Your business apps don’t work together, but you can make them

The rise of always-connected SaaS apps like NetSuite, Salesforce and Office365 have transformed the modern workplace. You won’t find anybody who claims to love them, save perhaps in the more caffeinated corners of the onboarding seminar, but just about everybody can agree that they’re an improvement over the old ways of dumb servers, disconnected documents, and manual syncs. The problem is that for all their bells and whistles, they’re still built on top of a distinctly manual process. 

The mega-platforms do their main thing incredibly well, a few more things quite badly - and they each have their own interface which doesn’t connect to any of the others. There’s no central source of truth that’s shared between them, so it has to be created separately and everybody has to cross-reference. 

There’s no central place to give you an at-a-glance view of the customer record, the most recent version of the project files, the current financial records and the last thing that your colleagues sent to them. Instead, you have to alt-tab between each interface to find each thread, and often weaving them into a copy of something that was already created by somebody else, but you don’t have because it’s left in a Slack DM somewhere. This is the point at which the connected future deteriorates into a series of unconnected silos that waste time rather than save it, and increase unhappiness and blood pressure across the organisation.

It’s a huge time-sink for workers worldwide. In recent research carried out by YouGov for Workiro, time lost by switching between apps stood out as the top problem, which will come as no surprise to anybody who’s found themselves flicking back and forth to match up customer information to email threads. You find yourself wondering why your systems can’t just work together. The answer: the filing system that they’re all plugged into, as revealed in our recent webinar The Folder Illusion. 

Business workflows are still built around outdated, dumb folder systems containing outdated, dumb files - or more usually, not containing files. Or at least not the file you actually need. Folders hate change; they’re static silos that don’t keep up with daily workflows unless they’re scrupulously monitored, nurtured and manicured like a delicate Pekinese awaiting its turn at Crufts. Look inside the sprawling Sharepoint server of most organisations and you’ll find something long-neglected that would stand closer comparison to an RSPCA ad.

The modern business needs a modern folder, which can work with the SaaS platforms that power the world today. The Workiro Smart Folder resembles traditional folders in name only - it’s not a static, neglected dumping ground but an AI-powered cloud-based reference point that brings everything together in one place. It’s a quietly radical upgrade to your document management system which creates a single point of truth for every app and every worker to refer to, rather than slogging through multiple interfaces and sprawling folder trees. 

The Smart Folder brings together customer documents, contracts, email chains, comments and edit history in a single virtual location which can be accessed directly within key CRM, ERM and productivity platforms like NetSuite and Salesforce. Contracts can be created, commented, amended and sent out for one-click client approval and back again, with the entire lifespan viewable from a single interface. Email can be automatically tagged to each project from within Outlook365, showing all key communications from each staff member. 

Files are captured, labelled and centrally stored and shared entirely automatically, giving a single canonical version for everybody to use. There are no duplicates, no wasted time - and no storage limits or additional hosting costs, either. And all of it works seamlessly with your existing platforms, forcing them to work together without forcing any new tools or training on existing staff. 

Find out more about how folders are slowing down your business and how Workiro gets that time back by viewing our Folder Illusion webinar. For a more bespoke analysis of the improvements it could offer, contact one of our specialists.