Work environments are evolving into something more flexible than ever before, yet key business goals to improve efficiency and drive growth remain the same. As workers behaviors evolve, executives need to seek new resources to achieve these goals. SaaS solutions are emerging that meet these demands head-on! Here are the areas to focus your tech stack growth to best fit today's evolving workforce.
Communication and Collaboration
Communication and collaboration is business critical today. Individuals scattered across time zones and locations must figure out how to work together optimally. This is where the adoption of Unified Communications and Collaboration (UCC) solutions can make all the difference to meet the needs of the modern worker. UCC solutions provide multiple communication channels and formats so workers can choose the communication mode best suited for their flexible environments or needs.
Making video conferencing the standard for meetings give companies an opportunity to regain the benefits of face-to-face communication across a dispersed workforce. A lack of face-to-face communication can impact the growth of relationships and promote misunderstandings. Remote employees may struggle to read coworkers' nonverbal cues, or rely on brief instant messages that lack context. Regular video meetings can eliminate misunderstandings and enhance working relationships, driving improved collaboration.
Communication tools that work across a number of devices are paramount for today's mobile-heavy workforce and growing digital native population. UCC tools should be built to empower the user to be accessible on any device and collaborate successfully on-the-fly.
Knowledge Management and Information Sharing
Information is essential for any company to drive decision-making. While each department in a company may have once worked in a silo, work is becoming more and more cross-functional. Rapid information sharing can speed response time not only in the office but also to customers, improving experiences for every company's key stakeholder.
Cloud-based platforms facilitate knowledge sharing by making data available in real time to all team members across multiple channels and devices. Many SaaS solutions provide integrated workflows through project management platforms and task management software. Teams can transfer knowledge in various forms, offering transparency and removing productivity roadblocks of working across various time zones. Everyone can feel confident they're in the loop and can continue working remotely, more knowledgeably and effectively.
More and more knowledge management SaaS solutions now offer ways to organize and search through a company's entire knowledge base to get tasks completed faster. There are also ongoing learning platforms for professional development as well as help desks that address common questions and concerns, helping to maintain productivity and workflow.
Data Privacy and Security
When you share more information, especially proprietary and customer data throughout a scattered workforce, security becomes even more critical. Companies have to be more cautious about who gets access to information and how to address collaboration, data transfer and storage in the most secure way possible.
To address these issues in today's flexible workplace, organizations must do more than just enact a security policy. Seek out partnerships with vendors who have well-documented confidentiality and data integrity policies, as well as external security compliance like SOC2. The right vendor should have a track record of trusted product development practices, happening in secure global locations. They’ll help you implement the right solutions for your growing organization, while avoiding critical mis-steps.
A password management service and multi-factor authentication can provide a greater level of control over who has access to what data and prevent breeches. Also, AI-enabled digital guard services are one of the latest SaaS offerings to address the need to better protect digital assets.
