* Big technologies aren’t just for big companies
When we think of collaborative applications, we often think of large companies with far-flung locations and herds of mobile employees – all using the latest and greatest communications applications to stay connected and productive. Collaboration, though, has just as much of an impact on small businesses, particularly those that compete with the big guys by making location irrelevant.
Already, 63% of small businesses (defined as those with fewer than 250 employees) use real-time and non-real time collaborative technologies, including conferencing (Web, audio, and video), instant messaging, shared workspaces, wikis, blogs, and unified messaging, according to Nemertes’ Building the Successful Virtual Workplace benchmark.
How do these tools make location irrelevant? Small businesses that don’t need to hire employees in a particular geography can now select from a broader pool – either within a large city, state or province, country, or even multiple countries. They can acquire the best talent, and perhaps reduce their compensation for that talent by hiring in areas with lower costs of living.
The key enabler to making this strategy successful is the communications capabilities available. Companies that hire employees in any locale, but do not give them the appropriate communications links are destined to fail. But build in the processes (no small feat, by the way) using the right means of communications, and the virtual workplace becomes hugely successful.
For example, small businesses with 20 employees located in, say, home offices or small branch offices in 10 cities must conduct regular companywide calls. Each week at a standing time, those employees dial into an audio conferencing bridge to catch up on items on a standing agenda. Works great.
Now, add Web conferencing into that mix. Not only can the employees talk, they can all view the same presentation, Excel worksheet, or diagram. Works even better.
Now, add the ability to use a shared workspace, and a subset of those 20 people can work together to modify the presentation, worksheet, or diagram in real-time – with the input of their peers. The productivity improvements continue.
These technologies can extend to product development, design, engineering, or manufacturing – enabling small businesses to compete more aggressively with large companies.
Based on our research to date, it’s clear that innovative, small businesses understand the advantages of collaboration tools. What will be interesting is to see how these tools improve their margins and their growth curves moving forward.
