How the digital HQ can deliver efficiency and productivity—even in challenging times

Chris Mills, Head of Customer Success, EMEA at Slack

The roles of the CTO and CIO have grown enormously in recent years, proving fundamental in facilitating the rapid shift from traditional working to hybrid working during the pandemic. But this was no short term shift—the value of the CTO and CIO continues to rise.

The next challenge on the horizon? Ensuring workers everywhere remain aligned, efficient and productive despite the economic turbulence organisations are buckling in for. Now, the spotlight is on tech leaders to once again steward businesses through another technological revolution—one in which the digital headquarters (HQ) is key.

Technology revolution 2.0

The majority of businesses are now adept at hybrid working, with many establishing policies to meet the needs of the workforce. This does not mean, however, that setups aren’t without a few wrinkles, with urgent issues including duplicate tools, bloating costs and unoptimised processes.

The digital HQ solves these challenges by uniting teams, partners, and the tools they use in a single digital space—making how work gets done simpler, more pleasant and more efficient. In fact, teams that use Slack as their digital HQ are 49% more productive.

In the digital HQ, bottomless email inboxes are replaced with Slack channels—a way of organising conversations based on topic, project, or initiative. While employees find information-sharing no longer tethered to inflexible meetings; instead, happening in Slack Huddles or Clips—free-flowing real-time or asynchronous audio and video messages that mean, on average, teams have 36% fewer meetings.

Another area the digital HQ really shines in its ability to drive productivity is through its ability to automate tasks—with Slack users launching 1.7 million automated workflows a day. For an example of this in action, businesses should look at Vodafone.

Automating for efficiency

Vodafone first started using the digital HQ as a foundation for modern engineering practices, but now uses it to enhance its collaboration worldwide. This has created opportunities for efficiency, in particular for the DevOps team, where release requests had the potential to be more streamlined.

With the digital HQ, the team is able to simplify release requests and use Slack’s Workflow Builder to automate a complex process. Developers now add the details of a release to a simple form, then used to populate a dedicated Slack channel so that the wider team has a real-time view of what’s going on.

Through the digital HQ, Vodafone has developed an efficient way of dealing with release requests that can number over 100 a month. They remain productive and focussed on the work, not the admin, while other teams retain visibility over an integral part of the business.

A HQ for challenging times

The pandemic demonstrated that, even in challenging times, productive and efficient ways of working are possible through technology. Vodafone is living proof that our technology evolution didn’t stop there, with the digital HQ providing a new foundation for the future of work.

The macroeconomic challenges we face will surely pass, and there’ll undoubtedly be something else close to follow. Yet the digital HQ is no one-trick pony. By supercharging not just our productivity, efficiency and collaboration, but our resilience too, with the digital HQ, businesses can prepare for the future—whatever it looks like.  

For more information on how Slack’s Digital HQ can help your business click here.