A collaboration platform, specifically a cloud-based solution, is a fundamental prerequisite for shared data management and access anytime, anywhere, even on the move. And it is precisely on this basis that the concept of a distributed office is truly developed.
A collaboration platform allows you to manage business activities and entire processes. Information, documents, and communications can be made available to everyone in asingle, centralized workspace . Having a tool that provides everyone involved in a given task, as well as managers, with a comprehensive view of workflowsoffers the organization a valuable opportunity to check the progress of tasks in real time, theiralignment with objectives , and, more practically, the priorities to focus on, the most appropriate resource allocation, and so on.
A collaboration platform is also essential for hybrid working, as it represents the repository from which you can draw everything you need to carry out your tasks outside the office, while also keeping up to date with the work of other colleagues who are collaborating on joint projects.
What is a distributed office and what support does a collaboration platform offer?
The concept of a distributed office expresses a new way of working that transcends the walls of a single room to occupy the entire company headquarters and expand into people's homes, allowing them to remain connected and operational as if they were in a traditional workspace.
The pandemic, with the resulting social distancing requirements, has broken down many cultural barriers to smart working. The Smart Working Observatory at the Polytechnic University of Milan has indicated that, although the vaccination campaign is decreasing the number of smart workers, it is expected that post-pandemic there will be 4.38 million smart workers adopting hybrid models, with two or three days of smart working per week.
Collaboration platform: Cloud and integration are key words
Given that building a (virtual) space of this type requires hardware devices (PC, tablet, possibly a headset and camera) and connectivity, it is also essential to have a collaboration platform to provide workers with applications and resources. To do this, the collaboration platform must have among its key requirements, undoubtedly one of the key players of recent times: the Cloud. The "Cloud" is what allows the platform to be constantly updated and facilitates remote and mobile working. Furthermore, a cloud collaboration platform does not require proprietary infrastructure but is used "as a Service": it is provided as a service by a vendor specialized in this sector who takes care of the maintenance and evolution of the solution.
The second essential requirement for a collaboration platform is that it be integrable. A collaboration platform must be able to communicate with all company applications, from ERP to CRM (including, if applicable, PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) software, IoT (Internet of Things) systems, and so on), so that everything needed can be made available to each employee.
Flexible, technologically advanced and safe
To create a distributed office that fully adapts to each organization's operating methods, the collaboration platform must be easily customizable for rapid adoption and not require extensive specific skills to operate. Therefore, it must offer users maximum flexibility, allowing it to be used for any business function without further burdening IT.
A key advantage that characterizes and distinguishes a collaboration platform from others is its technological component. Process or part-process automation capabilities (such as low-value-added or routine tasks) and artificial intelligence, for example, to correlate and then extract insights from data, make the collaboration platform a competitive advantage in terms of productivity and greater overall efficiency.
Last but not least, there's the security: a distributed office is protected and, in turn, keeps the company's information assets safe when the cloud collaboration platform is a service provided by secure data centers and allows for the implementation of ad hoc access policies and rules for each professional profile employed in the company.
