A few months ago, most of us were working safely in an office next to our colleagues and would have never guessed that soon, we would all be at home rethinking the way we work. For many, though, remote work has been their way of life for a long time. Whether you are new to working from home and communicating digitally or are experienced as a remote employee, COVID-19 has certainly helped us all appreciate the fine art of healthy digital collaboration to keep your data projects on track.

Building from a Remote Framework

The Assist team at InterWorks has been around for several years, and the remote framework is actually where this team got its start. Our consultants were based around the globe, many of them either working from their homes or traveling as consultants to client sites. As consultants, they would travel to offices to help groups of people, collaborating in person. However, when the engagement ended, the client kept in touch. Travel wasn’t always necessary, and long-term projects were now in control of the groups which whom the consultant spent time in person. But now, as an extension of that client team, the InterWorks consultant could be on call to help whenever the client needed them.

It was a win-win: Clients had a resource to call on for short-term, fast help. The InterWorks consultants could engage from home and travel less, resulting in spending more time with family, while still helping some of their favorite clients. The Assist model taught us how continuing the conversation with our clients didn’t always need to be in an office setting. We needed to rethink the art of collaboration. Thus, the InterWorks Assist team was born.

Centralize Data Help to Empower Your Teams

Fast forward to today, and Assist serves nearly 200 clients in the U.S., UK and Australia. The Assist team has a robust structure for rapidly connecting our team to clients and getting them expert guidance right when they need it. With the arrival of COVID-19, our team has seen a great increase in teams utilizing the Assist service because face-to-face office collaboration is no longer an option. Individuals or dispersed teams can now rely on the Assist team to help them quickly resolve their questions and roadblocks on problems and keep their data projects progressing. Assist can act as a centralized data helpdesk for your organization. The benefit of a centralized hub for expertise to rely on is that it actually makes decentralized teams stronger and more autonomous.

Here are some scenarios your data teams may be facing and how InterWorks Assist can fill the gaps:

1. The normal support structure and teams you rely on in the office are now at home. Maybe their schedules are different for childcare. Maybe your teams have been reassigned new work as a response to the organizational priorities changing amid COVID. Response times are slow. What’s more, the team you normally turn to needs to focus on something else. With Assist, having a personal data consultant “on standby” can be an excellent resource for everyone on your team to get the quick answers they need. Instead of turning to their neighbor one cube over, now they can quickly send a chat to our team and get answers just as fast.
2. Settling disputes. Even in the world of data, sometimes projects get complicated. Stress gets high. Teams and individuals who are very close to projects can’t see the forest for the trees. Projects stall, development lags, deadlines lapse. What if your team could have a quick outside advisor step in to assess a situation and keep the project on the rails? Assist’s team can provide strategic guidance quickly based on their years of experience both in the field and with dispersed teams.
3. Cross-platform integrations have a multitude of advantages. But they can also have just as many possible failure points. Assist can act as the linchpin between your different data groups whenever multiple platforms are involved. Assist can bring in expertise at all levels, across multiple technologies and with quick access. Tableau, Alteryx, Snowflake—our team is ready to help answer your questions.

The Proactive Approach

Whether the new normal involves working from home, more prevalent remote work or offices reopening, InterWorks Assist was built on the foundation of being a fast data resource for clients who want to expedite their data goals. With Assist, once you’re in our system, we will advise you on how to get the most out of your investment with our Assist team. One of the first steps is showing the value: we can be your Tableau guru for a few hours. We can address your Server performance issues and help make improvements. We can set up access for your entire team so that you (their manager) can start work on the long-term projects and vision and let us handle the day-to-day help questions.

The InterWorks Assist model proves that healthy digital collaboration for data projects can be the key for many clients who need an extension of their teams on standby. This proactive approach to support will be a wise investment both now and in the future; if one thing is constant, it’s change. InterWorks Assist aims to be a reassuring resource for our clients no matter what changes come their way.

Get Started and Get Help Today

Want to test out the Assist model? Reach out, and we can chat about a demo of the service. Let’s see what fits for your organization. To learn more about Assist and what kind of data projects we can help with, visit the Assist by InterWorks page on our website.

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