Digital Transformation: Tools SkilledUp Life's Startups Can Use to Leverage Team Collaboration

Digital transformation is the incorporation of computer-based technologies into an organization's products, processes, and strategies. It has become imperative for organizations to embark on digital transformation to better engage and serve their workforce and customers, thereby improving their competitiveness.

Many aspects of digital transformation were accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, as organizations across nearly all industries were forced to limit or even abandon in-person transactions with customers, employees, partners, and suppliers in order to virtualize as many interactions as possible. Many companies had to redesign their processes, adopt remote or hybrid work routines, and accelerate their digital transformation initiatives.

Digital technologies and processes enable organizations to respond to customer demands both now and in the future. Startups must realize that these digital tools need to be incorporated into their business processes or face the risk of becoming extinct.?

Incorporating these digital technologies into your business will position your organization to better serve its principal stakeholders: customers, employees, partners, and shareholders.

The integration of computer-based digital technologies in business operations helps startups do the following:

• increase speed to market with new products and services;
• increase employee productivity;
• increase responsiveness to customer requests;
• gain more insight into individual customers to better anticipate and personalize products and services; and
• improve customer service, especially in providing more intuitive and more engaging customer experiences.

At SkilledUp Life, virtually all our workforce and volunteers cut across various countries, from Europe to Asia to Africa. Also, our team of volunteers on our marketplace is selected from various parts of the world. So it is very important for startups to adopt digital transformation in order to make team collaboration very effective, especially in a remote setting.

At SkilledUp Life, we have leveraged some digital transformation tools that have helped boost our team's collaboration. Some of the tools we have leveraged are:

1. Google Workspace

Google Workspace, formerly known as Google Apps or G Suite, is a collection of cloud computing, productivity, and collaboration tools, software, and products developed and marketed by Google. Google Workspace comprises Gmail, Chat, Meet, and Calendar; Drive for storage; Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, and Sites for collaboration; and an admin panel and vault for managing users and the services.

Tools such as Google Workspace have become essential in digital transformation initiatives. Your teams can share information in real-time and have access to a complete set of tools for improved communication and collaboration at work. It brings together the resources that companies need to face current and future challenges, being composed of a wide set of applications.

Google Workspace lets you collaborate with internal and external users without the need for a license for external users, simply by using a browser. Fast returns are obtained when there are activities involving many people simultaneously, such as:

• Writing proposals, which may require the collaboration of sales, legal and technology talents from all over the world;
• Budgeting processes;
• Real-time publication of information such as prices
• Human resources processes that bring the organization closer to the employee: training, talent retention, evaluation processes, etc.

The following apps are available as part of the core offering for most editions of Google Workspace:

• Gmail: The world’s most widely used email service
• Calendar: Scheduling solution
• Meet/Meet hardware: Group video and audio conferencing
• Chat/Spaces: Team conversations and project places
• Drive: Private cloud storage that also allows shared drives and files
• Docs: Collaborative documents
• Sheets: Collaborative spreadsheets
• Slides: Collaborative presentations
• Forms: Customizable forms and surveys?
• Keep: Collaborative notes?
• Sites: Collaborative websites

Google Work Space can be a very useful tool for any organization, especially a startup, because these services are individually available at no cost to consumers who use their free Google (Gmail) accounts.?

At SkilledUp Life, Google Workspace has given us more control and more features. We can secure documents and data, collaborate more effectively, and leverage advanced features and programs to make our teams faster, more collaborative, and better informed.

Google Workspace helps you experience the benefits of true digital transformation, including the ability to work in new ways that support hybrid and remote work environments.

2. Slack?

Slack is a messaging app for businesses that connects people to the information they need. Startups can use Slack to bring their people together to work as one unified team; it can revamp the way your organization communicates.

Slack is a communication tool that is also considered a messaging app (desktop, mobile, and web). It can be used to send and receive messages, share files, make calls, etc., within and outside the organization.

Slack workspace is made up of channels, where team members can communicate and work together. When you join a workspace, you’ll create an account using your email address. You can use the same email address to join as many workspaces as you’d like, but you’ll have separate Slack accounts for each one. Slack can also be integrated with other third-party tools like Google Drive to make team collaboration easier.

Slack makes accessing your colleagues easy—mmessage anyone inside or outside your organization and collaborate just like you would in person. People can work in dedicated spaces called channels that bring together the right people and information.

Slack has become the digital headquarters of many organizations, especially here at SkilledUp Life. It has improved engagement and boosted speed and productivity for our remote working volunteers. We have used it as an important tool for passing crucial information within and across teams, tracking and monitoring how our free talents are performing by providing daily updates, and it has become part of our onboarding process when a volunteer joins the team.?

3. Chatbots?

A chatbot is a computer program that simulates human conversation, either by voice or text, and is designed to help solve a problem. Startups can use chatbots to engage with customers alongside the classic customer service channels like phone, email, and social media.

Chatbots allow teams in your organization to quickly look up customer information and insights through Slack or Microsoft Teams, even in a remote setting. Using a variety of commands, the bot will immediately return the best results across your customers, users, and segments.

Chatbots can be custom-built to meet a range of specific needs in your business environment. Here are the most widely used business cases:

• Call-center support: By interacting with a support chatbot, customers can help themselves without speaking to an agent. They complete tasks such as changing a password, requesting an account balance, or scheduling an appointment.
• Enterprise integration: Chatbots can integrate with back-end systems, such as inventory management or customer relationship management (CRM).? Chatbots help sales reps quickly access phone numbers, or human resource teams perform faster employee onboarding.
• Virtual personal assistants: Chatbots help consumers navigate their daily lives and expedite activities such as booking an appointment online. Apps such as Siri, Alexa, or Google Home, all deploy chatbots to play the part of virtual assistant.

The workplace is constantly changing, and consumer expectations continue to rise. It is critical that companies equip themselves with innovative and efficient digital tools. Digital transformation tools, especially for team collaboration, allow you to manage your data, execute critical business functions, organize activities holistically across the organization, and prepare for the new digital era.