Concept Technology Recommends: Internal Communication Tools

 

This month, we are focusing on programs that can keep a company’s communication lines open during an emergency. No matter which tool you use, the important thing is for your business to establish some kind of system for communication well in advance, so your team will be ready in the event of a disaster.

Your communication method should be dependable, ensuring you can use it no matter what happens, whether fire or a flood or something else. That also means that the platform should not be tied to your environment, but be independent. And it should be accessible wherever internet is available.

Here at Concept Technology, we use Slack, and we relied on it last winter when ice storms made getting to the office nearly impossible. There are also plenty of other options out there like HipChat and Yammer. With these kinds of internal communication platforms, you don’t have to worry about how your company will communicate if a disaster does occur.

Programs like these can also be more efficient than email or phones. Everyone knows that too many “reply alls” can bog down an email thread, and trying to conference in multiple people can be frustrating. An internal communication platform increases productivity by providing real-time communication in an easy-to-use and easily searchable format. Team members can immediately see and reply to messages, cutting down the amount of time spent sifting through your inbox.

These programs are also useful when it comes to file-sharing, as many have integrations that support Google Drive, Dropbox, and other similar services like ConceptCloud File Sync. Users have the ability to upload and share PDFs, spreadsheets, word documents, photos and other files within these programs, which means less time spent downloading email attachments.

At Concept Technology, we like Slack because it’s fun (think: emoticons and GIFs), but as we’ve used it, we’ve found ourselves longing for a more robust platform with additional capabilities. To that end, Convo, a relatively new player in the enterprise communication space, has caught our eye, and we’re exploring that as an option, amongst others.

In fact, that’s typical of how we work. We are constantly on the lookout for better, smarter ways to function as an innovative IT company. We’re always investigating and testing technology options, and if they prove to be sound, we are flexible enough to quickly adapt them into our workflow. Bottom line: we love making technology useful – both internally and for our clients. But as an IT company, we’re always on the lookout for new and exciting technologies.