‘Collaboration, communication key to adding value’

Microsoft Nigeria has identified collaboration and communication as a joint avenues for business growth and keys to adding value to businesses.

Speaking through its Technology Specialists, Mrs. June Anasiudu, in Lagos at a one-day seminar, Microsoft said by collaborating with that adequate communications that business targets would be met.

“Collaboration is at the core of business. Communication is key to being able to meet your targets and achieve customer satisfaction,” she declared.

Mrs. Anasiudu also advised that customers should see technology as a tool for collaboration, emphasizing that being able to communicate effectively is key to business success.

She pointed out that organizations have a duty to enhance their businesses through improved communication and collaboration by utilizing a plethora of cost effective, low risk Microsoft technologies such as Microsoft Exchange 2003, Microsoft Sharepoint Server, Windows Sharepoint Services, and the Microsoft Office Applications.

The technology specialist enumerated four pillars of collaboration that Microsoft sees as challenges and is investing in.

These include integrated communication, collaborative workspaces, access to information and people, and people-driven processes.

Most of these, she said results in easier ways of finding and sharing information, as well as improving team effectiveness, accelerate the time to results and ultimately reduce costs.

Talking about access to information and people, June noted that customers must be able to have access to people by building large networks of knowledge of others.

She also charged organizations to enhance the quality of shared information within the company so that employees can act faster, leading to better and more informed business decisions.

Earlier, Mrs. Yinka David West, Lecturer at the Lagos Business School, informed participants, that as the nature of work today is fast changing, workplaces are fast disappearing and information system is now used to create new businesses, find new customers and expand the business horizon.

“The form of business has changed, business borders have been eliminated and role of information in business has changed. One organization does not do the business alone. It engages groups with core competencies,” she said.

Emphasizing that the office is no more a physical spot, she said the challenge is for the customers to know how to do their businesses with resources dispersed across the globe, and move information through the value chain.

Microsoft’s Financial Services Industry Manager for West, East and Central Africa (WECA) Mr. Adefolu Majekodunmi, said, as the organization gets bigger, the personnel need to communicate more as to be able to increase their productivity and boost the business of the organization.

He described collaboration as a way of ensuring the organization becomes effective and reactive, adding that as a global software leader, Microsoft is trying to assist organizations to use communication to increase productivity and add value to their investments within the global market place.

The seminar was targeted at technical decision makers, and business decision makers from IT and business community was to create the awareness that customers could start with the applications in their disposal to begin to apply collaboration initiatives in order to enhance business utility.

“They would go back and see how to tackle their collaboration challenges with the familiar tools they probably already have. We want to work with our customers to enhance their productivity,” June said.