Teams | Collaboration | Customer Service | Project Management

October 2023

Ready to stop the meeting madness? Miro can help

Time is a scarce resource. No amount of money can buy an extra hour in the day or reclaim an hour of wasted time. Yet, too many of us today aren’t managing where or how we invest this resource responsibly, as we would our finances. In fact, many people regularly stare down impenetrable blocks of back-to-back meetings or double-booked time slots in their calendars.

Mental Blocks Report: How to help teams get unstuck

Do you ever feel overwhelmed when you see a flashing cursor on a blank screen? Or you have so many ideas for a project that you don’t know where to begin? Or perhaps you simply can’t find the information needed to finish the task at hand? A mental block — the feeling of being stuck and unable to move forward with a task or project — is a common part of work that nearly everyone experiences.

5 most secure video conferencing apps for privacy-conscious organizations

Secure video conferencing is a crucial tool for organizations striving to communicate effectively without the fear of data breaches and malicious cybercrime attempts. The recent shift towards remote work has underscored the critical need for secure digital meetings. However, this reliance unveils several privacy challenges: According to research, 97% of IT professionals are concerned about video conferencing privacy and data protection, with 92% aware of existing security vulnerabilities.

How to optimize your tech stack for AI, according to marketing leaders

The market is flooded with shiny new AI tools, all promising to help teams “do more with less.” In the midst of that noise, marketing leaders are faced with a delicate balance: How can they update their tech stack safely, to reap the benefits of AI without putting marketing outcomes—and budget—at risk? This was a core theme at The Work Innovation Summit, Asana’s marquee event showcasing how AI can unlock human potential at work.

MS Teams Unbundled: Why Now Is The Right Time To Move To a Secure Collaboration Tool

In the European Union, MS Teams is being unbundled from the rest of the Office 365 solutions. Join experts in the secure collaboration space to learn about why security-conscious organizations are moving away from Microsoft Teams.

Everything you've wanted to know about transforming culture with Brian Brockman

This episode features an interview with Brian Brockman, VP of Communications, US & Canada at Nissan Motor Corporation. In this episode, Amanda sits down with Brian to discuss transforming work culture, crafting an equitable employee experience, and how internal and external communications can flow together.

Importance of Collaboration Tools For Students

Today's education continues to undergo a period of significant changes. Students and teachers are no longer confined to the physical boundaries of schools. As well as university classrooms. Information technologies have opened up endless possibilities. They allow collaboration and learning regardless of the location of the educational stakeholders. All this is possible thanks to a variety of innovative tools.

Intranet implementation made simple: Choose an intranet that saves IT time and resources

Tightening budgets are making it more imperative than ever to choose an intranet solution that is easy to deploy and maintain, thereby preserving and optimizing your IT resources. Streamlined intranet implementation can save money, time and frustration for IT and beyond.

What's New: What we launched in October

Even if you don’t celebrate Halloween or go trick-or-treating, you’ll be thrilled to know that we still have some treats in store in this month’s update. A big one is you can now watch on-demand highlights from Distributed 23, our annual community event. Check out product announcements plus tips and demos from leading experts.

5 innovation templates for out-of-this-world thinking

From the moon landing to the Mars rovers to the International Space Station, space agency teams are some of the best at coming up with innovations that are quite literally out of this world. While you and your own team might not be fueling rockets or launching satellites, you can still adopt creative strategies used by the brilliant brains at NASA and beyond — starting with these templates.

Toast messages, their use cases, and examples

In-app messages are becoming increasingly popular as a method for products to communicate with their users. The tools for sending those messages are maturing and certain standards are becoming expected for specific types of messaging. One such standard is the toast message, a short-lived note that gives the user some feedback or direction.

9 Tips to Adapt Collaborative Work for Remote Employees

Nowadays, virtual spaces are the primary medium for interaction — so the importance of collaborative work cannot be overstated. However, the shift to remote work poses unique challenges for HR managers. Adapting to the digital era requires more than just embracing technology, it demands innovative strategies to ensure teams stay connected, aligned, and engaged. In this article, we’ll explore 9 steps managers can follow to enhance collaborative work in remote teams.

