Coleman Technologies Blog

Let’s review what true collaboration is, and how you can lead your company towards more collaborative behaviors in your day-to-day undertakings.

Teamwork and Collaboration Aren’t the Same Thing

First, it is important that we define the difference between these two seemingly synonymous terms. While it is possible to work as a team without collaborating, collaboration requires some element of teamwork to be present.

Consider it this way: by definition, teamwork is the combined action of a group of people. While this could mean that each member of the team is contributing to each step along with their teammates, signifying collaboration, it might instead signify that the task and its requisite responsibilities have been divided up amongst the group.

Teamwork, yes. Collaboration? No.

Other differences between these apparent synonyms:

• There is a tendency for a team to have a set leader to set the course of whatever project is being worked on, while collaboration thrives in an egalitarian group setting.
• Teamwork can be effective in completing a business’ short-term goals, while long-term goals are better served by collaborative behaviors.
• As we hinted at, teamwork requires someone to be in control of the group. Collaboration requires the group’s members to trust one another.

Collaboration Can Benefit Your Business and Your Team

Embracing the cooperative elements of a collaborative work environment can have universal benefits to those involved. For instance:

Your Operations

As the saying goes, two heads are better than one. However, if you have a whole team’s worth of heads, why not make the most of them to help advance your business? With collaboration instilled in your workplace culture, you will find it easier to come up with solutions to your operational challenges. Furthermore, your employees will be more engaged in their work, which itself brings considerable benefits, including increased revenue growth, diminished turnover, fewer accidents, and heightened productivity.

Your Employees

When it comes to the people you’ve hired to work for your business, collaboration can improve their experience as well. In addition to the shared knowledge that can benefit everyone’s quality of work, collaboration can improve the relationships between your employees. This is particularly important, as a study has shown that office friendships are the most important facet of work satisfaction for 70 percent of employees. Fittingly, collaboration leads to increased morale, which positively influences productivity and employee retention alike.

Encouraging Collaboration

So, with so much riding on your office collaboration, it is important that you endorse it in any way you can and actively encourage it amongst your workforce. But how does one do that?

There are a few strategies that you should adopt to accomplish improved collaborative habits.

Unite the Team with a Mission and Establish Expectations

It is important that your team understands how crucial they each are to your company’s success, as this can give meaning to their responsibilities in the context of your company’s shared overarching goal.

This goal is essentially your company’s mission. Once your mission is clarified, it becomes easier to set benchmarks that need to be met and what each team member’s individual role will be in accomplishing it.

Reward Collaboration and Innovation

Naturally, a positive response to collaborative efforts is going to provide no small motivation for your team to adopt them. A similar attitude toward new approaches in the office should also be in place. Risks can often lead to rewards, which means that an employee who is willing to try something new might discover a better method to fuel productivity. At the very least, they’ll confirm that you’re on the right path if your current methodology proves more effective.

Foster your team’s creativity and embrace input.

Support Your Team with Collaborative Tools

Here’s the hard truth: your employees are bound to have varying skill sets. Brian may be a brilliant writer, while Beth may have an affinity for customer service. Allowing your employees to work at those tasks they excel at will only benefit your outcomes. These outcomes can be augmented further using collaboration tools. With more people than ever before working remotely, these tools are more crucial than they have ever been. Make sure that your team is equipped with the technology solutions to collaborate even while distant from one another.

Coleman Technologies is here to help your business collaborate as effectively as possible, with the tools and resources your team will need at the ready. Learn more about how we can help sustain your effective operations through our managed services by giving us a call at (604) 513-9428.

Cloud Productivity

One option a business can take is by adding in a cloud productivity suite. Options like Google’s G Suite and Microsoft’s Office 365 can bring a business a lot of value, without the typically massive capital outlay the yearly software license would command. Besides, you probably already need licenses for a word processor and spreadsheet app anyway. Inside the software there are integrated collaboration options that allow your team to work on documents, spreadsheets, and presentations together in real time.

Communication

Efficient collaboration is not possible without strong communications. Today, there are options out there where an organization doesn’t necessarily need to invest huge sums in replacing their normal communications strategy to get the benefits that innovations made in the solutions can bring. By utilizing instant messaging, web-based conferencing, and cloud-based email companies can improve their top-to-bottom communication without taking on a lot of extra cost.

Collaboration Apps

New innovations in communication software are now available that provide advanced collaboration options. Developed like a forum, but with direct communication options, and integrations with third-party applications, collaboration apps like Slack and Microsoft Teams have a lot of options to help drive team productivity forward.

If you are looking for ways to improve your organizational productivity, call the IT experts at Coleman Technologies today at (604) 513-9428. 

A successful business thrives on building beneficial relationships, which generates a lot of data and contracts that need to be efficiently shared and stored. While this might seem straightforward, leveraging today’s technology can significantly cut down on filing costs and enhance file-sharing efficiency. Let’s explore how.

