This month, our team in Texas (myself included) was affected by the winter storm that resulted in lost power and water for much of the state. Life and work ground to a halt, and our colleagues in Texas were able to occasionally log on to check in on their work but were largely disconnected from the world (and the work that continued for the rest of the country).
This resulted in an interesting, although mostly unwelcome, test of how ALOE steps in when team members are unexpectedly unavailable. What we knew we would learn but are (somewhat) glad for the first-hand knowledge of, is that ALOE made sure we were prepared for the unexpected.
So today, with first-hand experience of how a legal operations tool held up our business when 1/3 of our team was unexpectedly out of office, we’ll share exactly how tools like ALOE protect your business.
- Intake/New Requests
When our internal and external customers need something, they don’t rely only on email. We have a number of simple ways that they can ensure their request gets into the system where all team members can see it. New requests that came in throughout the week were not stuck in our team member’s emails, but were visible to the entire team so that available team members could manage any customer needs that came in. - Open/Ongoing Projects
Team members with power and availability were able to see what team members in Texas had been working on. By pulling reports to check on upcoming due dates, or searching for projects that the Texas team asked for attention on, working team members were able to make sure that nothing fell through the cracks. Additionally, because our team tracks all their work in ALOE and collaborates in the tool naturally, team members that were jumping in to the middle of projects had all the information they needed to confidently take over. - Employee Care
Using a collaboration tool like ALOE made it possible for Bigfork to care for employees experiencing a natural disaster without great concern for business continuity. Employees were able to spend their energy managing their homes, caring for their families, and helping their communities. Meanwhile, when they were able to check in at work, they could know with confidence that urgent matters were being tended to. - Return to Work
Coming back from a vacation that you prepared for is overwhelming enough. Coming back from unexpected time off can feel like you’re under an avalanche. While there was still a lot to catch up on, because working team members still had their own jobs to do, the return to work is not as daunting when others are able to take on time-sensitive projects. The return to work was still burdensome for me. It was still a week of long nights and short deadlines. But, because customers and due dates were tended to while I was away, the burden was significantly lighter.
Collaboration tools make good business sense. The world continues to get less predictable, and with legal operations tools, you can prepare your business for the unexpected.
