3 challenges of cross team collaboration and how to solve them

Each of your teams probably has a few tools in their stack. With the given amount of collaboration tools out there, there should be no issues communicating and collaborating across departments.

And yet, problems remain. Teams copy-paste data from one tool to another, spend time looking for the most accurate information and switching between a dozen apps… while some other teams prefer to work in one tool instead of another… Sounds familiar, right? 

Before we deep dive, let’s start with the basics. 

What is cross team collaboration?

Cross team collaboration, also known as cross functional collaboration, is the process of working together across separate teams (for instance sales, finance and customer service). These teams may be working from different locations, tools, with separate goals, budgets and reporting lines. What ties them together? They have workflows that they need to execute together. Yet, there are several factors that can either make - or break - cross team collaboration.

Let’s look at 3 of the top challenges and how you can solve them.

3 Challenges to Cross Team Collaboration 

Challenge #1 Decentralized communications

Technology makes communication possible 24/7. Every day we receive an endless number of notifications, emails, and messages, that disrupt concentration and workflow.  

Especially, when you collaborate with other teams, each team may have a preferred tool. Then, it’s easy to feel bombarded with tons of notifications from various apps. They force us to switch back and forth and make it extremely hard to focus. And this brings us to the second problem.

Challenge #2 Dispersed information

Due to the different tool preferences, any cross-department project can be easily managed in 3 or even more apps. Information gets copy-pasted and spread across tools, and therefore loses context or may become outdated. As a result, team members end up wasting their energy and time hunting down the right information, and battling to keep their tools and teams in sync.

Challenge #3 Reluctance to adopt new tools or methods

Not a surprise that we all have different habits, ways of working and preferred apps to work from. Although, often, cross team collaboration brings new tools to our stack. 

A new tool means learning another platform, migrating information, and changing our habits. And on top of the time and investment it represents, we all know a new tool can trigger resistance. Do these issues sound familiar? If so, read on as we have solutions.

Start simplifying cross team collaboration with Gmelius

The Future of Work calls for modern solutions. Solutions that open up new ways of collaborating. What if you could minimize your tool stack and let every team member choose which platform to work from while keeping your teams, apps and data in sync?

At Gmelius we are building a new kind of collaboration platform that lives where you work, by integrating natively into your daily apps like Gmail, Slack, Trello, and etc. Sounds interesting? Let us explain.

Solution #1 Establish a clean and transparent structure for cross team collaboration

Whatever your function is, email plays a significant role in your daily routine. And that’s why we’ve built a strong ecosystem around Google Workspace (formerly G Suite). Gmelius supercharges Gmail with next-gen email collaboration capabilities. This means that your teams can collaborate on projects and client communications directly from their personal inboxes. 

How? You can organize and manage projects with shared inboxes and shared Gmail labels, and even turn them into visual kanban boards. You can assign emails to a teammate or chat alongside an email thread to collaborate on resolution with other team members. Sharing emails with Gmelius makes email forwards and bcc a thing of the past. With email sharing, each team member gets full visibility on an email thread, including future replies. As a result, your external and internal communications are centralized, unified, transparent - all in one place.

But things would be too easy if your work focused only around emails. Too often teams share information with other teams, by switching back and forth between multiple apps.

Solution #2 Revolutionize cross team collaboration by connecting your tools together

Gmelius and its 2-way integrations connect teams and their daily tools together. Teams love Gmelius, because it allows every teammate to collaborate with others while working inside the tools they already know and love. All your apps and data stay in sync, with no more app-switching or learning another tool.   

At Merserwis, for example, Gmelius plays a key role in cross functional collaboration, allowing their Sales and Technical teams to seamlessly collaborate with each other.

“Everyone on the team is connected via Gmelius. Having shared information across all departments is very useful, especially in our highly-technical and fast-paced environment.”

- Damian, CEO at Merserwis

Gmelius and its 2-way integrations make cross functional collaboration effortless. For example, by syncing Gmail with Slack your customer support and product teams can easily join forces to collaborate on a new feature.

While with our 2-way integration between Gmail and Trello, your marketing team can seamlessly partner with sales folks or external agencies to deliver a new project.

And it does not stop there. By connecting Gmail with Google Calendar and your favorite conferencing tools (like Zoom and Google Meet), your HR team can schedule interviews on behalf of hiring teams in a couple of clicks. They can save meeting templates and insert a teammate's calendar inside their emails for applicants to book their interviews without the endless back and forth. Moreover, with our public API and Zapier integration, you can customize your workflows even further.

The modern way of cross team collaboration

As you can see, with Gmelius and our unique 2-way integrations, your teams and their tools stay in sync. So there is no need to migrate data to a different third-party solution, nor to migrate your teams to another application.