Remote/Hybrid Workforce


Why should business leaders rely on the channel next year? Channel partners are a great resource for businesses and leaders should leverage their channel and partner ecosystem to understand how they may be able to reimagine their tech stack and improve the way teams work across their organisation. Businesses with large channel ecosystems can leverage advice from a wider range of authorities and specialists and they should rely on their extended networks to ensure they’re getting the maximum value from their tech investments.


How should businesses think about maximising their investments next year? Businesses are managing more systems, SaaS applications and data than ever. Tis also makes it more complicated to connect people, technology, and processes across the organisation. Te proliferation of niche soſtware solutions meant for specific teams means there has been an explosion of SaaS tools. Te global pandemic only accelerated these challenges as remote and hybrid work took hold – and continues to predominate across industries. Tere is an opportunity to evaluate all of these different tools to identify areas where organisations can consolidate, reduce overall spend and build a more effective solution. Te sprawl of SaaS applications and sheer number of tools being


used by different teams is also leading to silos and blindspots across the organisation. Tis information becomes trapped in these different systems and teams, locking key data points, creating boundaries across teams, and hindering cross-functional visibility. It’s increasingly difficult for teams to find the right data they need at hand, because it’s hidden across countless apps, emails and spreadsheets. Teams make decisions based on the information they have in front of them, moving quickly but unaware of critical insights living in different places. Tese silos are derailing productivity, business impact, and team morale. We call this the crisis of fractured organisations. Businesses should look to soſtware that can help connect these silos so teams can work more efficiently together, share data and maximise resources.


Any tips for businesses on how organisations can bridge these silos? Organisations can overcome their challenges and improve business processes and outcomes by leveraging connected apps to build their own apps on top of shared data and better connect soſtware and teams across the organisation. In doing so, they bridge the information that is locked within different teams and systems, demolishing silos and fostering better cross-functional work collaboration in the process. Businesses need to invest in soſtware that will let teams work off


of the same data and move fast and together. Shiſting toward more customisable soſtware that allows organisations to connect silos and work more efficiently cross-functionally will allow businesses to increase productivity, innovate faster, and achieve more. As an example of how connected apps bridge silos and help


teams work more efficiently together, take the international retail group, Kamal Osman Jamjoom Group (KOJ). When it set out to digitally transform the company’s global operations and product


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development systems, its Head of Innovation and Omnichannel wanted to address the hundreds of employees spending whole days tracking and moving data between siloed tools. Previously, KOJ had a spider’s web of business systems with an


enterprise resource planning tool for inventory management, a CMS, and scattered spreadsheets and presentations with product information that staff struggled to keep updated. Te biggest challenge for each of KOJ’s retail brands was determining how much of each product should be created and sold each year. Te process encompassed multiple inventory, tracked across dozens of spreadsheets and various enterprise soſtware tools. Te disconnected systems meant teams encountered “version clashing”. Trough connected apps, a new system was built that saves


each head office employee over five hours of work each week – expanded across the year - equating to 143,000 hours gained. Now communications are streamlined with better visual display options, much like a catalogue, built on top of a reliable database. For its cosmetics brand, with 150 locations, teams spent 140 hours a month on general coordination and communication alone – now the marketing, retail, and design teams can dip in, take what is needed and leave. Tis has resulted in 1,600 fewer emails sent each year. KOJ’s largest nightwear brand, experienced even more pronounced time savings. Each day, the buying team would spend two hours waiting for file access and asking cross-functional partners to update product information in a spreadsheet. Removal of the time-consuming activity saved one team 15,000 hours alone. What started as a project to help KOJ digitally transform has


resulted in the foundations for fueling record sales, shortening lead times and gaining limitless efficiencies.


What’s the role of partners in all of this? As businesses attempt to consolidate tools and dismantle these silos, partners have an opportunity to advise on how organisations can connect people and teams and empower cross-team collaboration. Partners should play an advisory role in this process, serving as trusted consultants who can guide businesses on how to reshape their tech stack as they examine how the current tools are being used, the ROI of each tool, and the opportunities to remove digital friction. Tis will result in increased organisation-wide visibility and, ultimately, increased productivity and cost savings.


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