My current job and use of different digital tools

Currently, I work as an Export Coordinator with clients worldwide in a heavy machinery organization located in the Savo region of Finland. My clients are worldwide and within the portfolio, I manage logistics, deliveries, invoicing and customer success in Canada, the US, Australia and Norway just to mention a few. The work can be quite hectic with lots of moving components and daily surprises yet I feel like I thrive on fast-paced, problem-solving situations. As mentioned in previous posts, I work mostly remotely from a laptop and mobile phone. All the tasks and communication are managed online via multiple different platforms and software, such as CRM, ERP and Microsoft Office tools. Within the team, we call each other daily via Teams, and it’s also a convenient and easy way to share information such as shared Excel sheets and reports. My email inbox is constantly full of communication from the clients, logistics, shipping details etc. I would say the main success factor in this expertise field is having excellent digital and organising skills. You have to be ready and share the latest information instantaneously.  

The positive and negative sides of Social Media

Social Media is here to stay and has been for many years. My first touch with social media was in 2007 when I joined Facebook (aka Meta these days…). My cousin was an exchange student in the Netherlands and wanted to stay in touch via something called Facebook. How bizarre to open a laptop, log in, and check everyone’s statuses, and who remembers how having a fish tank on Facebook was a thing?! Yet, I have been on the platform ever since. Other social media applications I use are Instagram and LinkedIn. I use these platforms to search for events, courses, job opportunities, networking, renovation and investment ideas and to share information for my network and hobby groups. I’m rather conservative on social media and won’t share too much personal information or direct contact/location details. I’m very cautious online and know the risks of sharing too much or detailed information as identity thefts are common. Not to mention opening suspicious links that might infect viruses and destroy all your data and hardware. Another negative side of social media is its addictivity of it and the psychological issue of looking at other people’s updates and photos on how incredibly perfect their lives look. At this age (I’m in my mid-30s) I understand the risks and how marketing is targeted on socials, not to mention how photoshopped many of the influencer photos on Instagram are.

You just have to navigate through the commercial side of things, and you can find actual value, networking, friends or amazing job opportunities on social media applications. I count social media applications that I choose to use (LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram) to bring value and easiness to my personal and professional life. Otherwise, I would not spend any time just scrolling through random accounts. I have found all my most recent roles via LinkedIn, I have networked with my colleagues in overseas offices via social media and even sold an apartment via social media groups.   

Useful digital applications

I chose the following five new tools to be utilised in our daily work:  

• WhatsApp – WhatsApp is owned by Meta (aka Facebook) and is an instant messaging, calling and video chatting application on smartphones and desktops. I’ve used WhatsApp for many years since it’s widely used and so easy to create groups, message instantaneously and save time if waiting for an email is not an option.   

• Doodle – Doodle is a free meeting scheduling application that offers the meeting organiser to set up multiple meeting time proposals for attendees. Then the attendees just click the most appropriate time for them, and the meeting is held at the time getting the most votes. This type of service would be something my team would find very beneficial. I’m going to implement this in action. We spent way too much time trying to schedule meetings via Teams or calls and it’s frustrating for everyone. Scheduling appointments effortlessly online saves resources, and we can focus on more acute things. What a great application Doodle is!  

• Monday – Monday is an online platform for team collaboration in a variety of business actions such as project management. I used to work in an engineering company where we managed internal project management tasks such as project financial workflows via Monday. The platform would benefit my current role and team collaboration with project management such as implementing new processes.   

• YouTube – My employer has put significant effort into marketing and video production. The videos are meant to be published regularly on YouTube video service which I think it’s a fantastic idea as YouTube is viewed all around the globe.   

• SharePoint – SharePoint is a part of the Microsoft Office environment that I have launched now in my team to be used for document management and sharing information. The launch is a much-needed improvement as we haven’t had proper document control or version control system yet. SharePoint can improve case management hugely and hopefully, we can utilise automation and workflows in the near future.   

The elements of successful use of the digital applications

The main two elements of utilising digital applications successfully are agreed business processes and training on how to use them. Without an agreed process and appropriate training digital applications cannot be used to their full potential. Applications should be reviewed and compared carefully to choose the most effective ones for the purpose. There are so many digital applications with amazing features but if they don’t suit the team’s needs, they are nearly useless. Other successful elements are a user-friendly interface, accessibility via all devices, cloud storage space and non-limited user access. The application should be also integrable into existing applications with automatic information migration to minimize manual work and human errors.   

Self-evaluation

This post was mind-blowing and the most beneficial for me so far. It challenged me to evaluate social media usage and the digital world in my personal and professional life in a very practical manner. What I realised was how big a part social media and digital applications have in our everyday life. And I don’t even use TikTok or Twitter to name a few. I don’t know where would I find more time if would implement more applications into my personal life. In corporate life, effective and well-structured digital applications have developed quickly due to C19-pandemic that has created a much more flexible working environment which I cheer for. I found the online scheduling application Doodle to be ready to be implemented within my teams as soon as possible.