Businesses that want to compete in the digital economy have a central goal – to use Digital Transformation to secure and drive competitive advantage. And, according to Muggie van Staden, MD of open source technology and services provider Obsidian Systems, says to achieve this, there must be an obvious connectedness among employees and a clear ability to leverage smarter technology.
He added that today’s business environment has given rise to the concept of smart teamwork as an umbrella term to describe technically progressive, digitally driven and data-focused business operations. The concept is now considered a must and integral to the digital business strategy.
“Through the connectedness of people, with technology getting smarter, more mundane processes will be automated, allowing for better business insights,” said van Staden.
“Competitive advantage and market leadership is really down to how quickly and effectively a company can achieve connectedness among its staff – in other words, smarter teams – and also the extent to which employees are able to tap into technology advances.”
With the advent of cloud, AI and IoT within the modern business operation, many decision makers are eager to invest in solutions and capitalise on the benefits that these resources promise.
Van Staden points out that the temptation to invest and invest quickly is often fuelled by the desire to achieve technical agility and reduce costs.
However, he says smart teamwork is not about managing cost.
“It is about building efficiency in integrating your systems and saving time, optimising your teams’ productivity and therefore gaining more than just a cost benefit,” he explained.
Once the processes are in place, what is the next step for the business?
The success of an initiative or concept or strategy is directly linked to the success of projects. This, says van Staden, is where smarter teamwork really comes into its own.
SmarterTeams will achieve success when they have the platform that facilitates simple, realtime and integrated communication, when they are focused on collective goals and results, and when they contribute to the bigger picture and know their role in the broader company team.
“SmarterTeams know where the gaps are and can quickly able to support their peers, they are diverse and bring different thinking to the team and solutions, and are organised,” said van Staden.
