The quest for unified collaboration

As the world makes it’s more permanent shift to hybrid working, businesses will have to consider the applications and tools they use when promoting collaboration. In this blog, Ashok Krish, Global Head of Digital Workplace Practise, Tata Consultancy Services, explores the technology companies can leverage while employees work both at home and in office. 

If the global pandemic changed anything, it was how rapidly we learnt to collaborate online, wherever we were in the world. Post pandemic, it looks like the distributed, hybrid workforce is here to stay. We’re now seeing our customers look for even smarter ways to connect. But instead of adopting a business-critical app here, or a smart collaborative tool there, how do we build meaningfully on the great work we’ve started, and begin to embed a permanent culture of unified collaboration that bridges physical and digital spaces?

Building a collaborative ecosystem

Some of the most exciting collaboration trends have emerged over the past 18 months, powered by technologies that have caused nothing less than a cultural transformation. These include using smarter meeting applications, integrating voice and video, closing the boundaries between physical and remote work. But for this experience to become fully integrated, we need to consider unified communications not just as workplace infrastructural plumbing, but as the foundational enabler of a comprehensive experience canvas.

“More than anything, enterprises need a digital partner who can transform employee experience for every persona, remote on in-person, knowledge-worker or front-line employee, full time employee or freelancer to create an employee experience that serves as a differentiator in the new hybrid world of work.”

The challenges leaders face

Making day-to-day collaboration actually work, doesn’t happen overnight. Firstly, business leaders must acknowledge the changing expectations of the very definition of work. Work is not just about offices anymore. Unified Collaboration technology needs to cast off collaboration in a distributed workforce. To make things harder, the traditional technology landscape of unified collaboration is not simple.

“Navigating vendor complexity effectively is therefore key, with a full assessment of managed service providers’ licensing needed to ensure the right tools – such as integrated voice and video and managed telephony – are adopted in the right way.”

Then, enterprises must unpick a complex web of legacy systems so that they have the right features to match new infrastructure, and also have a clear migration roadmap in place to ensure maximum adoption. Without the right partner to guide them through this complex process, we know that businesses can face a real uphill battle, one that leads to cost inefficiencies, inconsistent user experience, differing qualities of service, and even compliance and regulatory issues.

How the right partner can help bring lasting change

Harnessing the global leading digital ecosystem enabler Tata Communications and the IT and the consulting expertise of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), our combined solution puts unified collaboration at the center of every enterprise we partner with.

“Taking a holistic approach where the employee is at the centre, we move away from vendor complexity to simplify adoption and support, while managing legacy systems and expediting migration without impacting business processes or adding unnecessary costs.”

We also integrate voice, video and audio with best-in-class applications to make Smart Meetings the true hub of the modern workplace. Finally, the proprietary TCS Office 365 Engage Platform helps in delivering curated and personalized trainings to drive adoption and engagement across users using digital nudging and behaviour science.

To learn more, read this blog on using technology to tackle unconscious bias.