Traditional Methods of File Retrieval and Storage

Before delving into modern solutions, it’s essential to understand the traditional methods of file storage. The costs associated with filing cabinets are substantial. An average office worker uses about 10,000 sheets of paper annually, and it costs nearly $25,000 to fill a typical file cabinet, with an additional $2,000 each year for maintenance. Given these costs, it’s no surprise that businesses seek to transform their file management systems.

Modern File Management Solutions

Digital file management has transformed how organizations handle information, making it more efficient and accessible. Cloud storage solutions allow users to store large amounts of data securely online, accessible from any device with an Internet connection. This eliminates the need for physical storage and reduces the risk of data loss from hardware failures. Cloud platforms often feature real-time collaboration, automatic backups, and version control, enabling multiple users to work on the same document simultaneously and revert to previous versions as needed.

Modern digital file management systems also offer sophisticated organizational tools, such as tagging, metadata, and advanced search functions, which help users quickly locate files. These systems include built-in security measures like encryption and access controls to protect sensitive information and ensure compliance with data privacy regulations.

Digital systems can also reduce costs by streamlining the dissemination of information. Documents can be stored in searchable databases, enabling real-time queries and access from any location via smartphones. Smart contract services allow clients and customers to sign documents digitally, a service that will become more and more commonplace for consumers. 

Overall, advancements in digital file management not only improve data organization and access but also enhance security and collaboration, helping businesses cut down on excessive file management costs. Implementing this technology is crucial for any growing business.

To learn more about modern file management and file sharing solutions, contact the IT professionals at Coleman Technologies today at (604) 513-9428.

Ultimately, your employees are going to be the ones using your technology to accomplish their daily duties, so it helps to treat them like customers rather than end users. If you examine industry trends to make the best decisions possible with your technology and communications solutions, then you’ll allow your team to flourish in the process.

Salesforce conducted a survey of 500 industry leaders and 6,000 customers to determine how people consume communications solutions and how their expectations have changed over time.

Online and In-Person Experiences Are Equally Important

One thing you should take away from this study is that consumers want communication experiences that aren’t exclusive to just in-person or digital. 51% of respondents preferred to do business online, while 40% wished to visit an in-person store for their communication needs. 64% claimed they visited the provider’s website over the past month, and 35% have done business both online and in-person. The takeaway here is that your employees will seek help with their communications technology both in-person and online, so you need to respond to their needs appropriately.

Your Customers Do Matter

Great customer service is crucial to keeping your business running, and it all stems from having great internal operations—at least, that’s what 90% of the survey respondents believe. 40% claim they are unsatisfied with the way their providers handle their cases. If you think of your employees as customers, you can ensure they are getting the support they need from you to do their jobs to the best of their ability. Your employees are more likely to use a good or service if they know they have support from you and they know their feedback is appreciated and valued.

Digital Transformation Is Important

Most customers might prefer to use online services, but it’s equally important for you to embrace your own use of digital services within your own communications infrastructure. You should implement tools that can be effective in both a remote and hybrid work environment. One way you can do this is by implementing cloud-based solutions. You might find that your organization benefits greatly from their implementation.

We Can Help You Make Communications Easier

Your communications infrastructure is not simple, and you need tools that allow you to stay in touch with both internal and external stakeholders for your organization, be they employees, clients, or prospects. Through the use of tools like Voice over IP, instant messaging, intranet solutions, and more, you can share your knowledge and services with your clients while also giving your team the tools they need to be successful. To learn more, reach out to Coleman Technologies at (604) 513-9428.

With collaboration playing center stage for most businesses, it’s no small wonder that file sharing is such a priority for SMBs. If you want to establish solid file-sharing practices, you need the right solutions. Today, we want to explore four ways you can establish an efficient and secure file-sharing platform.

Share with the Cloud

The cloud feels tailor-made for collaboration and file sharing.

With the ability to access files anytime, anywhere, collaboration can occur whenever and wherever is most convenient. All you need is an Internet connection and an account. Cloud-based solutions also often come with security measures that mitigate data theft and loss, so they’re not just functional; they’re also secure.

The cloud should be your go-to if you want a solution built for multiple-user collaboration.

Implement an Enterprise File Sharing Platform

Power users of file-sharing platforms can also implement an enterprise-sharing platform.

This is especially helpful for those who need to share files outside of their organization. It provides more security and functionality to control data flow. Furthermore, these platforms offer a centralized location to store and share files, making them easier to secure than other tools.

With advanced security measures like encryption and access control, you’ll never be left wanting for security.

Structure Your File Names

File naming systems offer surprising benefits for file-sharing purposes.

For one, they’re more efficient, as they will allow your team to find files more easily. This strategy clears up potential errors before they even occur, especially for those who work with a lot of files. Collaboration is fueled by efficiency, after all, and anything you can do to make it easier will be welcome with your team.

A good naming convention can also make your systems more searchable, an additional plus.

Back Up Your Files

No matter how much you prepare, accidents and unplanned incidents can happen at any time.

