Making the Most of the Systems you Have

In a world where digital maturity is expected, it’s no wonder that so many new apps and platforms promising to improve the way we work, from productivity to managing accounts, are emerging to help organisations transform in an ever-increasing digital world.

The issue is, which do you choose for your organisation?

Assessing your Needs as a Business

Focusing on macro, micro and internal factors when structuring any part of your business is a sensible route to being able to identify your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT).

Macro factors might not have been a consideration for something so specific as sourcing a new app or platform before the pandemic. However, we now know that being able to collaborate with colleagues via video functionality is an everyday occurrence, and vital for the progress of daily activities. So, ensuring our collaboration tools are proving successful for hybrid working teams in all their guises is high on the agenda.

Micro factors also play a part when considering your sector and industry competitors:

• What are others within my industry using?
• What are the next big trends in digital?
• Is my sector experiencing a shift in behaviour or structure?
• Who are the dominating players?

And obviously, internal factors will have huge impact on the decision:

• What platforms are already in use?
• What free apps are the individual users installing?
• How do departments interact with each other
• What challenges are there in gathering data simply?
• What does the organisation want to achieve?

Ecosystems

We’d like to introduce you to our new integration that is set to aid collaboration across a wide range of working styles – Verto 365 for Microsoft Teams. And here’s how it can benefit any organisation:

“Integration” isn’t a new word or piece of terminology, but it can be interpreted in different ways to different people. Microsoft’s suite of office tools is used widely and often and it isn’t much of a stretch to consider that at some point every organisation in the world has used a Microsoft product, even if it’s a simple Word document. But when we look at their complete range of office solutions, and how they function with each other, we can start to see the true meaning of an integrated digital ecosystem.

Microsoft Teams has seen dramatic uptake since the start of the pandemic because it seamlessly allows for collaboration methods between teams of remote workers. Now that people are so used to being on MS Teams and spend so much of their day within the platform it makes sense that MS Teams apps are emerging to allow you to do more from within the one platform.

Verto 365 is a work collaboration platform that brings people, teams and organisations together to effectively and logically manage programmers, projects and workstreams of any size and complexity. Verto 365 is a Microsoft Teams app that fully surfaces within MS Teams, meaning all the features and functionality you have within Verto 365 via a web browser, you can now also achieve directly from within MS Teams without having to leave the platform for anything, even to sign in.

What integrations and automations allow for is the reduction of a break in workflow, which leads to improved productivity providing workers with more time. Apps that provide true integration go one step further by leaving their egos at the door and allowing for complete system integration where there isn’t a need to leave the platform you’re in, to use all the functionality of another system. 

Single sign-on functionality is another method used to maintain the flow of work where there is no need to login to the app you are using within Teams. It’s all done automatically to make your workflow easier.

System implementation

The challenges of new system implementation can also be addressed by nurturing a digital ecosystem within your organisation:

Integrating with an existing system doesn’t tend to put people off in the same way as bringing in a new tool that looks different and has unfamiliar configurations and workflows. Those who are used to a certain way of doing things may not need to completely change their old processes and procedures when they can implement a new app that rests within a legacy system. Those who are reluctant to ‘buy-in’ to a new system may have a softer introduction if they can view and use the new tools within an existing legacy platform they are already familiar with.

A new set of digital tools may also be a struggle to learn for some within the organisation but with a carefully selected platform that has the ability to introduce additions as needed and provides flexible customisations can ease the pain point to extinction.

Routes to interact more seamlessly with other departments to identify dependencies or generate same format reporting methods can be attractive but setting them up can appear daunting. Therefore, a consideration of the new app or platform should be the support they provide. Where is the support team based? What does the ongoing support look like? A sales team that initially won you over is unlikely to be the same team that helps you link your HR dashboards to the finance departments.

Final Notes

It can be appealing to invest in a new system, and is often the right choice. So, look to your company and decide whether your legacy systems can do more for your organisation, like Microsoft Teams, and enhance the way you operate by implementing a fully integrating app, such as Verto 365.