Scalable collaboration software for enterprises

In our dynamic business world, enterprises face a number of complex challenges when it comes to supporting effective teamwork, ensuring data security, and staying compliant with ever-evolving regulations. As organizations continue to grow, so do their demands for efficient collaboration tools that can seamlessly adapt to changing requirements and scale effortlessly.

4 ways to preserve company culture during an Agile Transformation

“Change is the only constant,” the Greek philosopher Heraclitus once said. And in today’s rapidly evolving tech landscape, this statement has never been more valid. But with change comes fear — especially when it threatens the established ways of doing things in a company. Agile transformations, though rewarding, can bring about such fears.

Top 8 Internal Communication Tools for Effective Collaboration

Internal communication tools are software apps used by a company for managing employees’ communication. Team collaboration is crucial for team work and internal communication tools prove to be much more effective than a usual email correspondence. In this article, we will discuss some of the top-rated internal communication tools that aim to improve collaboration and meet your team’s needs. Top 8 Internal Communication Tools for Productive Team Collaboration Click To Tweet.

7 top benefits of digital public services for citizens and governments

Digital public services are becoming a reality for citizens in many different countries. To harness the power of digitization, governments across the world are on a spree to leverage digital tools and virtual platforms to automate the delivery of public services. For instance, the European Commission has set 2030 as the target to achieve complete digitalization of key public services.

4 types of concept maps (with free templates)

Concept maps are visual representations of information that help keep ideas organized and easy to understand. The different types of concept maps can help you visualize concepts and processes or illustrate systems. Depending on the complexity of what you're mapping, you can either use concept map templates, draw your maps by hand, or use mapping software for more advanced projects.

The complete stakeholder mapping guide

Have you ever thought you had the green light for a project, only to have it blocked by an unseen decision-maker? One of the best ways to make sure you get buy-in from all the key players is through stakeholder mapping and analysis. No matter your seniority in an organization, you can innovate and drive change. But to do so, you need to understand the web of stakeholders whose buy-in you need to earn.

Distributed '23 highlights: Enhanced AI, advanced diagramming, and more!

Product leaders, developers, and innovators from Miro’s community of more than 60 million global users brought their passion and energy to Distributed ’23, our annual community event designed to inspire and empower teams to create the next big thing.

Essential intranet content: 10 must-have employee intranet content types + ideas & examples

This article was originally published on Feb. 5, 2016, and was updated on Oct. 25, 2023 The right mix of intranet content serves double-duty as an organization’s virtual watercooler and centralized knowledge base — the go-to hub to communicate, connect and engage. Turn your employee intranet into a communications, collaboration and engagement powerhouse with these essential intranet content ideas.

How to Choose the Right SMS API for Your Project

SMS is the most reliable and highly-read notification channel, making it a popular choice for developers who want their systems to send notifications to their users. If you’ve got an application that needs to send out short, important, time-sensitive messages, you should consider integrating an SMS API into your system to help you handle this. In this article, we explain how to choose the right SMS API provider for your needs.

Navigating tomorrow with Miro

Distributed teams face unique challenges in competitive environments, but one thing is certain: teams that innovate under these circumstances win. See how Miro's newest releases bridge the gap across areas of innovation and tackles challenges across distributed teams. Whether it's AI-powered inspiration or communicating, planning and executing on a shared vision, you'll learn how Miro will help you create the next big thing, regardless of where or how you work.

Top 5 benefits of collaboration in healthcare

Why is collaboration in healthcare so important? Patient care is a collaborative endeavor. Delivering a high-quality patient experience and healthcare requires knowledge, skills, and efforts from interprofessional teams. Teamwork also reduces the burden on healthcare providers so they can focus on their core, critical operations. In this blog, we explore the benefits of promoting collaboration in healthcare and expert recommendations to improve the same.