A backup plan will go a long way toward mitigating the damage done by these unexpected situations. Your file-sharing system should be hooked up to your backup plan to fight back against corruption, deletion, or theft. You never know when it might come in handy, and you know what they say: better to have it and not use it than not have it at all.

Plus, you might have some compliance obligations to adhere to, so it never hurts to be prepared.

File sharing is hard, but we make it easy. Call us today at (604) 513-9428 to learn more.

Have Them Socialize Outside of the Office

Let’s look at how kids behave for a moment… if told to partner up, they—almost automatically—gravitate toward their friends, the people they are comfortable spending time with. Your employees will do the same, both in and out of the office.

Collaboration greatly relies on some level of trust and familiarity, which is most effectively developed outside of the professional environment. Encourage your staff to socialize outside of work hours, or even treat them on occasion, on one condition: no shop talk. While your employees may not all be fast friends afterwards, they’ll understand one another much better and be able to work more effectively.

Tell Them What You Want

Speaking of efficacy, make sure your team understands what you expect from them in terms of results. This goes double when collaborative work is involved. A clear understanding of a task makes it easier to determine how to accomplish it, and how their combined efforts can best serve their purpose.

Walk the Walk

If you really want your team to work collaboratively, make the first move and involve yourself in the process. “Rank” or “position” should have no bearing on how able someone is to participate in a collaborative process, and there is no telling who could be struck with inspiration. Actively seek input from your team and demonstrate how you want your employees to work together.

Use Your Resources Wisely

While there’s a time for either, there is a difference between combining your resources to accomplish a given task and having your employees collaborate. The former is great if a lot of a single task needs to be finished quickly, but if a complicated process needs to be completed, it helps more to give the task to a group of people who have different proficiencies. This way, you have a better chance of the necessary skills being present in the group.

Acknowledge Accomplishments

A team that doesn’t feel appreciated is a team that won’t accomplish much. Why would they, if it doesn’t seem to matter whether they excel, or put out a thoroughly mediocre performance? This is especially the case if a single member’s performance is publicly singled out, as though they did all the work.

To encourage your team to perform well as a group, make sure that the entire group receives some recognition of their combined efforts.

Make Collaboration the Easy Option

Regardless of how motivated your team may be to collaborate with one another, it just isn’t going to happen if they don’t have the opportunity or means to effectively do so. While this may have been a more reasonable obstacle in the past, today’s available technology invalidates any excuse your team may have… mostly due to the Internet serving as the greatest collaborative tool the world has ever seen. The easier the collaborative process is, whether you lean on an Internet-based application or an internal resource or both to simplify things, the more likely it is for your employees to work with each other.

We’re Here to Help.

Coleman Technologies is ready and willing to deliver the solutions you need to promote collaboration among your staff. Give us a call at (604) 513-9428 to hear more about your options.

Hardware

Fortunately, the biggest hurdle to collaboration isn’t usually having the right solutions in the office, it’s primarily making sure that these solutions are being put to use properly.

Consider your Internet setup - is it strong enough to wirelessly provide your entire office with connectivity, or would you be benefitted by implementing additional access points? Do you have the hardware needed to communicate and share data with mobile employees, and most importantly, can you properly secure all of it? Speaking of mobility, you will also want to consider if you want to provide your staff with company-owned mobile devices instead of leveraging a Bring Your Own Device Policy. There are options out there to procure these devices for well below retail rates, as long as these devices are bought in bulk.

Software

Depending on your type of business, you may have more or less to do in order to promote collaboration in your organization. A brick-and-mortar establishment will likely have its resources centralized, which means that employees will need to have access to these resources in order to properly communicate with one another, sharing progress on their work. While a private cloud platform would serve this need quite well, these solutions are typically far too expensive for the average SMB to consider.

These SMBs do have other options. Cloud-hosted software allows a business to leverage just about any computing resources they need, whether its a productivity suite, a business management platform, or a communication tool. Adding to these benefits, these resources can be accessed wherever an Internet connection can be established thanks to an integrated access management system. This same system allows administrators to keep threats out of their network as well.

Policies

Finally, for there to be collaboration, there needs to be the policies in place that “encourage” (enforce) the stress-free sharing of pertinent data with team members. In other words, you need to know that you have a way for your employees to access the data they need to complete their tasks as the need arises.

Having these policies can be to your organization’s advantage. While some of your data needs to be kept on a “need-to-know” basis, giving your employees some guidance to navigate how other data should be shared can help you to keep your business’ data that much more secure. It also doesn’t hurt that digital communications are becoming more of the norm, so it only makes sense to give your employees an outlet to communicate in what is likely their preferred manner.

In short, businesses are communicating in new and exciting ways. Not only should you not want to be left behind, you can’t afford to be. For assistance in expanding your internal collaboration and business communications to fully embrace today’s capabilities, reach out to Coleman Technologies’s IT professionals at (604) 513-9428.

Businesses have a lot of stressful things going on at any given moment, especially when timelines and deadlines are considered. You have projects that you need to complete for your customers and employees who need to be paid on time, and you would be hard-pressed to find a situation for your organization that isn’t under some sort of time crunch. How can you use technology to make sure that these timelines are met? Let’s go over some solutions.

