Technology as an enabler to connect

Our lives are becoming more connected, and it’s a phenomenon enabled and driven by technology. This changes every aspect of how modern businesses operate even down to how employees work together. It has drastically improved the way we communicate and has made team collaboration possible across different locations, physical boundaries and time restraints. To stay competitive and grow, businesses need effective communication and collaboration in the workplace and need to leverage all the technological tools at their disposal.

Digital collaboration is therefore essential to modern business, as are the talented IT teams that create and maintain the frameworks that make it all possible. To this point, our IT team at ENL have recently integrated the outlook calendars of most of the subsidiaries, with the remaining accounts to be live shortly. This enables users to view the availability of colleagues regardless of which subsidiary they work for. Reducing the time taken to schedule meetings and collaborate. Laurent Bourelly, Head of Marketing at ENL, who originally raised the opportunity with CiLab is already making use of the feature.

The benefit of reduced administrative tasks when communicating is evident and CiLab has been encouraged by the number of individuals at the corporate office that have taken this communication technology one step further. After initially being raised as an opportunity by Virginie Corneillet, Group Head of Governance and Legal Affairs, CiLab implemented an (AI) Artificial intelligence powered virtual assistant (Cortana). 

As the name suggests Cortana acts as an assistant and communicates with individuals inside or out with the organisation to set an appropriate time and place for meetings. Cortana has been able to further reduce the time taken to set up and confirm meetings of the 25 users at the corporate office and on average Cortana saves 1 hour per every 5 meetings set. With hundreds of meetings held at ENL per week, there is significant scope for impact if we are all able to save time.

It is important to note however that communication is more than technological tools. It’s more than a cultural willingness to work together to come up with new ideas. You need both. And when you combine them, you unlock tremendous power. Now is the time to start taking full advantage of the tools that technology can offer and look at how we can leverage this to increase our internal efficiency.