Intranet ROI: Guide to measuring hard and soft returns

Tightening budgets mean it’s more important than ever for internal comms, IT and other intranet stakeholders to measure intranet ROI. Proving a strong return on investment will help convince budget-holders to devote the resources needed to keep your intranet in tip-top shape — or replace it with a stronger solution.

10 Work Innovation Summit takeaways to unlock AI's potential

For many of us, the way we work is broken. But the combined power of humans and AI offers a potential solution. At The Work Innovation Summit, we explored the potential for AI to transform the way we work. The event highlighted the magic that unfolds when AI—rather than adding to the work pile—alleviates repetitive tasks and allows humans to channel their ingenuity, empathy, and passion into purposeful, meaningful work.

9 top Chat as a Service platforms for 2024

What is Chat as a Service and how it serves different organizations? With 73% of users finding satisfaction in live chat, surpassing both email and phone support, it's evident that efficient communication solutions are paramount for business success. For senior IT leaders, CIOs, COOs, and security-conscious decision-makers, the rising prominence of Chat as a Service platforms has become hard to ignore.

Maximizing Motivation and Productivity in The Workplace: Strategies and Insights

In an ever-evolving workplace, the importance of employee motivation and productivity cannot be overstated. Implementing an effective motivation strategy plays a crucial role in the overall success of any organization. Whether you are looking to create a messaging app to improve internal communication or exploring various motivational techniques and strategies for both individual employees and teams, this article will guide you through the essentials.

Managing Director vs CEO: A Side-by-Side Comparison

What is the difference between a CEO and a managing director? These roles possess similarities, thus they are sometimes interchanged. But, they have crucial differences that should be understood. In large companies, managing directors are typically responsible for a single business unit, while CEOs oversee operations across multiple divisions. To ease confusion, this article breaks down the differences between a managing director and a CEO.

Jira Automation: An Introduction | Atlassian

Automation in Jira is a powerful tool that reduces effort and human error, allowing your teams to get more done faster. In this 8-minute video, you’ll learn about the many helpful rule templates that come included in Jira, and how to build your own custom rules. Automation can help any size team become much more efficient. Remove menial tasks by creating rules using a host of different triggers, IF/THEN clauses, and actions. Let Jira handle the busy work, so your teams can focus on what they do best.

COO vs CEO: The Differences in Roles and Responsibilities

The CEO and COO are top-level executives with distinct roles who commit themselves to leading companies toward operational excellence and governance. Forming a powerful duo, their symbiotic relationship is vital for companies to attain sustainable and profitable growth. Explore below the key differences between CEO and COO, their roles, responsibilities, and how their teamwork benefits the company.

How AI can help create a modern employee experience

One of my favorite words is dynamic and when I get to use it related to work, I always get pumped. Truth: it’s a dynamic time to be an internal communicator. The pandemic dramatically altered how and where we work — and employee expectations along with it. And artificial intelligence (AI) continues to disrupt as we grapple with the best ways to harness its potential and minimize its pitfalls. Many organizations have put off modernizing their employee experience.

Top 5 Cloud Migration Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Companies wishing to move from their legacy IT systems, outdated servers and unreliable hardware are regularly migrating their businesses to the cloud. The benefits of cloud computing and various cloud-based project management solutions – including Atlassian, Confluence, Jira, Bitbucket, and an array of others – have allowed businesses to adapt, evolve and scale successfully.

Secure Border Gateway: Enhanced control of your real-time communication data

Safeguarding communication data and maintaining control over your network traffic is of paramount importance. In this age when people are constantly connected, organisations need to fortify their internal networks against external threats, while ensuring regulatory compliance and optimal performance. Enter the Dragon Secure Border Gateway for Matrix: a powerful add-on for Element Server Suite that reinforces the security of your data by providing capabilities to address these critical needs.

Key Steps for Determining the Best Service Desk Tool

Do you remember the days when the only way to receive customer support was to sit on hold for hours waiting to speak to an agent? How frustrating it was to explain your issue over and over? Thankfully, that is not the only option customers have today. The rise of service desk tools has revolutionized the way organizations provide customer support. This is only part of the reason why choosing the best service desk tool is key to delivering stellar support and boosting productivity company-wide.