Automate Processes for More Efficiency

One of the best ways to save time is to make your current processes more efficient, and you can do this through automating repetitive tasks. With this technology at hand, you can complete projects and tasks faster. There are other ways that automating processes improves efficiency, as it can make it easier to organize, collaborate, and track tasks. With the right tools, you can get more done with less, making the end result even better for your bottom line.

Implement Communication and Collaboration Tools

All businesses need collaboration and communication tools, and the fact that they can now integrate allows for some pretty neat functionality. You can use video conferencing, instant messaging, and collaborative document editing and sharing to improve communication across teammates and departments. Since these solutions are hosted in the cloud, physical location is less of an issue. With anytime-anywhere access, your company can be productive in even better ways than before.

Use AI to Predict the Future and Analyze Data

If you can understand the data your business collects, you can make more informed decisions about the future. AI-powered solutions can analyze your data for trends and, in some cases, can even predict specific events, allowing you to allocate your resources accordingly.

How are you going to use technology to change the way your business operates for the better? We can help you start this process with a consultation from Coleman Technologies. To get started, reach out to us at (604) 513-9428.

Team Building Benefits

Many modern businesses have employees who don’t always work in the office, instead electing to operate remotely. However, it is important that these employees are still assimilated as a part of your team as a whole. A conferencing solution can allow you to keep your remote employees on the same page as your on-site employees, building camaraderie between coworkers despite any distance between them. The better your team is able to collaborate, the more effective they will be able to be in accomplishing their tasks, as they will have each other as a resource to lean on as needed.

Keep Your Team On-Task

Let’s face it, it can sometimes be hard to be sure that your employees are focused on the task at hand. This is especially true when you can only hear their voice, or see the responses they send back to you. A conferencing solution fixes this difficulty by giving you and your team a visual of each other, keeping everyone involved accountable and engaged.

Increase Your Collaborative Footprint

It wasn’t all that long ago that collaborating with someone a distance away was only possible over the phone or by physically traveling to meet with them. However, collaborative conferencing solutions have taken this distance and shrank it down to effectively nothing. Like the team building benefits we discussed earlier, your team is no longer restricted to one place, or to dealing with exclusively local coworkers, partners, and other resources.

Promote “Face-to-Face” Communication

A sizable portion of communication is non-verbal, which means that your solution needs to account for this balance. More traditional solutions didn’t take this into consideration - or rather, couldn’t. Modern collaboration solutions, on the other hand, allow you to communicate more completely by allowing you to witness these non-verbal cues. 

Conferencing Can Simplify Your Solution Set

Compared to legacy solutions, modern conferencing tools offer a much more comprehensive selection of features. As a result, you can reduce the number of solutions that your operations rely upon, cutting expenses and streamlining your processes. This makes it much easier to find success in communicating with your team, without sinking all of your capital into your solutions.

Coleman Technologies can assist you in establishing the collaboration solution that fits your needs, as well as any other IT implementation your business requires. Learn more by calling (604) 513-9428.

Productivity suites are universally one of the best tools for getting work done in the business world, so if you’re not familiar with the term, then take a moment to consider how often you use Microsoft Office products or the Google Workspace apps. These are productivity suites, and they are remarkably important and valuable for your company, whether you realize it or not.

A productivity suite gives you a collection of tools for getting work done, quickly and effectively, in a variety of modalities. You can expect the following benefits from using a productivity suite for your business.

Increased Collaboration

When people have access to the tools and resources they need to do their jobs, they can work more effectively, and more effectively together too. Productivity suites have collaboration tools built right into them, particularly for cloud-based applications that can enable multiple users to edit documents, spreadsheets, or slideshows in real-time. Sometimes productivity suites will also have other collaboration tools built right into them, like video or voice chat.

More Accessibility and Efficiency

It doesn’t matter if it’s on a desktop, laptop, or mobile device. Productivity suites are generally quite accessible in some format or another, although features might vary depending on the version you are using. They are great for remote or in-house workers, and they can be accessed from anywhere using a web browser. Depending on the solution, you might not even need to install the apps—they are that convenient and dynamic these days.

Attractive Cost Savings

Of course, there are financial benefits to going with productivity suites as well. When you subscribe to one of the aforementioned services, you get access to the whole range of apps in the suite, so instead of installing multiple instances of each app on each of your devices, you are instead setting up accounts for employees who can then use the apps as they see fit. It’s better than purchasing licenses per user, and it’s more convenient when it comes time to upgrade to new versions of the software. It makes maintenance and patch management much easier, too.

Coleman Technologies can help your business implement and manage not only its productivity suite, but its entire range of software solutions. To learn more, call us today at (604) 513-9428.

What is VoIP?

At first glance, VoIP is almost indistinguishable from the telephone services you are used to using—in fact, you’ve likely used it before.

