discission
if and when needed. For those who can't make it, record
that discussion and have the recording available to the whole
project team in the work hub.
Most reports and surveys seem to agree that there has
been a permanent change in how we work. People do not
want to go back to five days a week in the office. Efficiently
working remotely across locations and time zones is here to
stay. Collaboration and unified communication tools will make
or break the efficiency of how a team delivers. Communication
on its own, no matter how unified, is not enough.
Access Does Not Equal Adoption
Collaboration tools are at the center of new and hybrid ways
of working. It's clear from the numbers that adoption has accelerated
massively, but vendors don't break down the usage
figures by meetings versus calling versus collaboration. I know
from working with many enterprises that this change in how
we work is a long journey. In some organizations, old habits -
for example, saving files in " My Documents " and emailing them
around - are hard to break.
Software-as-a-service and the cloud have commoditized
access to advanced communication and collaboration tools,
commercialintegrator.com
We have never needed all the tools that make up the
concept of collaboration more than we do right now.
but access does not equal adoption. Organizations that want
to ensure efficient and effective collaboration-tool use will
need to invest in user adoption, training and coaching. One
of the challenges of collaboration is this: If anyone in the
project fails to adopt the " team hub " approach to working
- for example, if they still use email or work on documents
outside of the work hub - a lot of the value is lost for the
whole team.
The Future: More and Cleverer Collaboration
Collaboration tools with integrated unified communication
are here to stay. So what does the future hold for these tools?
We are just at the beginning of what artificial intelligence and
machine learning will bring to our collaboration experiences.
Today, we use AI/ML to reduce background noise in our
meetings, improve video quality and maybe add captions.
That's all great, but the even more incredible value will come
from AI bots that can join the meeting and take minutes,
log and track actions, transcribe who said what and provide
meeting summaries for those who couldn't attend. What if
you could search for content in meetings like you search files
or chat today? What was it that Rob said about Project X? I
know it was important, but I don't know where to begin to find
what he said in one of possibly six recorded meetings. The
meeting will become even more integrated into the overall
collaboration process.
Unified communications is a key tool for us to work together,
but it is just a feature of collaboration...of " the action of
working with someone to produce something. " And I, for one,
am excited about the new wave of collaboration and communications
continuing to change and improve the way we work
together in the future.
Tom Arbuthnot is founder of Empowering.Cloud.
JUNE 2022 Commercial Integrator
http://www.commercialintegrator.com
Commercial Integrator June 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Commercial Integrator June 2022
