Collaboration tools are essential technology in today’s office
We live in an exciting time, one where technology is rapidly changing and bringing a host of new benefits. Its impact is seen in all areas of our lives, but none more so than in the way we work.
Mobility, remote working, AI…all of these terms have come to be critical to the office environment. I would like to add another one that we see as important: Collaboration.
In the work that we do, with a team that is often on the road and working for client sites/remote locations, being able to collaborate on projects, speeding up communication and putting information into the hands of our team when they need it have become critical to our success.
So, what tools exist to assist businesses to drive better team collaboration?
SMART board technology
We made the investment into SMART technology a number of years ago, both in terms of selling it to our clients and using it in our business.
SMART boards enable you to implement a digital whiteboard into your office. They cool thing is that this technology is so much more than just a whiteboard. It opens up a host of features that have helped both our business and our clients to better collaborate, wherever they are.
Remote collaboration
We use the SMART technology to run meetings with staff, wherever they are at that particular point in time. Being a digital platform, it allows our team to all share the same digital ‘whiteboard’, so you can see the notes as they’re taking place, even when you’re physically not in the room.
With our staff often on the road, it’s a fantastic way of keeping them connected without requiring them to head back to the office, wasting valuable hours in travel. We’ve seen our clients use it in a variety of industries, from real estate to construction, and everything in between.
Sharing information
One of the best features of collaboration tools like SMART is the ability to share the whiteboard notes at the end of a meeting. Having one set of notes, and not relying on individual team members to make their own judgements as to what the important outtakes from a meeting were, brings consistency and clarity to your meeting environment.
It is a simple as emailing the meeting attendees; the SMART board sends the information in a PDF.
Continue where you left off
Another great feature that we see both internally and with our clients is the ability to save a meeting. By that I mean that if for some reason we have to end a meeting, with a follow up to come a week later, we can simply save the work we did in the SMART board, and come back to it at the start of the next meeting, picking it up where we left off.
I’ve seen workplaces where people have written on a whiteboard ‘Do not remove’, trying to preserve the work they have done in a specific meeting space. Not only is that incredibly inefficient, but it also leaves you open to someone simply ignoring your request and wiping the board clean for their own meeting.
Cost savings
All of us in business are looking to be efficient with our resources, but travel costs are often a necessary evil. While I’m not suggesting you drop travel, it still has its place, technology’s like SMART have the ability to dramatically reduce travel costs.
For any business with a ‘hub and spoke’ style of operation, this can reduce the need for staff to travel between office locations. You can be involved in a meeting wherever you are, by simply joining via the SMART platform.
Find out how collaboration can transform your business
Interested in seeing this technology in action? From my point of view, it’s always best to see a technology platform in a live environment; we showcase our own SMART installation whenever we demonstrate it to a potential client.
Click here to contact us for more information on how collaboration technology can help your business.