Nearly half (43%) of business decision-makers blamed a lack of tech integration for holding their workforce back during the Covid-19 lockdown.
The lack of integration between an organisation’s technology systems has held them and their team back from doing their jobs effectively during lockdown, according to new research from Advanced.
The research found that only 30% of respondents have been using team collaboration software during this sustained period of remote working.
This suggests that, despite the increased popularity of tools like Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Slack, many employees continue to rely on traditional forms of communication like email.
As well as limiting team collaboration and communication, it also raises a number of concerns including the issue of staff possibly storing sensitive company information on their personal laptops rather than on a shared platform. This could impact productivity levels and increase the security risk to this data.
“With many countries forced into lockdown over recent weeks, many organisations have had no choice but to ask their staff to work from home,” commented Gordon Wilson, CEO at Advanced.
“However, our report suggests that teams have been working more independently and operating in silos, at the expense of improving efficiencies. This lack of collaboration and integration also makes it near impossible for leaders to look at the business as a whole and plan ahead for a world post Covid-19. Quite simply, it tells us there are serious business lessons to be learned from this crisis.”
Natural evolution — integration’s move into the cloud will deliver huge benefits
The further rise of the cloud
Covid-19 has seen a surge in organisation cloud adoption, with a significant growth in cloud spend.
The technology has been key to help businesses cope with the unprecedented demands of Covid-19.
Cloud-based business software is built to drive team collaboration, and it gives staff instant access to the tools and information they need anywhere and at any time. The research from Advanced has found that 57% of organisations now have a cloud strategy in place, which is an increase from 49% last year. This figure will likely increase.
“It’s fair to say organisations that have adopted a cloud-first strategy, with solutions that are integrated with each other, would have been better prepared to deal with the challenges of lockdown,” continued Wilson.
“However, before jumping head-first into the cloud, it’s vital organisations find a solution that meets their expectations. In other words, one that will deliver productivity benefits, enable mobile working and that can be implemented at speed.”
Other key findings from the research include:
• Only 40% of organisations have a digital HR strategy in place.
• Only 28% of respondents say all of their software packages integrate with each other.
• Only 58% say core functions like finance and HR are integrated.
• Nearly half (45%) said a lack of integration has held their organisation back from successful digital transformation during lockdown.
