Online collaboration: the new agenda

I loathe meetings. Always have. In my experience, they tend to be long, boring – and even worse – unproductive.

So, I’ve been quietly pleased over the past 10 years to see an increase in virtual collaboration in the workplace, with many robust, intuitive tools entering the market (and many good free ones too) that increase productivity and bring remote teams together to do great work.

Step aside email…this is a job for online collaboration

Without a doubt, email has revolutionised business, and about 269 billion emails were sent and received each day in 2017, and there’s no sign of this slowing down…Email is an incredibly powerful tool for communication with both internal and external stakeholders but when it comes to collaboration, it falls short…

My pet hates about email collaboration are unwieldy message/reply threads, and of course, the big one – version control of attached documents. Who hasn’t spent hours diligently incorporating Comments and Tracking Changes in a Word doc only to find that another version of said file has since been circulated on a subsequent email thread… Sigh…

Sharing information and ideas just got easier

Online collaboration tools give teams a place to facilitate the sharing of information and ideas that can be accessed anytime, anywhere using desktop computers, tablet or smartphones.

The new breed of online collaboration tools offer features like chat or messaging, file sharing, task/time management, calendar and timelines, and more. Many of these collaboration tools link in via API with other products you may be using, like CRM tools, timesheet tools, accounting software, workflow apps and more.

Online collaboration tools make working in teams much easier – you can quickly find relevant files or documents, you can review progress to see where things are at, you can monitor and manage your own to-do list (and see what others are working on), and you can communicate swiftly with your teammates, individually or in a group.

doodle by danjo paluska (CC BY 2.0)

Which online collaboration tool is the one for me?

Choosing the online collaboration tool that’s right for your purpose is a matter of research and trial and error. Or learning by doing, as we like to say.

Questions you might like to ponder are:

• Does this tool work with other essential work apps (or can it easily integrate with an API?)
• Does the tool I’m considering work across browsers and devices? An important point for those working remotely and on-the-go…
• Does this tool have history? How long has it been running? What are the reviews/testimonials like? What do my colleagues say?
• Does it offer tiered pricing models? Free trials and basic plans are a great way to test out features but if you’ve got lots of team members and projects, then looking at a paid version is the way to go.
• Is the tool easy to learn and intuitive to use? Does it offer how-tos and video tutorials for basic tasks, so you can hit the ground running?
• Does the online collaboration tool have the security protocols required by your organisation or industry?
• Can I get certified or accredited in this tool or app to take my skills to the next level?

Not sure where to start? Take a look here at some of the most popular online collaboration tools of 2018.

Skills for the future

The online collaboration tool environment is ever changing as workers around the world figure out the best ways to be more productive in the least amount of time, and with the best results. In our digital world, it is a skill for today – and the future. Make a point of learning a few online collaboration tools or mastering one, to give yourself an agile edge.

Cookies by Sandra (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Time to say farewell to messy group emails. Pretty soon the only thing you will miss about meetings is the biscuits…

By Sally Brandon