Why should you always stay current with Rocket.Chat version updates

Updating to the latest version is a vital part of digital housekeeping, and shouldn’t be skipped. Every time you postpone an update, you are exposing your system and information to security threats. How exactly? Outdated software may harbor security flaws that malicious parties can exploit to gain unauthorized access and take advantage of sensitive data.

7 best patient engagement software in 2024

Patient engagement software is taking the world of healthcare by storm. As the healthcare system is becoming more diversified in terms of treatments and access to medical care, the need for a more personalized, engaging system for patients arose. Paired with the online nature of everyday communication, it paved the way for solutions that we now call patient engagement software.

Unblock your product teams: 4 tips to overcome common innovation obstacles

You want the product development process to be full of opportunity and enthusiasm. You’re ideating, collaborating, and building something new together. But excitement doesn’t always correlate with efficiency. Innovation hinges on successful planning, communication, and teamwork. If you don’t get those right, you’re in for a lot of roadblocks. To make product development smoother, it’s helpful to understand where teams typically get stuck.

Learn from churn: Why employee happiness and innovation go hand-in-hand

According to Gallup, 51% of employees admit that they’re either actively or passively searching for a new job. That is not good news for organizations, which is why many have become increasingly focused on employee retention. Every expert has a different answer to employee retention, whether it’s a flexible schedule, work-life balance, career growth, or more empathetic management.

Change management in the AI age: How to sidestep common mistakes

In this thrilling era of artificial intelligence (AI), we’re not just witnessing a technological evolution; we’re at the brink of a human revolution. The promise of AI is dazzling, offering gains in efficiency and productivity. But too many leaders are racing towards a future without giving enough thought to change management in the AI era.

Investing in team upskilling and technology to improve efficiency with Preston Lewis

This episode features an interview with Preston Lewis, Founder and CEO of Intactic, a modern communications company focused on creating human-centric experiences for people at work. In this episode, Amanda sits down with Preston to discuss the modern employee experience, investing in technology and upskilling teams, and how to create a human-centric work experience.

5 spooktacular Halloween-themed templates to try with your team this fall

With spooky season in full swing, we are beyond excited about all the Halloween-themed templates our community is making in Miroverse. From crazy costume parties to hair-raising retrospectives, these activities are sure to get you into the spirit. Check out and try these five spooktacular templates!

Augmenting Employee Experience and Productivity with Generative AI

Is your organization grappling with an overloaded IT desk inundated by constant requests that hinder employee productivity? It's time for a change! This webinar is your key to addressing these challenges head-on. Here's what you can expect from this webinar: Understand the pain points and limitations of traditional IT service desk Exploring the potential of Generative AI service desk - Improve employee productivity and experience. Key features, functionalities, and use cases of Generative AI service desk.

Alternative to ChatGPT for Enterprise (Webinar

Do you want to use ChatGPT for your enterprise needs? But worried about its challenges. In this insightful webinar, we'll explore the challenges associated with using ChatGPT for Enterprise and unveil game-changing alternatives that can help you automate your enterprise employee support. Here's what you can expect from this webinar: Understand the challenges of using ChatGPT for Enterprise Discover alternative LLMs tailored to your enterprise needs Learn how these models deliver significant cost savings and boost efficiency.

The Future of Work | Scaling Enterprise Agility | Atlassian

Guest host Emily Sauter, Future of Work Enthusiast & Managing Director at Accenture, speaks with Dominic Price, Work Futurist at Atlassian. Recorded live at the Agile Australia Conference, their conversation covers insights about modern work that can apply equally in a fast-paced start-up or a 100-year-old financial institution. Listen in to find out whether you're at risk of "over collaborating," and even how Dominic uses some of his best tips about working together to be a better parent.

What Is Cybersecurity and Why It Is Important for Businesses?

In this day and age, technology is rapidly advancing, and so the threat of cybercrimes is increasing for businesses. Businesses of all sizes that use the internet in any way are susceptible to cybersecurity breaches. All businesses using the internet have confidential data that is exposed to cybercriminals. In the absence of proper cybersecurity measures, a company is vulnerable that its data can get leaked.

