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Tag: Online Collaboration Tools

Why Businesses Need a Post-Pandemic Strategy

The coronavirus’ threat to global business hasn’t reached its full magnitude yet. For the next few weeks or months, organizations will begin to shift to a new virtual work reality. This is the birth of a new digital normal. The million-dollar question is, are you prepared to journey the new normal?

With today’s rapidly shifting business landscape, the strategies you use to run and man your business will need to reflect this shift. Here’s how to prepare your business plan for the “post-pandemic normal”.

Smart Financials

Businesses who have not embraced digital transformation yet will most likely not thrive for long. In these problematic times, change is imperative in order to survive. Take your time to re-assess your priorities especially on your digital initiatives. It is crucial that you think smart when it comes to your budget allocation. Remember, the most efficient and effective way to communicate today is through digital.

When this crisis eases, we will be welcomed by generally new digital expectations from consumers. Is there going to be a major surge? Or a gradual rise? Your cash reserves must be able to respond to these kinds of scenarios.

Right Tools

To mitigate the threat of the virus, many organizations have worked remotely. By the end of this, it is likely that some companies will continue to work virtually while some return to their offices. But how will you support them while they are at home? First, you must re-think your strategies and make them long-term.

You may choose to provide your employees with more consistent access to networks, portable equipment and other communication software. This way you can increase their productivity while at home and you may host more intimate and hassle-free online meetings or virtual collaborations without missing a single idea.

Efficient Staffing

This global pandemic has created a wall in everyone’s workforce. To address this gap, you must continually make efficient and smart staffing decisions quickly. In a workplace, there are three typical employees present:

  1. Employees who effectively run the business
  2. Passionate and experience-hungry employees
  3. Starters who need to be trained

Identify individuals who belong in these categories. Then, instill trust and a healthy virtual working environment. Only then will your team members move to constantly communicate, actively collaborate and align their actions to the company’s goals.

After this review, classify additional skills you will need for the future. These could be people who are experts on cloud deployments, operating microservices, etc. If you plan to add in people, you must ensure that you choose the one with experience and can quickly teach other teams with new tools.

Right Brand Permission

Try to assess, is your brand really a digital brand? According to the Yale School of Management, “Brand permission defines the limits of customers’ willingness to accept a familiar brand name in new marketplace situations.” You cannot just claim to be “digital” and expect people to easily accept it especially when you haven’t been digital-driven, historically. You must earn it right.

Brand permission is something to work on and must need time. It focuses on delivering impactful digital products and services—to attract the people you need.

Digital transformation has since been a thing for businesses. But the global pandemic has only pushed to make it rise to a whole new different level — and FAST. We are living in an entirely new digital-driven world. Businesses can no longer simply sit on their laurels or draw digital out of their lives. On your pool of choices, fishing the right ones will ensure you a good spot in this ever-changing and unpredictable world.

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Ready to transition your brand online? We will be happy to guide you through. Learn more about how we can help you here at https://imanila.ph/lets-talk/ or drop us an email at [email protected].

 

#iManila #DigitalAgency

iManila’s Favorite Online Collaboration Tools during ECQ

With most parts of the world on lockdown due to the COVID-19 outbreak, many companies have been forced to shut down their doors and establish a sudden shift to remote work to stay operational 

This also includes us in iManila. With most of our services revolving around the digital landscape, we were lucky enough to have started using various online tools to keep up with the trends and requirements of our clients, even before the pandemic.  

However, since we have started fully working remotely for the past two months, we have also discovered new tools to ease out of our usual business processes and to enhance team collaboration.  

Here’s a couple of online tools that we have found helpful during the lockdown period. Maybe you can try them out too!  

As our company’s official central communications platform, we have used Microsoft Teams more than any other online tool in the past few months. Microsoft Teams’ various features enable us to chat, calland collaborate whether individually or through its “teams” feature, which allows us to create separate channels within each department or team specifically dedicated to a particular concern, project or purpose. One feature of MS Teams that we really like is that it enables team members to edit MS Word, Excel or PowerPoint documents within the app – allowing for easier collaboration and real-time edits without having to jump from one application to another.  

 Another thing that makes MS Teams great is that it also allows us to set-up separate “team” channels that our external clients can also access, view and be a part of. This allows us to have a secure private channel with our clients, allowing everyone to have a unified communication thread that’s easy to access whether on mobile or on desktop 

We’ve been using Trello for a few months now to monitor and track tasks for specific projects. So far, this has been an effective tool to manage deliverables and timelines, especially for our creative design and website development projects.  

 Trello’s user-friendly and fun interface allows all of its users to keep track of deadlines easier, and easily prioritize tasks on-the-go. It also allows multiple people involved in multiple projects to be notified when a deadline is coming up. To add, Trello also has a user-friendly mobile app which is also easy to view and update via mobile phone.   

While Microsoft Teams also has a video call feature, we prefer using Zoom for calls involving a bigger group. 

 Zoom has been extremely helpful for big team meetings of more than 10 attendees and for company-wide townhalls called by our CEO for monthly company announcements. What’s great is Zoom can also be accessed either through your browser, desktop, or mobile app, and on top of that allows screen-sharing – making it easier for us to present pitch decks or webinars to clients or to other members of the team.   

Google’s G Suite platform is another one of our clear favorites as it has greatly allowed us to collaborate across multiple solutions – Gmail, Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, Hangout, Meet, etc 

 Our entire team has been using G Suite for a few years now, as it gives us better solutions to collaborate, store, and share files within one consolidated platform. It allows us to have real-time updates on Google Docs, Sheets and Slides while sharing this with everyone (including clients) for easier collaboration.  

 Google Drive, on the other hand, serves as a repository for many of our working files as it likewise allows us to share these files with our clients, while Google Meet is another platform often preferred by our foreign clients when it comes to kick-off and coordination meetings.  

 These are just some of our favorite and most used online tools during the enhanced community quarantine. Other systems we use include our self-made and highly customized iManila Sales Portal, our HR Payroll System and our Technical Support’s Online Ticketing Systemas well as subscriber-based type of software called Zoho for time keeping and invoicing.  

 As one of the leading full-service digital agencies in the Philippines, we offer various digital services – from web and apps development, hostingdigital marketing, and technical support. 

 Need help in setting up your business towards the shift to the digital space? Looking to learn more about G Suite or Office 365? Get in touch with us today and let us improve your life through technology. #iManila #WorkFromHome