Smart working: How to work smart and responsibly during a crisis

Syneto has always been a strong believer in the power of technology to make the world a better place. We love embracing new technologies early on, as well as making them accessible to those that need them – not just “big” enterprises. With our home country, Italy, going through troubled times, we are once again turning to technology and „smart working” to help us overcome this situation.

Supporting local health heroes

As you already know, the world in general and Italy, in particular, are going through some troubled times due to the recent COVID-19 pandemic. While we are not directly active in the health sector, we are doing our best to support those that are. We have recently made a donation to the Brescia hospital fighting the epidemic, and we strongly encourage all those that have the means to do the same. 

Work smart, stay healthy

But how can we, as businesses and citizens help more? It is our social responsibility to follow the health authorities’ advice and minimize face-to-face social interaction. We can however not let this public health issue stop our activity and our mission. We have therefore turned to “smart working”, once again embracing technology to help us overcome troubled times. 

How can your business do the same? We are not experts on this, but we can offer you some advice based on our own experience. 

1. Direct communication tools

Working remotely can pose several challenges that are not faced when working within the community of an office. Efficient communication is usually a challenge within organisations, but with the right tools, the right mindset, and some practice, the barriers of non-direct communication can be overcome. 

Here are some very efficient tools that can be used to do this:

• Email: it might sound cliché, but an email is still an efficient tool when communicating with big groups of people; it is useful mainly for one-way communication like announcements or sharing information.
• Chat tools: At Syneto we use Slack for internal communication (but also for video calls, polls and small file sharing), but there are several options out there (Skype, WhatsApp, etc.).

2. Video conferencing tools

These tools can be very useful when there is a lot of information to be shared and where a more “personal” approach is needed. Globalisation and global businesses have made these tools both powerful, and accessible. 

GoToMeeting, Webex, and Zoom are amongst the most popular ones. We have embraced the first two in order to support our partners and customers with advice and information. Even now, if a partner needs our help, our account managers are available for a video call to help sort things out. 

3. Task-management and collaboration tools 

Working together is important. While working in an office makes organizing meetings easier, written communication can sometimes be even more effective. With everything written down, the chances of miscommunication go down. 

At Syneto, we use various collaboration tools that help us ensure we are working efficiently as a team, despite not being in the same location. Here are some recommendations:

• Asana and Trello are good task-management tools that can be used by any department. 
• Confluence is a good tool for sharing and collaborating on documentation; paired with Jira, it also offeres reliable task-management.
• Google Drive and One Drive are great for sharing and working together on various kinds of documents. 
• TeamViewer is a tool useful for both communication, and troubleshooting/support. 
• Tools like Invision allow collaboration between designers.
• Etc.

4. Online Assets

We cannot deny that most of us are online in our free time – either browsing Facebook, chatting via WhatsApp, reading online magazines or watching videos. Then why can we not use the same tools for business purposes? Right now, we are communicating with you, our reader, through our blog. 

The Syneto Partner Portal, for example, contains all the tools and resources that our partners may need to successfully represent Syneto products. All of the resources are easy to find, use and share with others. 

The show must go on

We are witnessing complicated times but we are confident we will overcome these challenges with „smart working”, communication and collaboration. We will keep embracing new and existing technologies to help us carry on our mission.  

We are still available to help our partners and customers through modern means of communication, so do not hesitate to get in touch, should you need assistance.