Basically, instead of using the network of telephone wires that stretches from your service provider to your location, VoIP uses your broadband connection to transmit your call data to and from the recipient. In doing so, you eliminate the need for a pricy telephone service, instead getting double duty from your Internet.

Like we said, you’ve likely used VoIP technology in some form. Skype, Facetime, and Facebook Messenger all operate as VoIP solutions, albeit more for the personal user than an organization. For the organization, many VoIP platforms are available that provide a hefty list of features and options, leading to greater advantages.

The Advantages of Using VoIP in a Business Setting

The benefits of using VoIP are straightforward for the business:

Cost

This is perhaps the most visible (and, for that matter, impactful) benefits that Voice over Internet Protocol offers. A POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) requires a sizable investment for the infrastructure alone, never mind the additional features that aren’t included by default. Comparatively, VoIP needs very little up-front investment, and these additional features are almost always included.

Simplicity

VoIP is a perfect example of a plug-in-and-play solution, with very little else involved in its setup besides signing into your solution and literally plugging in the device. Similarly, starting up and operating the additional features incorporated into VoIP is a very user-friendly experience as well. This ease of use helps to motivate your team to use the platform’s conferencing capabilities and mobile-friendly softphone, and for your part, adding users is a simple enough task.

Function

Finally, these additional features further support your business’ capacity to communicate effectively. Here’s a general idea of what VoIP solutions will offer:

• Call forwarding
• Personalized extensions
• Call routing
• Call recording
• Automated receptionist
• Call queues
• Instant messaging
• Text messaging
• Find me, follow me
• Audio and video conferencing
• Integrated voicemail
• Line-of-business integration

Depending on the VoIP solution implemented, many more features will likely be available in addition to these.

In short, VoIP makes your business communications better, benefitting both your internal collaboration and your outreach efforts. Find out more about what VoIP can do, and what’s involved in implementing it, by calling our professionals at Coleman Technologies at (604) 513-9428.

Collaboration is at the heart of any effective business. Most organizations today are trying to make the most of their limited resources, and one of the ways to do this is with a solid collaboration strategy. Here’s how you can do the same to avoid siloing tasks and squandering your workforce’s potential.

Collaboration in Business

In business, it’s easy to confuse collaboration and communication as the same thing.

The truth is that they are very different things. Collaboration involves more direct work between parties toward a shared goal. On the other hand, communication is the channel through which teamwork flows.

Technology gives businesses the ability to improve collaboration at all levels:

• Simple collaboration - This type involves real-time communications like instant messaging that provide quick results. Although it can often lead to distractions, it promotes a fast and easy exchange of ideas, which leads to more effective project completion.
• Data collaboration - This collaboration goes beyond simple communication and gives multiple workers the ability to contribute at the same time. This might look like working in the same document in real-time. This type of collaboration has flourished in a world where remote and hybrid work is accepted.
• Structured collaboration - With this level of collaboration, you have structured meetings where the physical or live virtual interaction between attendees is necessary. Whether the meeting is effective or not usually depends on the agenda (if one exists) and how much the attendees’ input is considered.

The Importance of Collaboration

You can supercharge your business with the right collaborative approach.

More often than not, more opinions and feedback mean more opportunities to do good. When your employees are trained appropriately, collaboration technology helps facilitate just that. With cloud-based tools and streamlined processes, you will be amazed at your team's accomplishments.

For more information about collaboration technology, contact Coleman Technologies at (604) 513-9428.

Collaboration tools can be remarkably helpful for businesses, if not downright essential to their success. With the right tools that are, of course, configured the right way, you can see exponential returns on your investment as your staff enjoy the many benefits they provide. Today, we want to discuss four common pitfalls with your collaboration tool security that must be addressed.

Ensure Secure Data Sharing Protocols

It’s easy to assume that your collaboration platforms are properly securing your business’ files when you share them through the apps, but this is not necessarily the case. You want to do some research and make sure that any tools you use—particularly those that are a part of the public cloud—use encryption to keep your files and communications secure. Yes, this also means your email solution!

Do Research on Your Solutions and Providers

When you are working with providers during the initial setup of your collaboration tools, you’ll need to be extra careful to ensure that you are appropriately configuring your solutions for maximum security. It’s easy to make the assumption that what one business finds useful will work for another, but it’s simply not the case, and providers who aren’t going to help you ensure you get the most value and security out of your solution have no place being on your business’ payroll, so to speak. In other words, make sure you understand your business’ needs first, then clearly articulate those needs to your providers so they can be obligated to help you get what you need from the agreement.

Make Sure Collaboration Tools are Centrally Managed and Maintained

If you’re having your employees use collaboration apps and tools, then you should ensure that they are not finding alternative solutions that are outside of your company’s control. You can dissuade them from making use of external apps—a concept known as shadow IT—by providing them with the tools they need to effectively do their jobs. The reason for this is that you don’t want them sharing company data through third-party or external apps that you cannot control or gain access to if needed.

