Week in Digital: collaborative software is the way forward

Slack, the collaborative tool that allows for instant messaging, file uploads and easy mobile access, every single day. Collaborative tools and software are changing the way in which we do business.

Slack's secret weapon is that it's convenient and easy to use. You'd think there'd be more to it, but realistically the fact that someone can quickly grasp the concept of chat channel, direct one-on-one messaging and uploading files (drag and drop and pasting things in work) makes it one of the more straightforward user experiences on the market.

But it is its collaborative nature that's so important. It's highly likely that you have recently used Google's Drive technology to work on a file alongside multiple people, whether it was a spreadsheet or a word document. Being able to join forces in person has always been far more straightforward than doing it digitally, but as internet speeds rise and cloud computing becomes more commonplace, tools and software like Slack and Drive are becoming the norm for businesses.

In financial services, they're invaluable. To be able to have a client send a file to their adviser and see them make notes on it and feed back in real time is important. For a larger advice firm to use Slack for internal communication purposes starts to have an impact on the wasteful amount many businesses use email - suddenly, your work inbox is a beacon of efficiency, without the one-sentence updates that Slack can handle.

Calendars are also invaluable - having one centrally-hosted calendar for an entire business completely removes the need for checking in with other staff in that regard. Workflow, market prediction, management discussion - we're so use to using our tools to do our jobs more efficiently, but the technology exists to allow us to do our jobs together more efficiently, too.

There seems like few downsides to being able to remotely alter and review documents alongside your adviser, bank manager or pensions contact - the question is how quickly we'll see people implement changes like this.

 

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