With more than37% of UAE businesses and 35% of firms in the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) planning to shift to remote work, local organizations are increasingly feeling the need to enable a mobile workforce with access to business data and applications.
Not only has COVID-19 caused significant lifestyle changes in MENA (the Middle East and North Africa), but it has morphed the traditional office landscape as well. Organizations have entirely shifted to the work-from-home model, all in an effort to ensure that business goes on as usual despite the raging pandemic.
If you’re looking to support your employees as they adjust to these developments, collaboration software can help ease them into their new work environment.
That explains why Microsoft Teams has become a vital tool for organizations implementing remote work solutions.
The Importance Of Collaborative Software
Here are some reasons you should employ collaborative software to help your staff work remotely:
Improve Remote Work Communication
Collaboration software allows people from different teams and divisions to share their workflow and content in a wide range of formats. Communicate quickly and efficiently, but not in the form of emails that pile up in inboxes and can be challenging to find.
With the right software, you can:
- Organize conversations into channels
- Support both voice and video calls
- Integrate with popular applications like Google Drive and Dropbox
- Easily navigate through documents
Speed Up Work Processes
Not only is it convenient to use, but collaborative software can also save your team’s time by allowing them to focus on more critical tasks.
Centralized document storage and knowledge base can mitigate the need for employees to scan through piles of documents and unorganized storage. They can easily organize, publish, and share company data – which helps teams stay informed and work on the same page.
Improve Employee Engagement And Satisfaction
Collaboration software can bring together remote employees in the quickest, most convenient way.
Not only does it facilitate your organization’s workflow, but it also increases employee engagement and satisfaction. Given that engaged employees impact your business productivity, this is a crucial asset to have.
Microsoft Teams Can Help
With over44 million users worldwide,Microsoft Teams is enabling remote teams in the Middle East to improve team collaboration and business productivity.
Bringing your organizational work and processes in one place, the platform features file sharing, document collaboration, task organization, presentations, and spreadsheets – all with real-time synching. Microsoft teams also allow easy integration with third-party services such as MailChimp, Twitter, and Facebook Pages.
Kamel Heus, Centrify’s regional director for the Middle East and Africa, points out that themost common risk areas for businesses are focusing on securing remote access for employees.
All project documents are securely stored, so members accessing the information can maintain data confidentiality. With all your content and tools on one platform, Teams allows team members to focus on your projects and business goals within your organization.
Being a cloud-based platform, Microsoft Teams is supported on Windows, iOS, Mac, and Android devices, so you can gain access anywhere, anytime – as long as you have internet access. Alternatively, you can create a public team which anyone within the organization can join (up to 5,000 members).
Document Collaboration
Microsoft Teams give remote teams the power to access their Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and PDF documents. Moreover, multiple users can make real-time edits to their documents with the updates syncing automatically – no version control or over-writing information.
Once complete, you can move documents to your primary knowledge sharing application so you can ensure that your data is secure.
Instant Messaging
The Microsoft Teams’ messaging system enables project managers and staff to communicate seamlessly with each other during work hours.
Consequently, businesses can streamline communication, along with work by replacing internal email systems with the platform’s messaging capabilities. Thus, remote teams can stay connected to team members and access information instantly. In fact, in Egypt, international and local voice calls increased by15% and 3% respectively.
Screen Sharing
In the traditional office space, colleagues have the facility to look at each other’s screens to discuss work. However, with employees working remotely, conversing about technical issues can prove a struggle.
With screen sharing, team members can view each other’s screens to view the information in real-time, share your screen in a meeting with multiple employees, or just between two colleagues on a call.
Conference Calling And Video Chat
With Microsoft Teams, hosting meetings has never been easier. Whether your teams prefer voice or video calls, host meetings with multiple participants. Teams come with a wide range of tools to make your meetings more productive:
Colleagues that missed a meeting can view the recording at a later time. Moreover, messaging options enable employees to make queries without having to interrupt the speaker. Screen share during a meeting so team members can view documents during your conversation.
Key Takeaway
When deploying Microsoft Teams, consider your workflow, internal and external network, and use cases. Preparing a pandemic-proof working solution should be your immediate concern, but at the same time, it is vital to ensure that you invest in a trouble-free solution that’ll last a long time.
Luckily, a reliable hosting provider can assess your work requirements and can get you up and running in no time. To make the most of your team’s experience, following some best practices can take you a long way.
Learn more about how LDC can support you get the most out of Microsoft Team here, or deploy Microsoft Teams with LDC now.