You have a gold mine of company knowledge. Are you using it the right way?

Having the right information available to the right people can be the difference between growing quickly as a business and stagnating — or even failing. The key to success? Collaboration and knowledge sharing. However, even with the best operational strategies in place, there are barriers that hinder companies from unlocking their full potential.

Barrier 1: Fragmented tools lead to inefficient information sharing

Different teams using different platforms for their work is a common, yet often overlooked, pitfall. The Sales team might be using Salesforce to manage customer relationships, while the Marketing department uses HubSpot for email marketing. The Developers might prefer GitHub for project management, whereas HR might prefer Notion.

While Sales needs a CRM, and Marketing needs an automation platform, these fragmented tools can lead to several problems:

• Communication breakdown: With different teams on different platforms, important information often gets stuck in silos. The Marketing team's insights on customer behavior might not reach the Sales team in time to close a deal, or the Product team might miss crucial feedback from Customer Support.
• Time wasted: Employees waste valuable time switching between platforms and searching for information. A Developer may need to access marketing insights on HubSpot, or an HR representative might need sales data from Salesforce. The constant switching creates friction and inefficiency.

Additionally, while each team does need those platforms, there are cost inefficiencies in play when companies have robust tech stacks. Identifying areas where consolidation can occur not only helps with communication and time concerns, but also helps your bottom line.

Barrier 2: Data overload and the struggle to share insights

Your Marketing team is obsessing over engagement metrics and campaign performance, the Sales team utilizes customer leads and conversion rates, while Customer Support is laser-focused on customer feedback and support tickets.

In such a specialized environment, specific challenges emerge:

• Inefficient data management: Inefficient data management happens when a team or a whole organization is not properly storing, utilizing, or making data available to the people who need it. Imagine the Development team rolling out a feature without the rest of the company understanding the details or the timing. This could result in Sales missing opportunities because they can’t relay that new features are on the roadmap or CS being unprepared with support documents or the knowledge to assist customers.
• Information silos: Information silos are slightly different from inefficient data management. With the latter, the way in which data is stored or made available impacts its effectiveness; with silos, the data cannot even be shared. For example, if CS keeps information on tickets gated within their team, then Development won’t have insights into UX problems constantly tripping up platform users.

For most companies, they are not faced with a lack of information to succeed. They are struggling with ensuring the right teams have the right information at the right times — and that it can be shared effectively without causing extra work — like constantly updating a company wiki — for teams.

Barrier 3: Managing remote and distributed teams

In the age of globalization and remote work, managing distributed teams has become the norm rather than the exception. While this model offers unparalleled flexibility and access to global talent, it also presents a unique set of challenges that can disrupt collaboration and knowledge sharing.

• Communication breakdown: Remote work can lead to miscommunication, misunderstandings, and even a feeling of isolation among team members. This can stall projects, decrease morale, and affect the bottom line.
• Inconsistent information sharing: The lack of a unified tools, as discussed in Barrier 1, can lead to inconsistent or contradictory information sharing. Some team members might have access to certain tools or information that others don't, leading to confusion and inefficiency.
• Meeting overload: Meetings can foster collaboration and unity, or they can become a drain on resources and creativity. Many distributed organizations — or simply large organizations with many teams — fall into the trap of "meeting overload.” While meetings can foster collaboration and unity, too many meetings lead to a lack of creative collaboration and inefficient or wrong information sharing.

The power of consolidation and collaboration

With Rewatch's enterprise-grade platform, companies are empowered to overcome these barriers and focus on what truly matters. Consolidate, collaborate, and conquer company goals - it's time to reap the rewards of seamless organizational knowledge sharing.

Try Rewatch today and see how it can help you break down barriers.