4 min
Level: Beginner
Count the number of collaborative tools you use every day. Whether it’s an application for chatting with colleagues, sharing files, video conferencing, managing projects or calendars, the list goes on.
Not much research has been done on this topic, but in late 2022, three Harvard Business Review analysts spent 21 days immersed in three Fortune 500 companies. The resulting report included startling data, such as employees switch between applications 1200 times a day.
“Employees switch between applications 1200 times a day.”
– Harvard Business Review
As alarming as this figure is, we know exactly why this is happening. Of course, organisations evolve and adopt new tools that better suit their needs, but abandoning old tools proves challenging.
The result? Employees in large organisations find themselves with millions of active applications, and SMEs repeat the scenario, albeit on a smaller scale. Regardless of the size of the organisation, employees in this situation end up wasting some of their time.
Despite the tools and technologies designed to make our work easier, the lack of effective connectivity between them is having the opposite effect.
While there’s no magic application that will integrate all the programmes in the world, simply reducing the number of tools from nine to three is a significant change.
Until recently, application developers didn’t consider compatibility with third-party systems. Fortunately, this situation has changed, and through integrations, applications can now work together.
In this changing landscape, it’s much more efficient to rely on a technology partner that develops solutions with an integration philosophy, rather than buying a solution from each vendor. Choose a partner that offers a portfolio of products that work together seamlessly and integrate with the systems you use most.
UNIFYING PLATFORMS IS ESSENTIAL
Under the premise of “making life easier” for employees, the leaders in Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) are developing connected work environments with the key tools an employee needs in their daily routine.
These powerful solutions are called workspaces and have come to bring together functionalities such as:
- Internal chat tools for instant messaging.
- Integrations with Microsoft and Google for online document sharing and collaboration.
- Video calling tools for internal meetings with colleagues and even clients.
- Phone features for making and receiving internal and external calls.
- CRM integrations to manage chats and calls without losing sight of customer profiles.
These platforms, which converges everything you need to communicate and collaborate, are the key:
SAVE TIME
The phrase “time is money” gives us some context. If you’re familiar with time optimisation and productivity techniques, you’ve probably heard of the ‘toggle tax’, which refers to the price of switching between applications.
This tax is the cost of having your entire workforce switch from one application to another. Using the figure from the Harvard Business Review study and estimating that it takes about five seconds to switch between applications, this means that we are losing a total of one hour and forty minutes every day.
It may seem trivial, but multiply this time by the number of employees and the figure rises significantly. The more programmes used to do a simple task, and the more people in that situation, the more expensive it is for the business.
That’s why it’s important for business leaders to focus on the technologies they use and be aware of the cost of having too many communication and collaboration applications.
INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY
Saving time undoubtedly goes hand in hand with increased productivity. When we have a workspace where we can manage four applications at once, we can focus more on the tasks at hand.
Through integration, these workspaces not only eliminate the time we spend switching between applications, but also centralise documents, messages and customer data.
Imagine being able to chat, video call, call suppliers, edit documents and send emails from your laptop or mobile phone without ever changing your environment.
ENHANCING THE EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE
We all want to feel motivated and valued in all aspects of our lives, and the workplace is no exception. At first glance, technology may not seem to affect these aspects, but it does.
If we turn on our computer day after day and face the same limitations in doing our job, our motivation diminishes, and so does our productivity.
The technology we use to do our jobs can completely change our attitude, our mood and ultimately our health.
The employee experience is a factor that should not be overlooked, as employee productivity is also linked to happiness. As shown in Gitnux‘s latest productivity report, employees are +13% more productive when they are happy.
“Workers are +13% more productive when they are happy.”
– Gitnux
If you want to take your team’s productivity to the next level, technology is the first thing you should review. Encouraging teams to reduce the number of applications they navigate through involves hiring a unified solution from a provider that integrates the highest number of programs under one environment.
As leaders in Converged Contact Solutions, we aim to bring together all the necessary tools for companies to communicate and collaborate within a single application.
If you want to experience the power of our workspace, get in touch with our team of experts by calling +34 900 670 750 or writing in the chat below.
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