Being able to adapt to the new normal is key, and businesses – including yours – need to be ready for the future. Fortunately, there is no shortage of technology helping businesses stay operational and productive through difficult times. There is no better time to move business operations to the cloud than right now, and there are 5 transformation ideas you want to try immediately.
Virtual Meetings
We rely on video conference technologies to stay connected with colleagues, team members, partners, and clients. Surprisingly, a lot of professionals and entrepreneurs are reporting a significant boost in productivity upon switching to video conferencing. There are no more gaps between meetings.
Even better, each meeting is rendered more effective because every participant is focused on the tasks in hand. The lack of distractions is a huge plus. Online meetings are shorter but more effective, and better decisions can be made while everyone is working remotely.
Virtual meetings are only the beginning. Companies like Zoom and Google are already investing in technologies that will allow for virtual meeting rooms to remain available at all times. Attendees only need to join the meeting by entering the room, similar to how we walk into the brick-and-mortar meeting room to take part in a meeting.
Online Contracts
While the adoption of digital signatures and online contracts was already growing, the current crisis accelerates that rate of adoption by a substantial amount. Companies are more willing to accept digitally signed contracts and documents, and your business should too. To make things even better, there are additional tools for managing contracts in the cloud.
Contract lifecycle management becomes a concept crucial to every business. With contracts now living in the cloud, the need for better management, improved security, and careful execution of those contracts is also on the rise. Contract lifecycle management is incredibly important, and how it needs to be handled with the right solution. Simple features such as disabling printing and allowing digital signatures will make managing contracts easier. In the long run, contract lifecycle management allows your business to operate at a higher efficiency level.
Cloud Collaborations
Speaking of contracts in the cloud, document management is almost entirely moving to the cloud. Simpler solutions like Google Docs are already being integrated seamlessly into everyday workflows of businesses. When was the last time you had to share paper documents in order to get them reviewed? Exactly.
Documents in the cloud are easier to manage, but the tools themselves don’t stop at allowing for documents to be stored and edited online. Suites like Google Docs and Zoho are transforming the way we work on documents and other files completely by allowing for better, more integrated online collaborations.
Multiple team members can work on the same document at the same time. Edits are streamed live and updates immediately appear on the screens of other team members. Reviews can be done while the document is still being drafted, and document-related tasks can be completed faster than ever. This is the true benefit of online collaboration.
Sticking with cloud collaborations, other tools are also making collaboration in the cloud more common. Adobe, for instance, lets creative workers join in on a project in the cloud using any of the Adobe CC app. The extra fluidity offered by this type of cloud collaboration offers a competitive advantage that no other technology can offer.
Task Management
The real challenge of working remotely as a team is making sure that every team member is doing their part. That is why the adoption of task management systems and tools is on a steep rise these days. Tools like Monday, Trello, and ClickUp are getting a lot of new business users due to this growing need for better task management.
The Kanban system, the system that sits at the heart of these (and many other) task management tools, converts tasks into cards and displays them visually. Managers don’t need to micromanage team members all the time and can instead review progress in a more holistic way. At the same time, cards can be very detailed and include granular elements about the tasks at hand.
With better task management, other business processes can be made more efficient. Documents stored in Google Cloud can be attached to any particular card on the Kanban board. Chats and discussions can also be done directly on the individual card to add context. These little things make maintaining alignment as a company easier.
Automation
Last, but certainly not least, we have the big push towards better, more complex, and more reliable automation. Automation has been around for ages, but its implementation in simplifying business workflows was not very popular until recently. The current crisis certainly makes automation more prominent for the benefits it can bring to the table.
Automation minimizes the need for human input, so team members can focus on other, more important tasks. By automating mundane and repetitive tasks, your business can boost its output without expanding the team or consuming more resources. Automation can also be used in more circumstances than ever.
With the help of artificial intelligence or AI, for example, automation can be very fluid. Different sets of input can be translated differently, and different actions can be triggered as a result of that translation. The extra fluidity also comes in the form of multiple triggers and multiple actions, making complex automation more accessible.
The tools themselves are becoming more capable. Cross-platform automation can now be achieved with the help of tools like Zapier. Most business solutions also come with built-in automation features and an API that can be used with other services.
These are the transformations you need to be making right now for the future of your business. By implementing these solutions today, you are not only adapting to the current market but also changing the way you do business forever.
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