Make Sure Your Team is Secure, Too

How do your employees access the resources they need to do their jobs? You need to make sure that employees who work out of the office for any reason are using secure Internet connections, further reinforced through the use of a virtual private network to obfuscate your data from any onlookers.

Coleman Technologies can work with your business to secure its collaboration tools, from your productivity suite to your email communications solution to your networking solutions. To learn more, call us today at (604) 513-9428.

Understanding Smart Scheduling

These software solutions are commonly found in industries that are subject to a lot of outside influence and fluctuating demand due to a variety of factors, such as retail. Smart scheduling gives these businesses the capability to schedule their employees more effectively, using automation to simplify the process.

Having said that, the principles of smart scheduling can be applied to all industries if they are viewed as a process, rather than a technology. Not only can all industries apply these principles, they should, as all businesses must deal with numerous factors that impact their operations.

Looking at it in this light, smart scheduling effectively just boils down to consolidating your various circumstances and scheduling to accommodate them accordingly. It’s recognizing that certain times will have different demand levels, that some conditions will impact operations, and making the preparations to deal with them proactively.

Scheduling More Intelligently

Even if you don’t have a dedicated solution lined up for these purposes, there are some ways that you can embrace the concept of smart scheduling. Consider these strategies:

• Bring Your Information Together—You should consolidate any available information that you have regarding your schedule and your business’ operations to make it easier for you to predict patterns and prepare for them. Understanding what priorities you have, and how much your employees have been available to accomplish, will assist you in scheduling your team more effectively.
• Communicate—Communication is one of the most important factors when determining your success, and this goes for how much information your schedule provides. Give your employees context into their tasks to help empower their procedures and productivity.
• Use a Scheduling Platform—Businesses have many options to assist them with their scheduling available, and not all of them need to be inherently “smart.” Finding one that works for your needs will bring considerable benefits to your business and its processes. 

Regardless of the business solutions you need, Coleman Technologies is here to help you manage them. To learn more, reach out to our team by calling (604) 513-9428.

On July 3rd, the Tony-winning Broadway musical was released on Disney+, meaning that history buffs and theater nerds alike don’t have to Wait for It. Even better, you can now watch Hamilton with all your friends. We Know, it’s pretty cool, especially since you don’t all need to be In the Room Where it Happens. Let’s go over how you can arrange that in this song-title-pun-filled blog.

Making Use of a Disney+ Watch Party

What is a Watch Party? Simple: it’s where you virtually gather with your friends and family to simultaneously stream a movie or show together, despite being in different locations. Many services, like Amazon Video, added this feature to help people make it through social distancing during the global COVID-19 pandemic without telling anyone to “Meet Me Inside.”

Hosting a Hamilton Watch Party

To enjoy this theater production of the life and times of Alexander Hamilton along with your socially distant friends, there are a few things that will be required of all participants.

Disney+

Naturally, everyone who wants to watch will need an individual Disney+ account. Unfortunately, the free trial offer for Disney+ is no longer offered. After all, once the second season of the Mandalorian was announced, they knew they could say “You’ll Be Back” to all their subscribers (we’ll see how the $30 rental for the live-action Mulan impacts this).

Subscribing only requires a quick visit to https://www.disneyplus.com/. You may also want to check online for any promotional codes that may be currently offered.

A Browser Plugin

Everyone also needs to install a Chrome browser plugin. There are some exclusive to Disney+, while others allow you to host watch parties via Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, and Prime Video as well. If you’re hosting, pick the one that works for you and make sure everyone has it installed ahead of time so there aren’t any delays. If you only care about doing a watch party with Disney Plus, you can use the Disney Plus Party plugin. If you want to host watch parties with Netflix, Prime Video, YouTube, and Hulu as well, you can check out Vemos.

These plugins will let you synchronize your video with the rest of the watch party and chat with one another. Add the plugin to the top of your browser and create an account.

Once that’s accomplished, you can start up Disney+ in your Chrome browser and start the movie. Then you can click on your new plugin and select the option to host. You’ll be prompted to name your viewing room. Meanwhile, the rest of your party will need to have installed the plugin, created an account, joined a movie, and entered the name of your room. That Would Be Enough for everyone to participate.

Then, as the host, you have the power to start the movie and have it play to everyone’s device. You can pause it so that people can Take a Break without asking “What’d I Miss?” or you can play the entire production Non-Stop.

Fair warning—some of these group viewing applications are only free for a set number of hours each week. Make sure you pick one long enough to view the whole thing, so nobody starts asking What Comes Next?

With any luck, this will allow you and your friends to watch Hamilton and keep everyone Satisfied.

Want more handy technology tips and tricks? Consider Coleman Technologies Your Obedient Servant. Each week, we update this blog with more tips and best practices, along with a Hurricane of useful technology information. With our help, you don’t have to feel Helpless when it comes to your business’ IT. We can be your Right Hand Man, just give us a call at (604) 513-9428.

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“What does—and doesn’t—work?”

