Mitigating Risk When Choosing a Collaboration Platform
In the new COVID-19 reality, social distancing and remote collaboration have become both mandatory and essential as we are encouraged or required to stay home as cities, states, and even some countries are on lockdown. Based on my conversations with peers in healthcare organizations everywhere, most agree that increased requirements and dependency on remote collaboration will not be abandoned after the COVID-19 pandemic is over.
Today, organizations are scrambling to find the perfect answer for maximizing productivity and collaboration across distances, great and small. In any normal circumstance, the organization would take the time to explore all options and vet all possible vendors through a drawn out and exhausting RFP process.
However, the need for expedited implementation and immediate benefits doesn't always leave time for the standard process. As a result, organizations are being forced to make choices based on limited information, often choosing the path of least resistance while scaling up a solution already found within the organization’s environment. The short and long-term risks of such a quick decision can be mitigated by making two very smart choices.
1) Organizations should choose a collaboration platform that is readily available, easily integrated, and is made by a widely known and trusted vendor.
When choosing the correct platform, an organization must consider several well-known collaboration tools such as Slack, Google Drive, and GoToMeeting. Of these, Microsoft Teams sits supremely at the top as the ultimate all-in-one solution for creating a flexible working environment. The ability to seamlessly integrate with a majority of your existing communication applications such as Microsoft Office, Microsoft Teams provides your organization the ability to collaborate extensively from multiple different devices, from virtually any location, and limits any risk of siloed information or missed communication.
Microsoft Teams will inevitably empower your employees to be more flexible, improve productivity, boost employee engagement, and even reduce costs. In a subsequent article, I will outline four ways that Microsoft Teams is the clear and resounding optimal choice.
2) As today’s internal IT resources are scarce and becoming increasingly limited, a partner who specializes and excels at the advisory, implementation, activation, post go-live support, and the training of the specific platform should be engaged. The mistake of relying solely on one’s own internal resources during such a crisis invites inevitable contingencies that can and will have lasting negative ripple effects and unnecessary liability. Therefore, choosing the right partner is imperative.
Whether your organization needs to implement or simply scale up Microsoft Teams, we're here to help. Divurgent is a proud Microsoft Gold Partner and is uniquely suited for the task. Divurgent is ready with an army of experts and resources that can begin, often the very same day, to provide a turnkey solution that includes guidance and heavy lifting so that your internal team can focus on other critical needs.
In fact, when faced with this very same need, Divurgent very recently stepped up to serve a large, multi-regional faith-based health system with more than 32,000 employees. Communication was drastically improved and Divurgent’s services and support were touted as the “best consulting engagement we’ve ever been a part of.” In a separate article, later this week, I look forward to going into greater detail.
Microsoft Teams and Divurgent are the clear choice to provide your organization with the tools and know-how to mitigate risk of a rushed decision and maximize the benefits of an all-in-one collaboration tool.
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David Voss, MBA | (480) 335-8560 | [email protected] | Twitter: @DavidVossHC
About the Author: David Voss is a Client Services Director currently employed with Divurgent. He also currently serves as a Board Member and volunteers with several different HIMSS chapters. His expertise is in providing advisory and staffing solutions in the healthcare space as well the delivery of design and implementation of various solutions to effectively manage both structured and unstructured data all resulting in superior patient care and increased revenue outcomes.