Enhancing Remote Collaboration in the Hybrid Workplace

As we continue to navigate the post-pandemic phase, we’re experiencing a work revolution. To safeguard business continuity and stay competitive, organisations will need to rethink long-term operations and look to leverage opportunities to digitally transform traditional processes.

Over 2020-2021, the return to the office has seen a hybrid approach, a combination of physical and virtual cultures adapted by workforces worldwide. Regardless of the mix, the key to long-term success will be engaging collaborative and accessible technology.

Ben Johnson, General Manager - Marketing & Strategy at Dicker Data said, "The success of flexible work arrangements will depend on how well businesses equip their people with agile, robust and secure technology. As we move into a digital renaissance, business leaders need to prepare for anticipated changes and strategise a new way of work. Digital capabilities will provide new means of connection, collaboration and accessibility for a forever changed work environment.”

Success in the so called ‘new normal’ is being defined by the ability to tap into the connected world. Partners are encouraged to move from survival to growth mode. Dicker Data offers strategies, solutions and tools to help organisation’s future-proof their workplaces and improve experiences with new and inclusive applications.

Unified and inclusive experiences are key to staff engagement

Human interaction as well as consistent communication are significant drivers to an employee’s sense of connection.

By digitally equipping remote teams as well as physical meeting spaces, employees can leverage intelligent solutions to improve engagement, collaboration and break down communication barriers. Business resilience can be achieved with the right technology that can enable a seamless working experience, merging the virtual and physical office.

As video conferences become the new normal, applications like Cisco’s Webex enhance communication with visual, tone and gesture capabilities which allow messages to be better received. Webex also integrates with popular workflow apps including Microsoft Outlook, Google Drive and SalesForce.

In the new hybrid workplace offices will need to be enabled to cope with the unification of physical and virtual meetings.

For existing Office 365 users, built in Microsoft Teams offers communication tools that improve productivity and teamwork by integrating all forms of collaboration into a single user interface. This includes fun chat rooms with emoticons and GIFs, video meetings, file storage and application integration, allowing teams to stay connected.

Integrated solutions play a vital role in bolstering team engagement, collaboration and accessibility regardless of the location, all of which lead to increased productivity.

The power of collaboration

Intelligent technology will be an enabler for successful, long-term remote work possibilities and seamless collaborations.

According to Deloitte, the Australian Collaborative Economy (worth $46 billion a year) will lose $9.3 billion per year, if companies don’t leverage workplace collaboration. Unlocking the power of collaborative digital solutions will support productivity.

Microsoft 365 and Office 365-Productivity are designed to act as the central point for the Modern Workplace. Along with Teams, Microsoft delivers an efficient operating system, mission-critical security tools and seamlessly integrates with workplace productivity apps. This empowers teamwork with secure access to files, video/audio conference calls, chat groups, real-time content collaboration and co-authoring capabilities.

Cisco’s Webex Team Collaboration is an all-in-one platform with pre-built solutions that help speed up projects, build better relationships and solve business challenges. The user-friendly toolkit easily integrates with third-party applications like Microsoft and Google and offers improved collaboration experiences from group chats and audio/video conferences to interactive whiteboards and file sharing capabilities. The platform also enables companies to host events, such as webinars, which are an ideal replacement for face-to-face conferences during and after the current pandemic.

Citrix Workspace™ provides unified experiences with Content Collaboration, overcoming technology distractions and organisational productivity costs. The platform supports workflows with the ability to share, access, collaborate, iterate and track content from one secure central location. Citrix also enables IT to modernise its infrastructure with visible, simple and secure control.

Zoom simply video conferencing and messaging across any device. Users can join anywhere, on any device and experience unparalleled usability with peace of mind due to powerful meeting security. Zoom Room solutions tackle the three biggest pain points of the conference room: starting a meeting, booking a meeting, and sharing content. Easily share multiple desktops simultaneously in the room, enable interactive whiteboard capabilities and more. Zoom makes it easy to scale video to every room size.

Such collaboration tools enable employees to work faster and deliver higher quality outcomes which are key to survive, thrive and grow.

Improved accessibility and business engagement

Accessibility and inclusiveness are important considerations for every company. Deloitte’s 2020 Global Human Capital Trends report found 79 percent of global respondents believe fostering a sense of belonging in the workforce was important to success.

Employers need to focus on removing any accessibility barriers by providing smart assistive technology, team management and meeting platforms.

Further to Microsoft’s mission to “empower every person and every organisation on the planet to achieve more,” Microsoft supports Australian workforces with tailored and disability-friendly tech tools addressing users with vision, hearing, neurodiversity, learning, mental and mobility disabilities. Microsoft Teams offers numerous accessibility features to help each and every one of us to work more effectively.

At Dicker Data, we understand the power of technology and continue to work with innovative vendors to help add value and meet the needs of our partners and their end-users. We have the strategies, software and capabilities in-house to develop tailored, end-to-end solutions and equip customers for the future of work with unified experiences.