3 Tools That Can Help You Collaborate Efficiently With Your Outsourced Teams

Outsourcing allows businesses of any size to hire a virtual team to help them accomplish specific tasks in the most efficient manner. Business owners can employ talented employees around the world while being cost-effective. Having said that, managing outsourced teams requires effective collaboration so organizations can reap the benefits of outsourcing and get the best and most immediate results.The success of the collaboration between teams is often attributed to the use of proper tools. The right technology can be implemented to manage an organization’s people and processes efficiently. Here are three tools your organization can use to make outsourcing operations more effective and a lot smoother:

Project Management Platforms

When working with outsourcing partners, it is crucial to keep up to date with them using collaboration tools to track where things stand in your projects and keep track of budgets as well, so you can move forward in an orderly manner.

It is almost impossible for teams to excel in their industry without using at least one project management platform. Used before, during, and after working on a project, these tools create a productive atmosphere where everyone works together to accomplish project goals.

Project management apps like Asana, Basecamp, and Monday allow you to share to-do lists easily, create tasks with deadlines, leave comments, and even attach files. All can be managed in one place so that you can avoid the clutter of multiple email threads. Work becomes fun for teams, and they are more empowered to accomplish their respective tasks.

Communication Tools

Another important aspect of collaboration is effective communication, which creates a solid working relationship and rapport between teams and increases productivity and accountability. Effective teams must regularly stay in touch and maintain an open line of communication so teams can stay up-to-date on upcoming products, features, or any changes to your business. The key is to choose a virtual communication platform and schedule that fits the needs of your teams.

There are different types of communication tools, and most of them are free. You can use Slack or Microsoft Teams for chat and messaging, and for video conferencing, you can opt for Zoom, Google Hangouts, or Skype. Keep in mind that the effectiveness of these tools depends on whether they match the needs of your teams.

For example, many software development teams prefer Slack because it serves as a fast chat room and allows users to create different channels for projects. Moreover, Slack can be integrated with various storage and file-sharing tools like Dropbox and Google Drive.

With respective teams sharing real-time updates and collectively addressing issues or talking about new opportunities, your organization can effectively meet whatever business challenges that may come.

IT Asset Management Solutions

One of the most overlooked tools for efficient collaboration, smart enterprise asset management is something that organizations need, mainly because it gives them total visibility of every asset they own. Without proper asset tracking and management tools, organizations become open to different kinds of vulnerabilities.

To this day, many organizations still rely solely on active directory or endpoint management tools to collect basic inventory information. Some even use spreadsheets. This survey reveals that almost half (43%) of IT professionals still use spreadsheets to manage assets. Trying to consolidate data from disparate sources makes it difficult to get a clear view of an organization’s assets whether in storage or circulation.

For every organization, it is crucial to have a single repository for all your asset data. This is even truer for companies that work with outsourcing partners. The central repository an IT asset management system provides allows organizations to spot unsecured assets and manage asset lifecycles. Even when you outsource your operations, you’ll be able to identify when some assets need to be replaced to improve workforce productivity.

Going back to the complete visibility advantage of an IT asset tracking solution, you know which hardware and software assets are authorized for use and installation. This means that no unlicensed assets will be floating around in your network. Moreover, with a smart asset management system, you can execute patching updates for all your assets to prevent vulnerabilities that can put your organization at risk for cyber-attacks. In turn, you avoid compliance headaches, and you protect your organization against threats and data breaches that could not only harm your compliance but also disrupt your operations.

Deploying a smart asset and inventory management system is the key to handling a diverse working environment, such as collaboration with outsourcing partners. It leads to efficiency and order, especially in your organization’s IT infrastructure.

Conclusion

Many businesses profit from outsourcing, which is why it’s become more prevalent in recent years. The key to maintaining a good working relationship with your outsourcing partners is to use technology as the tools in this article to manage projects effectively, maintain a high level of communication, and have total visibility of your IT assets.

Collaboration with outsourced teams can be challenging, but it could yield results that will propel your business to higher levels of success when done correctly.Allow us to help you better collaborate with your teams. Let’s talk today.