Importance of inclusion and diversity in communication in the digital workplace

In today’s increasingly digital workplaces, effective communication is critical for clarity and understanding, higher employee engagement and satisfaction, and increased collaboration, problem-solving and innovation. But teams can’t reap these benefits if they don't incorporate diversity in communication.

What is Robert's Rules of Order: A Practical Guide for Board Meetings

In the intricate world of parliamentary procedures, Robert’s Rules of Order stands as a guiding light, offering clarity amid potential chaos. Such rules not only aim to standardize parliamentary practices but also ensure all decisions made are firm and harmonious.

What is human-centric AI? A critical, empathetic approach to technology

In the race to implement new and cutting-edge AI tools, many organizations are overlooking a crucial component—the humans that use them. To get the most out of AI, employees need to be able to engage with it first. This concept is what we call "human-centric AI"—the idea that AI should be a partner to employees, not a replacement.

Jira Work Management Monthly Minute: October 2023 | Atlassian

Learn more about the latest Jira Work Management updates in our Monthly Minute. Get more insights as an admin on Jira Work Management Premium, try out three new nonprofit templates, and get the latest news about Advanced Roadmaps. Jira Work Management makes it easy for business teams to collaborate, align, and deliver work, all in one place.

7 best MS Teams alternatives after unbundling MS Office 365 in 2023

In 2023, collaboration apps are integral to the operations of modern enterprises. Among them, Microsoft Teams stands tall, having played a pivotal role in shaping how businesses communicate. But, we see more and more businesses looking for MS Teams alternatives. Why? The major event that propelled the search for suitable alternatives to Microsoft's flagship communication app is MS Teams' unbundling from the rest of the MS Office package in Europe.

New in Basecamp: Group Projects on Your Home Screen

If you're looking for more organization options for your Basecamp home screen, you're in luck! With our latest product update, you can now group projects together on your home screen into piles we call Stacks. Stacks make it easy to organize your home screen by team, client, or a particular time period. Stacked projects appear at the top, along with pinned projects. And you have the control to arrange them in any order you would like. Enjoy!

What's New in Asana | October 2023

Welcome to the October edition of What’s New in Asana. First, designate what percentage of a person’s total bandwidth should be allocated to a certain task in Workload. Next, get a bird ' s-eye view of complex projects that require a comparison of original plans against real-time progress with Gantt view. Finally, use the dynamic “Me” filter to give each team member a personalized view of their tasks in a project.

How the right intranet can help eliminate tech debt

Technical debt (aka “tech debt”) is a silent killer in the enterprise — draining budgets, slowing productivity, and ultimately impacting profitability. It’s the hidden costs and challenges that arise from making short-term development decisions that sacrifice long-term code quality and maintainability.

Popular Chat Software Trends: What's Driving Adoption of Tools Like Vision Helpdesk?

Popular Chat Software Trends: Chat software gives invaluable capabilities to improve customer satisfaction and experiences across all sectors when used effectively. Providing exceptional customer service that cannot be matched by your competitors is crucial for business success. As conversational platforms continue to transform service teams’ capabilities, there are a few key trends that have emerged in chat software that empower brands to better support customers now and in the future.

Long-term support ensures long-term success

Before we start, let's clear up a few Three Letter Acronyms (TLAs)! LTS stands for Long-term support, and denotes a version (or release) of a software product that is specifically designed to receive support for an extended period. ESS refers to Element Server Suite, the name of our backend hosting product that gives organisations the control and flexibility to make full use of their data sovereign real-time communications. So, hopefully, now it makes sense when we say that ESS now comes with LTS!

8 time-saving Asana tips to get more done, faster

Use Asana’s smart editor feature to automatically adjust and improve your writing. You can even specify the level of detail you want to include and the tone you want to strike. Who couldn’t use a little extra time? It’s hard to carve out calendar space for your daily priorities—let alone time to actually think and plan. But if you’re feeling crunched, Asana can help. These time-saving tips can help you intelligently eliminate busywork and make a greater impact, faster.