To motivate your team to take ownership over their responsibilities and invest in your successful operations, you need to communicate that what they say has credence. Your team can be a goldmine of insights if you hear what they have to say. Think about it, they’re the ones that have hands-on experience using the tools that you’ve put in place.

Asking this question also gives you the opportunity to hear any criticisms of the processes and procedures that your team is currently working through. Again, as the people actively following these processes, your staff will likely have the best impression of the most effective way to complete the task at hand. Listening to their feedback will tell you if a solution is proving ineffective or if the team needs more training and support to properly make use of it.

Regardless, your team members are likely to have information that you would find invaluable, so it pays to listen to what they have to say. Who knows, one of them may have a solution to a longstanding problem that just needs to be brought up.

“What can I do to help you succeed?”

This is an important question to ask, again and again, as time goes on. After all, as situations change, the answer to it will change as well. By asking this question, you can use the feedback you collect to improve your employees’ engagement levels that much better. Opening yourself to this kind of input enables your team to enjoy a greater level of access to you.

This question can also help you reinforce the data that you generate by asking the first question we discussed, furthering your efforts to improve your processes.

“What has your team done to further the organization’s goals?”

By asking this question of your team, you can help encourage them to collaborate more with each other and use the communication tools you’ve provided. Asking them what their coworkers have accomplished in tandem to them, helps you make sure that they remain aware of the company’s greater processes and how their efforts contribute to the organization’s success.

In asking it this way, you’re also encouraging this team-based focus to integrate into your company culture. As a result, your team members will begin to think more as a team and work together to accomplish everything on their shared agenda.

“How would you make what we offer our clientele better?”

This is a practical example of what we’ve already discussed—asking those with first-hand knowledge to draw upon their experience to help improve what it is you’re discussing with them. Seeking insights from those who are working directly with your clientele will help you to identify and resolve the biggest impacts influencing your company and services.

“If you were me, what would you do differently?”

This question can provide you with a variety of useful information, from the biggest pain points that your team is experiencing to all the small inconsistencies you may have missed. It also helps you encourage your team to see things from a perspective of leadership.

This is what you want, as it isn’t enough anymore to simply have drones pecking away at assigned tasks. You want to have people who are ready to embrace innovation and are engaged enough to work their way upwards in your organization. Handing the power over to your team, even in the hypothetical, helps to show the employee that their input is appreciated and valued.

Should this feedback ever reference any difficulties due to insufficient technology solutions and resources to complete a task, Coleman Technologies is here to help. Our services are designed to improve the efficacy and security of your workplace, boosting your productivity.

To learn more, reach out to us at (604) 513-9428.

Everyone knows that a telephone system is a core component of a well-functioning business. Unfortunately, many businesses’ telephone systems haven’t advanced, but the way people do business has. If your business is paying a premium for its telephone system and isn’t getting the collaboration benefits needed to stay competitive, the answer might be VoIP.

What is VoIP?

VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol, a telephone system that runs on your organization’s Internet connection, not the antiquated phone lines. It can be run off a dedicated server in your business, but it is often run by a cloud-based server. Using the cloud model, you pay per line, and the service provider assumes the responsibility of hosting your business’ telephone system and maintaining the underlying infrastructure (as well as providing support). 

What Are the Benefits of VoIP?

Beyond separating yourself from the phone company, having a communications platform that uses the Internet can benefit an organization. Firstly, switching to a VoIP platform eliminates the antiquated landline system businesses have used for decades; we’ll explain how this benefits businesses later in the article.

Another massive benefit for businesses is the flexibility of a VoIP solution, especially with hosted VoIP. Since a business pays a small monthly fee per line, it can add and subtract features to better manage costs and provide communication and collaboration tools to fit every individual employee’s needs. 

Finally, VoIP call quality is often on par with or superior to traditional landlines, especially considering that many VoIP systems provide mobile support. Through an app, every worker can have their business phone number routed to their personal smartphone. This feature ensures that all employees have access to a telephone number regardless of location, making it an essential tool for companies that use remote teams. 

What Are Some of the Features You Can Get with Hosted VoIP?

As we mentioned earlier, VoIP is a feature-rich platform. It’s also extremely customizable. In all, dozens of features can be available with a VoIP platform. Let’s look at some of the most important features a VoIP platform can provide.

• Auto attendant - This feature is a system that answers your calls and gives callers options to route calls properly.
• Text messaging - Giving your staff the ability to send work-related texts is a godsend in many situations. It’s an essential feature for organizations that want to unify their communications platform.
• Call forwarding - This feature allows organizations to redirect calls, reducing the likelihood of missed calls.
• Call recording - Being able to record calls can have many benefits, but most importantly, to enhance customer satisfaction.
• Video conferencing - Being able to communicate with multiple people via video successfully is a huge benefit.

This is only a taste of what is available through a VoIP platform. If you would like to learn more about VoIP and how it can significantly benefit your business, give us a call today at (604) 513-9428.

The entire point of modern technology is to make things easier. Businesses don’t invest in computers and software simply to throw away money—technology exists to streamline operations and help you get more done in less time.

