6 Reasons Why You Need Mobile Collaboration in Business Increase your business productivity by collaborating your devices

The world has become increasing digital and businesses have to keep up with consumer apps that are being willy nilly used by their employees, business partners and end customers.

This causes fragmentation of all things digital in an organization. Also, privacy, business continuity and security of corporate data are issues that enterprises are grappling with.

To cater to this need and enable successful communication, both internally and externally, BroadVision, Inc., a globally renowned provider of business collaboration and engagement solutions, has come up with digital business transformation platform called VMOSO. The collaboration of the devices can result in the increase in productivity.

Commenting on the benefits of mobile device collaboration, Upendar Rao Kollu, MD, Voyants Solutions Private Limited said, "In today's time it is quite pertinent to enable the entire enterprise to work more smartly, engage customers more intimately outside, improve internal communication/collaboration, institutionalize valuable tacit knowledge from the origin, and together get more things done efficiently in less time; generate more business value under considerably less cost."

We at Entrepreneur India caught up with Dr. Pehong Chen, Chairman, President, and CEO of BroadVision to know more about the benefits of mobile collaboration and how it's going to benefit business owners.

From the chat, we came up with top reasons why businesses need mobile collaboration.

1. Capture And Share An Idea While It Is Fresh.

How often have you been out and about when an idea popped into your head? A Eureka moment! One you want to share or bounce off someone ASAP. You can phone someone, but as sure as "eggs is eggs," they won't be there. Besides you might want to share it with several people. You can make a note of it in your phone, but somehow when you look later, it doesn't have the same freshness. So post it from your phone now to a collaboration space, and let your colleagues build on the idea.

"Embrace mobile collaboration in the workplace for increased productivity, efficiency, and business velocity" said Dr. Pehong Chen.

2. Deal With Issues On Time, But Avoid "Off The Cuff" Decisions.

You get a phone call about an issue that has come up. You feel you have to provide an answer because another phone call is not possible until much later, you are pressed for time, it's a rush but make a decision anyway. Later you realise, on reflection, you are not sure that you articulated your decision well, and there could have been a misunderstanding. In situations like this, wouldn't it be better in a mobile collaboration tool, to acknowledge and accept the issue, perhaps suggest a preliminary answer but allow a little more time for clarification? Then you're free to provide a more considered decision with clearer reasoning later.

3. Create "Flex Time."

Mobile collaboration means creating "flex time." With a mobile, in those brief (but previously inconsequential) periods of time, you can use those little intervals to deal with the many issues that can otherwise stack up during the day. Without mobile collaboration some of those questions would have come as phone calls, often at inconvenient times that interrupt conversations or valuable thinking time. Flex time means you can make better use of otherwise dead time to sweep away all those issues that can be dealt with quickly, so they don't interfere with the more precious, larger chunks of time you want for spending time with people, thinking, writing, and the like. Far from adding stress, managed correctly, mobile collaboration will reduce the pressure on personal time.

4. Leverage the mobile revolution.

Everyone has a smartphone or tablet now – why not make use of that? In 2015 there were 2.6 billion smartphone subscriptions globally, and by 2020, globally there will be 6.1 smartphone users. As per the reports smartphones will overtake the number of active fixed-line subscriptions worldwide in 2020. More and more, people use their smartphones more frequently than their laptops and desktops for keeping up to date with events, for connecting with others, and sharing information. Most firms now either have a BYOD (bring your own device) policy or equip their staff with mobile devices. It is a no-brainer to ensure that you can engage with your colleagues, your customers, your partners, and suppliers on mobile.

5. Get Access To People You

The social capabilities of a modern mobile collaboration platform, like Vmoso, means that people, together with their expertise and knowledge, in and beyond the business are better connected. Information flows better and faster, decisions are quicker and better informed. Business velocity is greater.

6. Today's Collaboration Is Tomorrow's Knowledge

In this mobile age, technology has encouraged us to operate in the here-and-now. With that, in our personal lives, many of us use mobile chat to communicate with our friends and family. Call it "chit-chat." And in business we have been tempted to take that same habit into the workplace. But such "chit-chat" has no lasting value – if it takes place on consumer tools, it is outside the view of the company. And such tools are not designed to capture and organise the valuable knowledge in communication.

A true mobile business collaboration platform uses the chat paradigm for its ease and convenience of communication, but also ensures the content of communication is organised, linked and managed so it can be searched, queried, and analysed in perpetuity. It is where mobile enterprise collaboration meets knowledge management, and businesses should strive for both.