There’s one thing that remains true for almost any business, regardless of employee number, niche, or status: your collaboration must be on point. When collaboration breaks down, that’s a symptom that communication has also broken down. And once that happens, it’s just a matter of time until it all starts tumbling down like a super-sized Jenga tower – only one that’s much more expensive and even more painful to clean up. Nobody wants that, but how are you supposed to stop it before it gets to this point?
Well, to be fully transparent, you might not be able to. Tracing the root of collaborative failures is pretty integral to the whole prevention thing, but it’s far from an easy task to undertake with so many possible suspects. A good starting place, though, is to look at what software and tools you’re using. Have several going at once? That might just be the problem.
Inefficient and Ineffective
Why would using multiple programs cause such a big snafu? The issue is that it’s simply not a very efficient way to run things. Anytime you have something with several moving parts, either figuratively or literally, you open yourself to an increased possibility of failure. Things naturally fall through the cracks, or something breaks down, taking all the rest with it. It’s kind of like cheap, IKEA furniture. It doesn’t matter how pretty that Swedish television stand may be. The entire frame and system of drawers took 4 hours and 80 screws to set up. If even a couple of them end up stripped (or more likely, you didn’t use all of them, to begin with), everything’s going to tumble down as soon as you look at it wrong. It relies on every piece of the proverbial puzzle to work. In the absence of that, it will fail – just like your collaborations. Should someone miss a change in term language, not see invitations to negotiate, etc., your business partnerships will be in trouble.
This also brings us to the problem of time. Using multiple collaborative tools takes too much of it. Flipping back and forth between applications and accounts, searching for specific documents or messages, sending things through the wrong medium, all are extremely common and time-wasting, not to mention destructive. Coordination will be practically impossible, and getting your stakeholders all on the same page will be like trying to corral a herd of cats. That can only hurt your business partnerships and bottom line.
A(I) Better Way
So, keeping a more centralized collaboration hub sounds like a good idea, all things considered, but what’s the alternative? Automation – in particular, that led by machine learning. Not only can programs such as our Intelligent Negotiation Platform simply combine everything you need in one area, but AI also has the potential to completely streamline all the annoying, unnecessary bits and get you through negotiations faster. For example, AI programs could send messages to current suppliers reminding them to review renewal terms or even request proposals from interested competitors, freeing all employees and stakeholders from getting a million emails or attending those long meetings everyone loathes. Similarly, RPA bots could send out regularly scheduled deal reports and status updates rather than the inane task landing on the boss’ desk.
Simple, cheap, and effective, automation tools like these could easily be the way forward. Business would surely benefit. Not only would it free up people to focus on more complex, frankly more important issues, but it would also solve all the major problems of separate collaborative tools. Instead of strewn about, nearly hidden in the mess of it all, information and requests could be both easy to find and quick to answer. Stakeholders, suppliers, and potential partners can then reach alignment faster, and you can move onto more interesting things. A win-win for everybody.
About Intellext™
Intellext is an AI startup that is revolutionizing the way contracts are negotiated, accelerating time to close, and improving deal terms. Intellext’s Intelligent Negotiation Platform™ eliminates the complexities of contract redlines and stakeholder collaboration and optimizes deal terms by applying machine learning during the negotiation process.