Let’s look at some of the standard technologies your business should consider to gain more value out of your technology.

Customer Relationship Management

A high-quality CRM solution can help you establish better connections with your customers. You can automate marketing and sales tasks associated with specific departments or segments of your audience. This also integrates with your productivity and administrative tools that you already utilize so frequently. In this way, CRMs provide a considerable value compared to their deployment costs.

Collaborative Productivity Tools

Many solutions out there enhance productivity, and they almost always have tools built into them that allow for real-time collaboration. These tools include word processors, spreadsheet programs, presentation software, file sharing, and more. The right productivity solutions should be able to integrate with the other tools your business regularly uses to conduct business.

Task Management Software

A business is only successful if it can effectively manage many tasks contributing to the end goal. It stands to reason that your business should have a way to manage them all in one place. Task management platforms are great for this, as they allow teams to collaborate on projects, schedule or request services, and manage time or resources appropriately. Task management tools are often built right into project management platforms, and they should also integrate well with your collaboration apps and CRM. Additionally, these platforms allow admins to track tasks as they move from start to finish.

At the end of the day, the goal of any business is to make money. You can improve your chances of success by being organized; Coleman Technologies can help you work toward that goal. To learn more, call us at (604) 513-9428.

Effective teamwork is indispensable for business success. Collaboration stands out as an extremely important consideration, yet devising a strategy that expedites project completion and enhances service delivery poses challenges. This week, we get into modern collaboration practices and how technology can help you improve collaboration.

Cohesive Dynamics

Collaboration remains a critical concern for organizations due to its pivotal role in productivity. Many initiatives to improve teamwork often fall short of building the collaborative spirit among team members. Without a coordinated strategy for facilitating collaboration, instances of redundancy run rampant. 

Technology's Contribution to Collaboration

Technology serves as a catalyst in creating collaborative relationships and propelling business initiatives forward. The evolution of productivity suites, equipped with applications enabling simultaneous work on shared files allows your employees a cache of tools that can really push the needle in regards to productivity. 

Key Technological Components

Communication Tools

An important aspect of any robust collaboration platform is effective communication. Technologies such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), video conferencing, text and instant messaging, and email collectively constitute a comprehensive communication framework for every business. Unifying all these tools provides businesses with a lot of flexibility.

Collaboration Apps

Recognizing the growing reliance on collaborative strategies for maintaining productivity and efficiency, businesses are now looking harder at collaborative tools. These apps consolidate various tools into one application, enabling project managers to assign tasks efficiently while providing team members with the requisite tools for optimal performance. Features like instant messaging, video meetings, and file sharing streamline workflows, facilitating quicker project completion and bolstering overall productivity.

Effective collaboration emerges as a linchpin for success in an era where businesses seek to optimize resource utilization and enhance customer experiences. Leveraging technological advancements in communication and collaboration tools empowers organizations to overcome challenges and foster a culture of collaboration. Should your business require assistance bolstering its collaboration efforts, our expert technicians can provide tailored solutions. Contact us today at (604) 513-9428 to embark on the journey towards enhanced teamwork and productivity.

Communication Solutions

Many, many solutions devoted to keeping people in touch and in the loop are now commonly hosted in, and delivered through, the cloud. This method only makes sense, as it enables your team to fully collaborate whenever an Internet connection is available. Take extra steps to foster these habits in your organization at every possible opportunity.

Software

As with communication solutions, other kinds of software can become more collaborative when they are hosted in the cloud. This is because the cloud eliminates the need for work to all be done in the same location, or the same time of day. With each team member contributing what they can, when they can, teamwork is just more convenient. There is also the added advantage of an entire team having access to the same tools as one another, another factor that the cloud can guarantee with the ability to push updates out.

Documentation and File Sharing

Notes and other forms of documentation quickly become a workplace asset, as they offer a time capsule of sorts to be referenced later when the data is needed once again. Due to the number of people who may need access to this data at some point, the cloud makes this level of collaboration the most convenient option for your team to make use of as they compile a repository of important information.

Project and Customer Relationship Management

Similarly to a cloud-based notebook, a project management or CRM solution that is accessed via the cloud enables your entire team access to the important data contained within, making cooperative work a much more feasible prospect. With the same information at their disposal, your entire team appears to act as one to your clients and customers. On the same path, cloud-based project management offers the same benefits to your team members as they work together towards a shared goal.

Data Visualization

A final key facet that we must discuss is the use of data to help create predictive models that further streamline your operations. Using a cloud platform to consolidate the data generated and collected by your users, you can aggregate it and call attention to previously unnoticed trends and patterns. A cloud solution is best to use in order to do this, as the data sets involved in these operations are of massive proportions. Doing so enables you to combine the efforts of your entire team into contributing to a single goal.

As the modern work environment has developed, it has done so with an increased focus on collaborative work and cooperation. The cloud is simply the latest result of this development.

For more information on how you can use the cloud as a collaborative asset for your business, give us a call at (604) 513-9428.