Working Together... in the cloud
I was asked the other day, "what benefit does Cloud provide to intra-company cooperation?". This question is much more relevant now when most of the world is working remotely. And that is not expected to completely change back when we are safe to return to the office - more people than ever imagined will be working from distant places in the future. The article I reference at the end of this article has a lot more to say about that topic with some really clear callouts to why people want the flexibility to work anywhere.
This article simply calls out some ways Cloud technology is helping us work better within our company and with the people we need to collaborate with.
Document sharing
Word-based documents: Sharing of documents using environments like Google Docs, Microsoft One Drive, etc enables sharing and collaboration. No more passing documents via email - you simply edit the document that is sitting in a folder on the cloud and when you want to collaborate you simply send the link and start working on the common document. Everyone can work in the document at once, it is saved automatically so no one loses their work and you can see the other changes on the fly.
Structured documents: Sharing of project plans, spreadsheets and the like in cloud based products like Smartsheet enable employees to share these documents in the same way as text-based documents. In addition these products do other useful things specific to the type of document. For example, I can automatically trigger emails to team members when a project task is overdue by setting up rules for my project plan. Or, I can get a notification everytime someone adds a requirement to a requirements document.
Design, Story boarding: Technical design is an activity that is best done in front of a whiteboard together as a team. Since Covid that has become difficult to do in person, but there are cloud based software programs like Miro, Stormboard, IPEVO Annotator, Limnu, and MURAL that enable teams to whiteboard their designs together. This uses the concept described for Text based documents and activity documents like project plans, but for the design process. Users can "grab the marker" and contribute to the shared design being viewed by all participants in the session.
The other area that is catching on in large companies is the implementation of Design Languages such as Carbon from IBM. These systems enable a company to capture the design principles in a common repository where all designers can go and pull what they need for their next design. In addition, these design systems are open so that designers can continue to add new and creative features to the "language" available to all.
Communication
Software like Teams, Slack, etc allow teams to collaborate in real time or in delayed time, which ever works best for the parties in the conversation. This not only helps the team members that are in the same building but physically distanced, but also team members that may be in another country. I may send a Teams message to a team member in India when I am working and they are sleeping. When the team member in India comes in in the morning, they can respond.
Platform Scale-out
Cloud offers the ability to consolidate and standardize software and platforms much more quickly. A company that can standardize its software and put it in the cloud will benefit as it expands the use of that software to all departments. In addition, if the company acquires other companies or is acquired by another company, common software can be deployed or shut down much more simply and quickly. No more dealing with old hardware, etc.
One additional benefit to Cloud based work environments is that you can pull in the right people for a project from anywhere on earth. Tata Consulting Services (TCS) calls this "talent on the Cloud" and has built their entire consulting company around the idea that they provide the customer the right talent because they don't have to physically show up in your office to provide the service you need. Instead, they can provide the right person from anywhere in the world, anywhere in the world.
Cloud offers a significant advantage for intra-team collaboration. The jury is still out on the new normal of post-Covid, but suffice it to say, the genie is out of the bottle and Cloud is here to stay, so we might as well put these new methods of interaction into our quiver and leverage them where they work best.
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