Efficiency ultimately drives the success of every tech team. When a team works efficiently, deadlines are met, projects get completed, the business makes money, and clients are happy.

According to data compiled by bit.ai, 86% of employees and executives cite lack of communication or collaboration for failures in the workplace. This can all be avoided.

Since a large number of tech teams include employees located all over the world, creating an efficient workflow can be challenging. In order to collaborate, many team members have to rearrange their work schedules to accommodate time zone differences of 12+ hours. This can disrupt their normal lives; many remote team members struggle with productivity due to odd working and sleeping schedules.

The Right Tools Can Rescue A Struggling Tech Team

When a company uses the right tech tools, workers don’t have to worry about how they’re going to collaborate with team members in another country. The right tools make collaboration across time zones easy. 

If your team is struggling, or if you’re part of a team that is struggling, check out the following tools.

1. Syncro MSP For Managed Service Providers

Syncro MSP is a platform that streamlines operations for managed service providers. This type of business isn’t easy to run; it requires extensive time and energy to maintain operations. Condensing multiple applications into one platform saves MSPs significant time and money. 

Employee productivity is especially impacted in the absence of streamlined operations. As the link above notes, 40% of productivity is lost to constant task switching between applications. An MSP that combines applications reduces the time required to manage client accounts, monitor remote sessions, and perform other critical tasks.

If you’re in the MSP business, Syncro MSP will save you time and money by condensing important applications and automating critical processes.

2. Email Filters

The average tech team spends way too much time reading and replying to emails. Since nobody can truly get away from using email, the next best thing would be to filter emails in very specific ways.

Having team members create the following filters will reduce time spent managing emails and will increase a team’s productivity:

. A folder/tag called “Response Required.

” This folder (or tag) is reserved for emails that require a response that isn’t urgent. Urgent responses should be taken care of immediately, but anything that can wait should go into this folder.

The key is to check this folder at the end of the day and respond to as many emails as possible. Placing emails in this folder prevents them from getting lost or forgotten – so long as the folder gets checked.

. Receipts/invoices.

Set up a rule to filter all receipts and invoices out of the inbox. When you make a purchase, look for the receipt in the receipt folder. Keep everything that isn’t urgent out of your inbox.

. Ongoing conversations.

Some conversations aren’t urgent, but seem to go on forever. Push these out of your inbox into a folder you can check when you’re not pressed for time.

. Reply notifications.

If you participate on a discussion forum or on social media, turn off email notifications unless you need to reply immediately.

Remember to let each employee create their own filters that work best for them. There is a difference between using email filters and filtering content. Filtering content can cause resentment and can make it difficult for employees to access the websites they need to use for their job.

3. Slack

At first glance, Slack appears to be nothing more than a glorified chatroom. However, for tech teams, slack is a powerful tool that can’t be understated. 

Tech teams that have multiple departments benefit most from using Slack. For instance, software developers, website developers, and other similar teams benefit immensely from the way Slack utilizes channels. With Slack, each team or department can create their own channel for discussing specific aspects of a project so that those conversations stay separate. This is important for referencing information later on. 

If your tech team needs to discuss different aspects of projects on a regular basis, Slack is the best way to streamline and organize those communications. Even just having a separate channel for discussing client requests can help greatly. Channels keep targeted conversations focused without interference from other teams.

Technology Exists to Increase Efficiency

Technological advances improve the efficiency of the world, beginning with tech teams. For tech teams, that means having access to a host of new software, platforms, and services specifically designed to make teamwork more efficient regardless of size or location. 

If your team is struggling, try these tools and watch your team’s efficiency rise.