While email remains a workplace staple, our Productivity is not a place report suggests that thanks to preference, ease of use, and security, instant message tools are slowly overtaking. It's evident that work management tools are becoming more prevalent in the workplace, and most companies are using and investing in them to support collaboration and communication.
When seeking out technology, a common approach is to follow a best-of-breed strategy, choosing tools to meet your requirements and then standardising them across the organisation. This approach has many advantages—but it isn't always the answer. Work management tools aim to help you and your teams be more productive, which doesn't automatically mean standardising your toolset. There's no one-size-fits-all solution, which means your approach should be unique to your organisation.
In this blog, we challenge the status quo around tool standardisation. We investigate the advantages and challenges and ask, 'Why should you have to standardise?' Let's dig in.
The benefits of tool standardisation
If you choose to standardise, there are plenty of benefits to look forward to. Let's take a look at some of the big ones.
- Effective collaboration—standardising helps teamswork effectively with other teams. It facilitates communication and collaboration within the same tool without either party switching or adapting, meaning you can upload documents and chat without leaving a platform. It's also easier for remote and hybrid workers to keep track of conversations as they happen in the same digital space.
- Easy information sharing createsa standard, repeatable way to share information within and with other teams, as everyone uses the same tools, processes, and workflows.
- Reduced context switching—teams don't need to switch tools but can have everything in one place, which increases their ability to focus on work.
- Streamlined costs—complex systems can be costly to manage and maintain, and the more tools you have to juggle, the more you'll spend on licences, training, and support. You can't take advantage of enterprise licences when only a few people use one tool. Standardisation optimises how you use the software you're paying for, simplifies billing and procurement, and presents lower upgrade costs.
- Greater visibility—with all teams using the same tools, tracking and monitoring work is simple, making it easier to gain valuable, actionable insights and access data analysis and reports. Aligning your processes ensures everyone works towards a common strategy before implementing a work management tool. Our recent marketing team case study explains more.
The challenges of tool standardisation
In the interest of balance, it's essential to consider the drawbacks of standardisation. Let's take a look at some of the key challenges.
- Limiting creativity—mandating and standardising tools takes away the freedom to choose, which can harm your teams' creativity and innovation.
- Ignoring the unique requirements of different teams—departments operate differently and, therefore, have unique requirements. By removing their ability to choose, you can disregard thepreferences of individual teams, who may have different opinions on what tools they would like to use. It can lead to workarounds or reduced efficiency if the tools don't suit their needs.
- High upfront investment—undoubtedly, technology is expensive. Standardisation may require a significant investment, either upfront or ongoing. You may have to pay for the license, subscription, maintenance, or customisation of the tool and incur additional training, integration, or migration costs. However, it's important to consider the cost savings too. For some businesses, standardising on one tool will actually save money.
- Process disruption—work management tools are full of features to help your projects run smoothly. However, a tool change usually results in short-term disruption to workflows and processes, and it's important to remember that tools support robust processes. Still, the foundations need to be in place first.
Work management tools
There are many work management tools to choose from, sometimes making it difficult to know where to start. Through a combination of our expertise and partnerships with world-leading technology providers, we can guide you to the best solutions to fit your needs.
It could be that what works for you is a tool like monday.com that offers fantastic integration capabilities, enabling you to work with the tools you favour most, or Atlassian's latest addition, Jira Work Management, which bridges the gap between technical and business, allowing everyone in an organisation to collaborate on Atlassian tools.
Final considerations
When it comes to work management tools, productivity is the goal—which approach will enable your teams to get the most out of their day-to-day work? Keep that in mind as you consider whether standardisation is the right approach for your organisation. It's also important to factor in your culture, goals, and processes and assess where this cohesion makes the most sense. There's no one-size-fits-all solution, which means your decision to standardise should be unique to your organisation.
Have more questions about work management tool standardisation?
We know every organisation is different, so we encourage you to discuss your needs. Our experts can help you decide when to standardise and when it might not work, whatever team you're in. We can guide you to the right decision and help you find the right tools for the job. Read our Unlocking Enterprise Marketing Productivity case study to learn how work management tools can boost your marketing team's productivity.
Talk to us about work management
Our experts work with organisations globally to address their collaboration and productivity challenges. Chat to us about how we can help you do the same.
