How Is Tech Improving Remote Team Collaboration?

Remote teams are becoming more popular thanks to their increasing viability and evident productivity benefits. But collaboration can still be a problem across vast distances, as individuals with no means of face-to-face communication attempt to work on the same projects simultaneously.

Thankfully, new technologies are emerging to ease the pain, making collaboration more accessible and efficient in remote teams.

Google Workspace and the Cloud

One of the most significant breakthroughs has been the rise of Google WorkSpace as the new standard in workplace intranet and the migration of productivity apps and services to the cloud. The “loud” essentially means the apps (and data related to them) are hosted offsite by a third-party provider, so your company doesn’t need to worry about onsite hosting, desktop apps, or self-maintained servers.

The cloud has three distinct advantages for Google workplace collaboration:

Universal Access

First and foremost, the cloud provides universal, unmitigated access to apps. Rather than being installed locally, apps are available on a per-account basis; as long as you provide your login credentials, you can access your work from just about any device (and from any location). This is important because it allows for more worker flexibility; people can work from home, work while traveling, and don’t have to worry about being away from the office (as long as they have internet). Also, you can rest assured that your team members are all using the most up-to-date version of the software, resulting in fewer discrepancies.

One Source of Truth

Cloud-based collaborative platforms allow the development and maintenance of a single source of truth (SSOT), eliminating redundancies and inaccuracies that could arise in other systems. For example, if you have three workers working on the same project locally, on their own devices, any inefficient or inconsistent communication between them could result in discrepancies between these iterations. With one source of truth to work from, there’s never any question as to which version is most accurate or which is canonical.

Real-time Updates

Finally, cloud-based apps allow for real-time collaboration in a way that other apps simply couldn’t. For example, two people a thousand miles apart can independently log into a spreadsheet app, look at the same spreadsheet, and adjust it. Each person sees the other’s edits as they’re happening, making it possible for people to work on the same things simultaneously. It increases the efficiency of collaborative work while simultaneously reducing errors.

Smaller Tools and Integrations

Technology is also improving collaboration due to the rise of smaller, more agile apps. In addition, novel startups are emerging to offer specific, helpful tools for workplace collaboration, including time-tracking apps, apps for niche functions (like managing signed contracts), and project/task management platforms for higher-level planning.

What makes these tools so conducive to a more collaborative environment is their ability to be integrated into a high-level suite of tools like G Suite. Google, Microsoft, and other major tech companies are increasingly opening the doors to more minor, innovative tools in the form of add-ons, extensions, and even third-party mods—often with a dedicated marketplace where you can look for these tools. In other words, you can take advantage of the functionality of these apps without abandoning the core structure of your collaborative processes.

Seamless Communication

Companies are also learning that collaboration requires seamless, fluid communication—and that seamless, fluid communication doesn’t take anyone’s form. For example, instant message apps are great for exchanging short sentences of information. Still, they can be distracting due to their near-constant notifications, and they’re not great for navigating complex problems. Video chats provide a simulacrum of face-to-face communication and can be suitable for longer, more complex conversations, but they can be intrusive and clunky—especially if there’s lag.

Modern collaboration solutions attempt to give people different communication tools, each with a different focus, strengths, and weaknesses. Better yet, they allow these communication tools to be used in sequence with each other—such as project management threads being easily accessible in the context of your email platform.

Feedback and Improvement

Whether you’re looking to develop the next collaboration app that takes the business world by storm or want to get a little more out of the productivity tools you’re already using, one of the essential elements to your success will be collecting feedback and using it to improve.

However, well, you can consider and project workplace collaboration needs. There will always be discoveries to make in the course of operations. So listen to your employees’ wants, needs, complaints, and compliments, and use those to guide your future collaboration direction—including which apps you use to improve your team’s capacity to work together.