How technology can help foster teamwork and collaboration are limitless.
Teamwork relies on the team members’ ability to be flexible, and for a team to work together successfully, it is important to consider everyone’s habits and unique personality traits.
In her blog, Pei Huang, our Director of Product, Auvenir, highlights the importance of collaboration with cross-functional teams to build a product roadmap, and as Amy Yu, Product Manager, Auvenir mentions in her article, we collaborate every day and support each other here at Auvenir. Ultimately, teamwork is essential for the success of any organization.
The rapid development of cloud computing services and collaboration technologies has numerous benefits for remote and hybrid workforces. Cloud technology is steadily becoming the heart of every collaborative workforce, and accounting firms are increasingly moving towards cloud-based platforms to keep up with technological advancements.
But how can technology help build up trust and communication, and how do cloud-based platforms improve teamwork and collaboration? Let’s dive into how cloud technology can help.
Centralized Files
Utilizing a single platform and process for completing your audit and assurance engagements is extremely helpful for auditors and it will improve cross-communication between the firm and the client. Auditors can easily track progress with their engagement when there is a centralized file source, and managing large quantities of data becomes simplified for the whole engagement team. By making information easy to share and find for all the parties involved, Auvenir helps streamline the audit process and improves teamwork.
Adopting a centralized cloud-computing platform for auditing also allows auditors to reduce the time spent chasing client requests and searching for data.
One of the best features of using cloud technology for auditing is that the whole team has access to the same accurate data, which helps build trust between the firm and the client and strengthens the relationship.
Increased Participation and Communication
The move towards remote work has emphasized the need for cloud-based solutions for auditors. In fact, it has become table stakes for firms to be successful. Audit processes are increasingly being done virtually by firms, and auditors have had to adjust their audit procedures and communications to fulfill their obligations while working remotely.
With the help of cloud technology, auditors can now effectively communicate with the whole engagement team from anywhere. When audit teams work remotely, there is less time spent on travelling, which allows auditors to spend more time completing their tasks. As an added benefit, this extra time increases availability and communication between client and auditor.
Improved Organization
Cloud computing is a rapidly growing solution for data storage and collaboration issues, and accounting firms are increasingly adopting cloud-based technologies to improve their engagement process with clients. With central storage for data, there is no need to worry about multiple versions of data, there is only one source of data truth. This trust in the data improves the collaborative relationship between an auditor and their client.
Eliminating multi-version documents improves collaboration amongst an engagement team since less time is wasted trying to access the correct information and is especially helpful for auditors who are dealing with lots of data.
Enhanced Security
Teamwork and collaboration require a degree of trust between all the parties involved. During an engagement, auditors handle high volumes of sensitive information, so how confidential and private data is handled is critical to maintaining confidence in the quality of the audit.
With cloud-based technology platforms, auditors can work with encrypted data, and it also allows more control over who sees what data, by customizing their access levels. In 2020, Google registered a record two million phishing websites, which illustrates the dangers of sending emails with sensitive information back and forth, and the threat of data could end up in the wrong hands. Again, having a central source to access information and documents eliminates errors and creates a more collaborative environment for everyone involved in the engagement process.
Cloud-based collaboration starts with having the right tools!