How Cross-team Collaboration Drives Digital Transformation

Among the countless modifications that the Covid-19 pandemic has brought to our ordinary lives, those concerning the working world are probably the most significant ones. The idea of delocalization of the traditional workplace, through a massive introduction of the smart working protocol, has forced companies and corporates to redefine the concept itself of “teamwork”. Web engineers and developers were called to enhance the tools available for employees and managers to connect with their coworkers and coordinate their efforts from remote.

In this peculiar “time of transition”, products like those issued recently by Dassault Systèmes can make an actual and significant difference. They all start from a basic assumption: in the perspective of a digital transformation cloud and automation are both essential, because they’re able to ease, accelerate and make any transition from “old” habits to new ones smoother. It’s exactly the case of smart working, especially when it comes with cross-team collaborations and similar situations.

Before the pandemic’s outburst, in fact, team working was all about meetings, discussions, brainstorming sessions: they were the necessary, unavoidable “preliminary operations” before moving on to the operative phase. Each member of a team used to bring his competences, and put them at the service of his colleagues, who did the same in return, in order to define a development plan. With the wide spread of smart working this hasn’t been possible with the same frequency of three or more years ago. And a simple video call is totally unable to reproduce that level of interaction obtainable only through the simultaneous presence of all the coworkers in the same environment at the same time, because there are documents to share and other elements (drawings, schemes, 3D renditions) that need to be examined, and sometimes modified, collectively. After all, this is precisely the meaning of the expression “working together”.

With its digital tools Dassault Systèmes is able to provide the same experience of a team working in the same physical space, recreating it in a virtual environment. A sort of “digital room” where all the coworkers can share experiences, talk, watch videos and interact in every possible way, though being apart from one another. But most important, they can work at the same item, operating on the same object simultaneously: for example, they can update the same data files, and every modification is shared in real time on the cloud. This allows every teammate to be constantly and effectively updated, so that he can reframe his/her work accordingly with the newest team’s achievements.

Now the question is: how much will these innovations affect the concept itself of teamwork, and in which way? And most important: what’s the future of little and medium-sized companies, forced to face this new way to manage their employees’ job? The answer is, as a matter of fact, more complex than we may think. But there is an incontrovertible truth: products like those issued by Dassault Systèmes are designed to ease up team work, not to replace the human factor, which remains crucial.

Moreover, they clearly allow a company to enhance their human resources’ value, maximize their profits and minimize the losses. Which is, without a shadow of a doubt, beneficial for everyone.