Identifying the need to encourage communication in the workplace is just hitting the base camp. To scale the summit of enterprise collaboration & networking, organizations need to pick the best workplace collaboration tool which supports seamless communication while ensuring data remains easy to access, secure and private.
Existing Workplace Collaboration Tools
Email is slowly fading away, giving rise to instant data-sharing platforms & applications which allow ease of access, anytime, anywhere.
Of course, it is quite easy to pick one from the existing bunch of social media platforms:
Google has G Suite cloud solutions to support communication between teams.
Facebook has Workplace.
Microsoft has Microsoft Teams as part of its Office 360 bouquet.
Despite big brands offering free to use networking applications, it is vital to note that they are vulnerable to cyber attacks & hacks. As classified documents may be constantly exchanged between members of a firm, it becomes imperative for the firm to ensure its data remains within closed circuits and does not spill over or gets compromised.
In addition to the problem of data breaches, popular communication platforms do not authenticate the ‘real’ identity of the user, thus making it hard to distinguish between genuine and fake profiles.
Workplace Collaboration Challenges – Data Security & Privacy
As outlined earlier in this post, enterprises need to think beyond adopting a ‘free’ or ‘branded’ networking platform just because they exist today. The primary problem with a free networking service is that the data exchanged between ‘users’ i.e. members of a network remains accessible to the ‘owner’ of the application. In a scenario where one or more servers of the owner is attacked by malware, the detrimental effects are experienced by the ‘users’ as well… the effects of which could be long lasting and severe.
We have already seen user data harvesting occurring illegally at giant social media giants such as Facebook, Google Plus, LinkedIn and WhatsApp, Twitter among others. Despite installing multiple levels of encryption to subdue hackers’ efforts of mining data illegally, tech firms haven’t been able to match the pace & acuity of cyber criminals thus far as breaches continue to thrive.
Though WhatsApp professes end to end encryption on its chats, networking groups using this platform have been the victims of spyware & data hacking.
A sizeable portion of the world’s biggest data breaches and hacks have occurred in the last ten years where information pertaining to 30, 000 or more users’ records has been compromised.
The Future of Workplace Collaboration – Unified Communication
As pointed out in his recent article on the future of workplace collaboration, Ruddock mentions that work spaces are changing and firms across the globe are gradually encouraging remote work – this results in the need for firms to adopt immersive technologies which enhance the team meeting experience, despite geographical diversities.
The future of seamless networking and collaboration lies in consumption patterns of Gen Z, the biggest section of workforce from the next decade onwards. We are also aware, however, that as Gen Z takes to new technologies as kids take to sweetmeats, the soil for developing a composite enterprise networking and collaboration platform is quite fertile.
Though the near future does promise exciting new technologies aimed at improving communication and cutting down redundancies, it is yet to be seen if firms choose a holistic communications set-up or create another application overload instead.
