Keeping an office connected and in communication with all other parts of it is a good way to keep your team on track, keep the primary goal in mind and get the job done as fast as possible. It aids in delegation, leadership and separation without losing touch. It is generally considered to be an expensive and time consuming process but here are some easy ways to get it done on the cheap.
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Instant Messaging
This has the advantages of being cheap and easy at the disadvantage at the risk of lack of productivity. Simply connecting the office to a messaging service like Skype, or even giving them specific Facebook accounts for their work and connecting them to each other allows employees to communicate with one another at will. This means that they can talk to one another and will need to be monitored diligently by management to prevent them from messing around.
Mobile Fleet
This is a simple way of saying give everyone the same mobile on the same plan with everyone’s numbers on it. Many companies offer discount or even free calls to phones of the same carrier so as long as they only have work numbers in them you’re good. Having a mobile fleet operational will allow a simple flat rate per month to keep all employees in communication 24-7.
Special Business Call Rates
This is a pretty simple system, a lot of phones in offices all linked to a special call rate as long as they call for business purposes. Companies like Com2 are capable of offering cheap phone call rates to businesses. See http://com2.com.au/ for details into these rates as well as other communication options. This is an easy system to monitor, as you can quite easily have a log of calls made out of the office.
Desktop Sync
This is a series of simple systems that will be of more use if you have installed the group Facebook idea above. This will allow you to have work events placed in a group calender, as well as an individual and team deadlines. This will quite easily allow for every employee to see the schedules and orders for the rest of the team and know what they’re all doing. With this simple technique you can quite easily become interconnected.
Cloud Files
Cloud Files are an off site data storage system that allows everyone to share their files and build the project collaboratively. This allows you to figure out where everyone else is on the project, as well as encouraging cooperation on projects that would otherwise be difficult to interconnect. This takes the uncertainty out of group projects, you don’t have to wonder if the other person on the project is ready yet.
Getting the job done together is far better than getting it done in pieces. Having everyone know where they are, where everyone else is and what their leaders need from them can give you a massive edge over everyone around you.
Your totally right for making these ways of an office in keeping a quick-pace in today’s communication. In addition, total customer’s satisfaction are vital for the business.
The cloud file is what we have to try doing in our little home office here, we have so bulky PCs under the table, this is indeed the solution. Great Ideas sis!
The IT Aussie company I work for has all these! We have an internal instant messaging system that comes so handy to make communication line open for everyone although the office occupies two separate buildings. We are also remotely connected that’s why some personnel can even work from home! How convenient!
I can only wish that the Philippine government adopt all these system so that it’s not only convenient for the employees but more importantly, they can deliver services effectively and efficiently to the taxpayers. Our government system badly need to adopt and keep up technology-wise or else, service delivery will always move like a snail or none at all! I know! I’ve been there ones as a civil servant myself!
Those are indeed very helpful tips for a connected office.
I love the most the remote desktop as I could easily get help from our IT whenever I have some technology issues in the classroom.
This is very helpful indeed for those business that need technology, it could save them some bucks.
Inter-communication is vital in running a company. Nowadays, everything is more streamlined if the whole office is wired and equipped.
I used to work in a government office in my town many years ago and we didn’t have all these communication system before. It’s good now that technology had invaded most of the offices and needless to say, it really helped a great deal in delivering their work.
That’s sure a nice to imagine a kind of office that one’s must have as a workplace. Well, as thus far, i can’t imagine it yet in my office, what we have is a classic way of communication, although we are trying to get modernize though 🙂
Back in the early 2000’s when I used to work in an office, we only had our desktops sync with each other and that instant messaging within the office. Facebook and cloud were not yet present those times… but yes, these are very practical ways to keep an office, a team connected, no doubt about that.
cloud files here in our house is a must. our family is a bit techy ones so we have private folders for files and public cloud files to share.
In today’s age of modern technology, it is hard for an office to not have all of these ways to be connected. Makes me laugh though as I think of a scene at the Phil Embassy in Chicago. The way to be connected was put at a bad limelight. People/customers have been lining up at the counter and yet, a couple of the staffs inside were glued to their screen IM-ing via Yahoo Messenger. Ha!
Quick chat is very effective if not abused by employees (you know those kind of baba chat not related to work hehehe).
It surprises me that the cloud that we know not is not something we see in the sky. Technology really has come a long way!
Thanks for this timely blog. I just registered my new business two days ago and your tips are useful. The only thing I’m worried about cloud and deskstop sync is security issues. In my field where protecting client’s information is imperative and might cost us our career, I still cringe every time I have to share sample files to our cloud.
These are great tips however, I still think that the basic requirement for the success of a company is to have a good working relationship with you direct contacts/team members. To quote my manager – “Keep the team coherent and performance will follow.”