Efficient Team Collaboration – Even in Home Office
While the focus in designing innovative cloud solutions was until recently on the needs and requirements of individual users, it is increasingly shifting to optimal collaboration in teams and communities. The use of cloud platforms enables, for example, company-wide, central knowledge management. This allows for the consistent dissolution and future prevention of often prevalent knowledge silos.
In addition, collaboration platforms like Microsoft 365 offer diverse possibilities for cooperation through the interplay of various tools. With Microsoft Teams as the central entry point, employees can, for example, coordinate in meetings or chats, work together on documents, or organize themselves in project teams using Microsoft Tasks from Planner and To Do.
Users also benefit from continuous improvements to cloud services. For the responsible departments, a major challenge lies in accompanying the user on this journey. It’s important to continuously grow with the innovations, optimally adapt them for the company, and train the users.
Data Protection and Data Security Can Also Be Ensured in the Cloud
When it comes to switching to cloud solutions, lack of data security and compliance requirements are still the biggest concerns and fears expressed by companies. However, security mechanisms such as data classification and cloud app security have developed very strongly in recent years. Mechanisms for protecting accounts have become both more intelligent and more understandable. When designing them, it’s important to find the right balance, as not every technology is helpful and meaningful for every application. There are numerous examples where an exaggerated security strategy limits the usability of systems so severely that no real added value is achieved, the user is severely restricted in daily work, and thus acceptance decreases.
Therefore, a basic principle applies here:
Understand how, when, and where critical security restrictions must exist and implement these step by step.
In addition to security restrictions, there is also great uncertainty regarding the topic of ‘Privacy Shield’. Data protection is a high priority in Germany, especially since the GDPR came into effect, and is continuously questioned. Here, it is important for the company to find a clear and documented approach that helps to create the necessary processes to establish appropriate handling of data protection-relevant content.
Conclusion
Especially in the past year, the topic of collaboration in virtual teams came into focus and became the currently largest driver for cloud usage. Previously, the switch to the cloud was still predominantly based on internal, strategic decisions and long-term considerations. In 2020, there was suddenly great pressure from outside. Many companies had to resort to cloud solutions at short notice to maintain the collaboration of their teams.