Why you should embed a chat widget on your website in 2024

Gone are the days when customers rummaged through websites to find business contact details or jotted down email addresses and phone numbers to reach out. The strategy to embed chat widgets has elegantly streamlined this process, emerging not merely as a modern touch but as a prevailing standard in digital communication. According to Freshworks, over 41% of customers now expect a live chat widget on websites, showcasing a significant shift in user preferences.

Collaboration and coordination are different-here's when to use them

More collaboration isn’t always better. In fact, research from The Work Innovation Lab, a think tank by Asana, shows that too much collaboration can actually hold workers back. In a survey of over 1,500 workers, 29% of leaders said that the expectations put on employees to collaborate prevented them from completing their work. But while too much collaboration is bad, teams still need to work together to achieve business goals.

Technical Communication and Why it Matters in Your Workplace

It’s no secret that the cornerstone of good business practices and processes lies in effective interdisciplinary communication. You want employees from different departments and with varied levels of expertise and experience to be able to engage with one another on a level playing field, rather than there being an imbalance in every interaction.

Keys to engaging leadership: The ultimate guide and downloadable worksheet to unlock executive engagement

We are always asked about engaging leadership: How do you get your executive and leadership team invested and involved in your intranet? We want to share a few tips and a worksheet you can challenge your executive team to complete.

3 tips to drive operational excellence from T-Mobile's PMO

Operations teams face unique challenges when it comes to collaborating cross-functionally. Amanda Howell, the Director, Portfolio Management & PMO, Internet, at T-Mobile, saw this firsthand when managing programs like the launch of T-Mobile’s High Speed Internet. We recently sat down with Amanda to get her strategies for leveraging Asana’s work management platform to drive operational efficiencies, work smarter, and ultimately, achieve goals.

5 Ways to Make it Simpler to Share Documents with Coworkers

Every organization needs to empower its employees with ways to share mission-critical information with one another. There are lots of ways to go about this and plenty of things to keep in mind when orchestrating and overseeing the sharing process. So stick with us as we go over the how and the why of everything involved for efficient, safe document distribution today.

10 Ways to Boost Workflow Efficiency in Your Office

Is your office productivity falling short? As per IDC's research findings, inefficiency can annually erode a notable 20% to 30% of a company's revenue. The bright side is that you have the capacity to take affirmative action. This article reveals strategies to boost office efficiency, save resources, and consistently achieve outstanding results. Learn to optimize workflow, streamline operations, and enhance productivity. Ready to elevate your office efficiency? Let's dive in.

Top challenges customers face when adopting a new document management system

When Innisfree M&A found out their previous document management platform would be discontinued thanks to a corporate merger, the New York-based stakes shareholder engagement firm knew they needed to act quickly and deliberately to ensure a smooth migration of their valuable data. The lesson Innisfree learned in the process?

Rebuilding trust after layoffs, mergers & acquisitions with Julia Christenson,

This episode features an interview with Julia Christenson, U.S. Employee Experience Chair at Edelman. In this episode, Amanda and Julia discuss the sticky factor of employee experience, the power of employee recognition, and how to establish trust in difficult times.

Black Friday for SaaS Companies: Trends, Predictions and Best Deals

Black Friday is almost right around the corner, a time when SaaS companies, businesses, corporations, and startups compete to deliver the best Black Friday and Cyber Monday SaaS deals of the year in a highly competitive industry. While customers are excited to invest, it’s also the most important sales event that everyone looks forward to. To enhance the sales journey of potential customers, brands provide irresistible value and quality that converts them into loyal customers.

Chat for work: 10 best practices and apps

Work chat apps help streamline internal collaboration and external interaction. Whether it is an emerging startup, a mid-level company or an established enterprise, choosing the correct chat for work is essential, as it can make or break the agility and effectiveness of your daily business operation and communication. In this blog, we have curated the 10 best chat apps for work and listed the best practices you must follow to leverage their features to drive business benefits.