Collaboration is one of the biggest buzzwords in the business world today. As more companies continue to explore concepts like remote working & globalisation, collaboration tools have emerged to support the new "digital" workforce.
Leading communication and collaboration vendor Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise recently conducted a study into an SMB using their Rainbow collaboration tool and CPaaS solution, and their findings point to some valuable insights for today's companies. According to the ALE study, your employees may be using consumer-grade collaboration tools, without your knowledge.
I spoke to Jean-François Rey, the Product Marketing Director at Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise to learn more about the latest research.
What Did You Discover in the Case Study?
The ALE case study was intended to discover not only what kind of success their SMB client had seen with the Rainbow client, but also which factors had prompted them to embrace the service in the first place.
"Business and IT departments are discovering that their employees are using consumer-based collaboration tools without their knowledge. Unfortunately, with the case study in question, the business was built largely around intellectual property - that meant that employees were sending crucial pieces of data over a system that wasn't secured or optimised for business use."
After suddenly learning that their staff members weren't using the right tools in their collaboration strategy, ALE's customer decided that they needed a system that was controlled and secured for enterprise purposes. "That's why they came to Rainbow. First, they wanted a cloud-based solution because they didn't have the resources to manage an on-premises system. Secondly, they knew that the data centres for their German business were in Germany, and they also knew that the data they were sharing would be protected."
ALE doesn't use the data that moves through their Rainbow tool for commercial purposes, and the SMB clients that Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise serves were able to test the Rainbow experience first before they decided to roll it out to their full time. "They got great feedback from their teams, and decided to upgrade to a premium experience, with additional features for all of their employees."
Do You Think This Problem is Common Among SMBs?
Perhaps the biggest concern of the case study was that the business leaders and IT departments had no idea that their employees were using consumer-grade collaboration apps. It wasn't until the business stumbled across the issue that they realised that there was a need for a new kind of tool in the workforce. As Jean-François told me:
"Businesses aren't always aware that their teams are looking for collaboration solutions because employees don't always go to business leaders and tell them that they need something. The key message that we think is important here is that business leaders need to ask their employees whether they're using consumer-grade collaboration apps to collaborate."
ALE thinks that it's crucial for modern companies to find out whether there's a genuine need for collaboration tools in their organisation before they assume that these applications have no value to offer. "You might not think that anyone is using these systems in their team. However, if you're not providing people with the right corporate solutions, they could be getting what they need elsewhere, and putting your entire business at risk in the process."
