We get up and go to work in the morning in the hope that the work we put in will make a difference. There’s no one sitting at their desk and saying “I wish there was more red tape”. What we want is to know that our ideas and the work we do for ourselves and our clients will have an impact sooner, rather than later. There’s a growing realisation that the Cloud can help with that.
Collaboration is what drives our ideas and fuels the creative process. What we want is to be able to get our work from the drawing board to the shelf or into our client’s hands as fast as possible.
What holds us up?
Well, imagine we are making a new piece of technology, a smartphone or tablet.
It starts with the focus groups, looking at what consumers want. It moves to designers who start coming up with concepts.
While this is happening the financiers start talking about budgets. If the budget changes the finished design might come through and then have to be changed. The designers need to go back to the drawing board and start again. A second design comes through. Each team feeds back individually. We go back for a third design. Once that is signed off we start moving into manufacturer and production. Say a manufacturer says there is a problem with the design, or that they could do the same thing, but cheaper with a different material, but now it’s too late.
Think of the delays, the headaches, the infrastructure to get feedback from everyone. That’s before we start talking about getting everyone into the same room for a meeting.
What does this lead to? Well you might get your new product on the shelves but the whole team will be exhausted, uninspired and disheartened.
Imagine if every voice could be heard from the drawing board to the production line? Imagine if changes could be made remotely throughout the process giving everyone their say on an equal platform?
This is what the Cloud can do.
With Hosted Exchange 2010 you can share files as well as content.
Every member of the team can communicate effectively and see the same information, which can speed up development and the creative process.
Reviews can be done while each team is working. Travel time becomes unimportant as staff can feed-in no matter where they are using either a smartphone or an iPad.
Each department can have their voice heard and all you need is a Project Manager to action everyone’s feed-in. Even video chat can be used, sharing content to help illustrate a point, making sure every member of the team has the same access to the same files, the same information they need to make it as smooth a development process as possible.
A smoother process makes it a faster process. The team can even work on multiple projects at once. Suddenly, your productivity has increased.
Another major impact will be that which it has on morale. If every specialism, every team along the production line is given an equal voice, they realise their skills are being recognised and valued. Your staff are using new technology, keeping up to date with new developments as it becomes easier for them to adopt tools to share their ideas. A happy team means a more productive team.
The time from drawing board to shelf has been cut and the staff is more enthused.
It can all happen with as simple and cost-effective a change as making collaboration easier. The Cloud can make you more creative.
Tags: Cloud IT, Cloud Technology, Exchange Hosting, Hosted Email, Hosted Exchange.Hosted Exchange 2010, the Cloud
