Slack: Enabling seamless communication across borders
The productivity platform is fostering a culture of purpose-driven collaboration at agritech start-up Jiva, which has employees spanning three countries.
Jiva works directly with farmers in India and Indonesia, providing them with critical services such as micro-financing, harvest purchase and personalised agronomy advisory. Photos: Jiva
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At agricultural technology company Jiva, where employees can be found working in offices, remote farms or commuting between both, the need for efficient cross-border communication is paramount.
The start-up works directly with smallholder farmers – a vital yet often marginalised group responsible for a significant portion of global food production – to deliver critical services such as micro-financing, agri e-commerce, harvest purchase and personalised agronomy advisory. With a workforce of some 600 employees across Indonesia, India and Singapore, Jiva turned to Slack to bridge the geographical divide.
Besides streamlining operations through automation and allowing users to share and search for information efficiently, the productivity platform enables teams to connect and engage others with ease.
Mr Nav Pawera, Jiva’s head of design, said that Slack’s real-time messaging capability facilitates instant collaboration, while organised channels keep discussions focused. “With audio and video calling, screen sharing and presence indicators, our remote teams can collaborate effectively – and equally importantly, without distractions.”
BRIDGING COMMUNICATION GAPS IN DIVERSE TEAMS
For field workers engaging directly with farmers, Slack’s mix of real-time and asynchronous communication has proved invaluable, according to Mr Pawera.
“Asynchronous discussions using chat and recorded video messages, as well as Slack Huddles for quick calls, help us communicate better, which is crucial in a multicultural company like Jiva where team members speak different native languages,” he said.
With teams working across time zones, asynchronous meetings work well to reduce the number of live meetings, along with the coordination required across busy schedules and varied working hours. Furthermore, with Slack Clips, employees can record themselves and share updates at their convenience.
Communication among team members is set to get even more fluid and efficient with Slack’s recently announced generative AI capabilities, Slack AI, that will be built natively into the platform. These include channel recaps, which allow users to generate key highlights on any channel; search answers, where users can ask a question and get a clear, concise answer based on relevant Slack messages; and thread summaries, where users can catch up on any conversation, regardless of when they’ve been added to a project.
Said Ms Shweta Verma, Slack’s country manager, Singapore, Salesforce: “Our goal is to help companies reduce communication barriers by enabling teams to turn inefficient processes into smooth workflows powered by AI and automation.”
EFFICIENCY IN OPERATIONAL WORKFLOWS
Operating within different time zones and across diverse locations also demands a streamlined approach to administrative processes. By migrating its employee onboarding process entirely onto Slack, Mr Pawera noted that newcomers can seamlessly integrate into teams and swiftly settle into their roles.
“With everyone on Slack, it’s easy to say hello and introduce yourself, even in a remote setting,” he said. “At the same time, Slack’s integrations with other tools create a centralised and efficient onboarding experience.”
Ensuring access to the right information remains crucial for a dynamic start-up like Jiva. Slack’s app integrations provide companies with enhanced control over information access, while team leaders can limit notifications to those involved in a certain project or task with Slack Channels, eliminating data overload.
“Being able to bring critical parts of other tools to Slack means we don’t miss information from across the organisation,” said Mr Pawera.
A COLLABORATION-FIRST APPROACH TO GREATER PRODUCTIVITY
Another handy feature is Slack’s Workflow Builder, which Mr Pawera said is “an integral part of our Slack experience”. He listed several uses for automated workflows, such as running team pulse checks every fortnight, pre-meeting polls to assess if a meeting is necessary, collecting kudos from the team for sharing during monthly catch-ups, and running Ask Me Anything sessions during company town hall meetings.
Slack’s Workflow Builder has recently been updated, allowing users to save time by creating automated workflows for standard processes like project kick-offs, IT requests and leave applications. Teams now have access to flexible ways of integrating tools from partners like Google, Calendly and Asana, and a dedicated automation page with workflow templates so they can get started quickly.
Other new enhancements to Slack include Slack Sales Elevate, which drives sales performance by integrating Salesforce’s Sales Cloud directly into the Slack interface. This allows sales teams to track key metrics, with complete visibility into team performance and deal progression.
Said Ms Verma: “In a fast-evolving digital economy, Slack is taking a collaboration-first approach that allows companies to integrate new AI and automation technologies directly on our trusted platform, boosting their productivity and teamwork across the business.”
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