Why a Landscape of Remote-Work Tools Is Superior to a Single “Super-App”

On November 22, Forbes released an article entitled “The Most Exciting Tech Trends For 2020, From Five Leading Investors Around The World”. This article featured insights from five leading investors from different parts of the world, discussing the most exciting tech trends expected to emerge in 2020.
Sarah Smith, an Investing Partner at Bain Capital Ventures, provided an insightful perspective on the changing landscape of technology and how distributed teams are impacting communication and the tools needed for productivity. In her own words, she noted that “[INSERT QUOTE].”

As the demand for tech talent continues to outpace the available supply in the United States, more and more tech leaders are turning to remote teams in order to fill the gap. This trend has led to a proliferation of innovative companies offering tools and services to enable better experiences for remote teams, allowing them to maximise productivity and collaboration. These tools are designed to be the next generation of messaging, video conferencing, and note-taking applications, such as Slack, Zoom, Quip, and Evernote.

It is evident that the methods of interaction and work utilised by leaders, managers, teams, and employees are rapidly shifting. However, it is not clear if a single app will be able to provide all the necessities for a remote team or whether more applications will be needed than before. Furthermore, it is essential to consider the impact of not having physical contact, as it may lead to a lack of trust, empathy, and companionship between colleagues. Therefore, it is critical to find tools that can help to bridge this gap, and enable a fully remote working world to still be able to foster these connections.

Sarah’s concept of a unified application that can be used to perform multiple tasks is certainly innovative, and it provoked a vivid mental image. I was even able to anticipate the potential issues that could occur with the initial release of the application.
Upon further reflection, I noted the many benefits of the current selection of remote-work technologies. Three such advantages readily come to mind.

The more tools we have, the more/better they can be used.

Despite the impressive capabilities of a super-app, it is not able to provide all of the functions and programs enabled by the remote-enablement technologies discussed in the Boundaryless landscape. These technologies allow for a range of activities, such as collaboration, communication, and automation, in a distributed environment, which a super-app alone is unable to achieve.

An inclusive team needs more tools.

Secondly, the sheer number of available programs that are accessible to remote teams reflects the remarkable variety of options that working remotely provides. One of the major benefits of remote work is that businesses, particularly small ones, can benefit from the expertise of remote employees from across the globe. Diversity in teams necessitates the use of multiple applications to match the unique demands of each business. It is highly improbable that any one software, no matter how powerful, can satisfy all the individual needs of any given business.

An abundance of tools supports innovation.

At Works, we believe that innovation is an invaluable asset. It facilitates progress and competition, which in turn, drives mankind forward. In order to foster this cycle of advancement, and to support the ever-evolving landscape of #Boundaryless enterprises, we stay abreast of emerging organisations that are actively working to promote the development of remote and distributed teams.

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