Dec

10

Feeling like your software project or  your business enterperise can’t be handled alone? If you have enough resources, perhaps you should consider getting a virtual team of professionals to help you out.

With complementary skills, interdependent goals and commitment to a common purpose, virtual teams work across time, space and organizational boundaries through links forged by communications technology. Through virtual teams, enterprises and enterpreneurs can hire and retain the best professionals, regardless of geography.

Virtual Teams are advantageous for any enterprise:

  1. Reduced costs due to eliminated functions that overlapped.
  2. Knowledge sharing about best practices, different products and markets.
  3. 24/7 productivity by teams working in different global time zones.
  4. Diverse knowledge and skills can be integrated to drive innovation, address complex tasks more effectively, and make better decisions.

However, managing virtual teams for effectivity and efficiency has its challenges:

  1. Cultural gaps, difficulties in communication and understanding, resulting in a lack of common ground, trust, and shared responsibility between team members.
  2. Failure to develop task-related processes, i.e. the establishment goals and standards.
  3. Inability to collaborate and take advantage of different perspectives, knowledge, talent, and expertise.
  4. Lack of engagement and commitment by team members to deliver best performance in task completion and project progression.

Virtual team coach and Wilson Learning Corp’s VP for business development/distributor network Carl Eidson recommends the following strategies in managing virtual team members to perform well for successful results.

  1. Keep all members in close communication.
  2. Cultivate a collaborative mindset for the team and its members.
  3. Clearly establish the team’s purpose and goals
  4. Set standards for performance.
  5. Acquire and apply coaching strategies to distance management.
  6. Reward or celebrate project milestones and successes.

With virtual teams, your company or enterprise can attain flexibility and technological sophistication as well as get high-quality professional expertise, not limited by cost and location.

 

Outsourcing Solutions, Inc. – Your Virtual Team Provider in the Philippines!

 

Reference:

Eidson, Carl Ph. D. “Six Strategies to managing Telecommuters.” 8 December 2009. CIO Website. Accessed 10 December 2009. Link Here


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