For organizations of all types — schools, businesses, government agencies — and millions around the world, the COVID-19 outbreak has seriously disrupted the way we work. Even if your company or institution had already embraced video collaboration among team members, you may not have ever used it to the extent you have to now.
AVI-SPL wants to help by giving you the guidance you need to stay connected with each other and be as productive as you can during this difficult time.
That’s why we’ve launched our Together We Can initiative, in which we share tips, advice, and resources for reinforcing our connections, building new communities, and maintaining business continuity. This blog is the hub for much of that content, and the most recent resources are at the top of this list:
- Keep Students Engaged in Online Learning and Manage Technical Glitches
- 3 Tips for New Remote Workers
- Leverage Video Meetings to Lead Your Team Remotely Through Disruption
- Online Learning Best Practices for Students
- Online Learning Best Practices for Educators
- Microsoft Teams and Surface Hub 2S: Collaboration Tools for Today and Tomorrow
- Suddenly Remote Due to Coronavirus: 6 Ways to Help Staff and Students Adjust
- Coronavirus Highlights Value of Remote Work
I strongly encourage you to bookmark the Together We Can page so that you will always have the latest tools, tips, and outside-the-box ideas for keeping your teams engaged and productive.
Favorite Tools for Collaboration
At AVI-SPL, we know the value of digital workplace transformation, and we practice what we preach. We’re grateful for the ability of many of our employees to work remotely and stay engaged, especially during this difficult time. Our teams and employees use a variety of different tools and methods to keep up with their projects and collaborate with their team members – many of whom may be across the country or elsewhere around the world.
We recently surveyed a handful of our staff for insight into their favorite collaboration tools. Here are their responses, which I hope you’ll find enlightening:
Michael Rombouts, project manager, San Francisco
I generally find a lot of success with Microsoft Smartsheet. It’s nice since it’s basically a live spreadsheet that multiple users can interact with simultaneously. It isn’t polished, but it doesn’t really have to be since it’s mostly for internal communication and task lists. The fact that it’s live means the team doesn’t get caught up in logic loops of “what version are you looking at?” and/or “that’s not what my document says.”
I love Microsoft OneNote for my stream-of-consciousness note taking. While it doesn’t provide something for me to directly share, it is awesome to catch everything, as you can add docs to it and snips of drawings. Think of it as a digital old-school whiteboard.
My compatriots swear by Trello. It is useful for the integration team and boots on the ground. It’s easy to use and a great way to quickly share brief information among technicians, engineers, and commissioning agents.
Lastly, Microsoft Teams, is how I communicate daily within my team for informal communication. While there are several tools that are available for chat, file sharing, or conducting video conferences, Microsoft Teams is simply more intuitive to use. If I need engineering clarification, I could send an email and add to the digital pollution of an inbox, or I can use the chat feature and get an answer quickly. It is as effective as looking over a cubicle and asking my neighbor a question. I use it to conduct page-turn meetings with engineering and technicians, sharing drawings and SOWs. The meetings are seamless, there’s not a busy signal –as when I connect via telephone — and the call quality is stellar. I probably have three or four Teams meetings a day, with no hiccups.
Doug Seaman, account manager, Omaha:
I love the ability to video chat. As much as face-to-face contact is the best for sales, video chat is the next best alternative right now. Personally, I call clients using both Microsoft Teams and Zoom. A friendly face and the ability to chat brings a level of normalcy to our lives and allows us to get done just as much as we would in an in-person meeting. With background-blurring or background-masking abilities, I can maintain a professional appearance.
Rich Daugherty, solutions architect, Chicago:
When collaborating on a project within Microsoft Teams, I like that certain Office applications like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint can be edited within Teams. This ensures that the shared file is the most updated version, so colleagues working on the same project will have access to the latest and greatest version. We can even edit together in a group call, so everyone is on board with the final product and fewer revisions need to be sent out later.
Thomas Luczywo, programmer, Calgary:
In my case, a good sound-isolating wireless headset, such as my Plantronics headset, is a key tool. It allows me to collaborate with team members with solid quality, and it’s much better than speaking into a laptop and listening to my laptop speakers alone. This experience immerses me into conversations and helps me to focus so I have a better quality experience with them and also with clients. The headset can also isolate out environmental sounds (such as traffic or common noises experienced when working from home or at a client’s site) so that I can better focus on my programming projects. Better focus is the key to being more successful in our industry.
Get expert advice on choosing your collaboration tools
The AVI-SPL team is here to help you find the collaboration tools that will keep you connected and productive. These efforts are paramount during the coronavirus, but they will be just as important as we get back to our workplaces and incorporate a liberating way of working into our daily routines. As businesses, schools, and government agencies get back into the swing of running at full capacity, you want your organization to have the resources that make that process as efficient and effective as possible.
Our mission is to provide the tools, experience, and support you need to connect teams between the offices and remote locations. Because when your talented individuals work together, you can reach your business outcomes. If you need assistance launching or upgrading your digital workplace collaboration tools, contact us now or find your local AVI-SPL office.