Question

How does e-collaboration tools brings productivity and success to organizations? Mention some organizations using these tools and how these tools bring success.

Add citation please

Answer 1

A collaboration tool helps people to collaborate. The purpose of a collaboration tool is to support a group of two or more individuals to accomplish a common goal or objective.Collaboration tools can be either of a non-technological nature such as paper, flipcharts, post-it notes or whiteboards.They can also include software tools and applications such as collaborative software.Online collaboration tools are web-based applications that offer basic services such as instant messaging for groups, mechanisms for file sharing and collaborative search engines (CSE) to find information distributed within the system of the organization, community or team. Additionally, the functionality is sometimes further expanded by providing for example integrated online calendars, shared online-whiteboards to organize tasks and ideas or internet teleconferencing integrations. The focus of online collaboration tools ranges from simple to complex, inexpensive to expensive, locally installed to remotely hosted and from commercial to open source.

Background

New gadgets and devices are invented every day with the goal in mind to make our daily work easier. Online collaboration tools currently try to tackle problems like these:

• '38% of employee time is lost duplicating work and 58% of people waste an hour a day looking for information'
• '28 hours a week is spent on writing e-mails, searching for information and collaborating internally'.
• '59% of managers miss vital information because they cannot find it or never see it'.
• 'Six weeks per year are wasted by executives searching for lost documents'.

These aspects point out that the problem we are facing is not a technological problem - it is about people and their interactions. Although technology really helps us in this way, the key to solve these problems can be found in the way how we use these tools. Although video conferencing tools such as Skype or FaceTime connect us with everyone, they do not always give us all the contextual information. What we see might not be the reality, as there might be other people in the room that one does not know about while skyping with one's colleagues at work. More connectivity also allows more interruption: A person can work from home but is always interrupted by their neighbours or the lawnmower.This is why the future of collaboration tools looks for models that allow companies to collaborate in a focused and structured manner. One such application is the Finnish company Fingertip Ltd, which enables companies to facilitate collaboration and decision making.

Evolvement

From simple communication solutions to Unified Communications

The way we communicate with each other is constantly changing and disrupts our workplace environment. In 1971 programmer Ray Tomlinson sent the first message between two computers. Eight years later Usenet, a multi-network online forum, changed the way how we exchange information. With IRC in 1986, instant-messaging and group chatting became accessible for non-technical users for the first time and after the launch of AOL/AIM in 1992 we already faced the first global community. The invention of Wikipedia in 2001 and various social networks (MySpace, Linkedin and Facebook) forms a community that is connected to the digital world, globally oriented and willing to use collaboration tools not only for social interaction, but to enhance the efficiency at the workplace.

From local to global - the needs of a global workforce

Apart from enhancing our efficiency, online collaboration tools face the change that organizations operate globally and the application of flexible working becomes even more important. Collaborative working environments are one of the drivers of the corporate globalization as they offer new business opportunities through innovation and help to and allow to collect knowledge from all over the world. Especially SME’s and large organizations are capable to do business on a global scale by using them. Since 1950 the intensity of collaboration has extremely risen, the flow of information has become faster and the needed skills to carry out work has dramatically increased. Online collaboration tools therefore enable companies to survive in their globally oriented industries.

IBM conducted a study with CIO’s of organizations to find out which trends will most affect business in 2010, coming up with six main points:[43]

1. The participatory internet
2. Changing workforce demographics
3. The rise of software as a service
4. The virtualization of data and devices
5. Increasing of simplicity of technology’s design and use

All of these points are stressing the importance of collaboration and define certain requirements for the future of online collaboration tools in order to consistently enable a wide business collaboration. Online collaboration tools such as social networking websites and web conferencing are demonstrating how fast the environment is changing – “by 2010, the average salaried worker will actively participate in at least five different ad hoc teams simultaneously”.

When asking participants of “The New Global Study”, a report done by the European Commission in 2009, about the benefits of online collaboration, the following three points were mentioned most:

1. Supports coordination within a team (73% of respondents)
2. Supports knowledge and learning (69%)
3. Allows dispersed team-members to be a better part within the team.

At ProofHub, we are much obsessed with teamwork, collaboration, and productivity. We are defined by our effective teamwork collaboration. We believe that when teams have a good base of collaboration, they are less susceptible to waste their time being lost in email and getting things done. And a strong base can be built with the help of online collaboration tools that will not only help in productivity but also result in successful projects.

How can online E-collaboration help business

It has become quite common to see employees working from all over the world on a single project. This increasingly dispersed workforce is becoming the trend and thus making online collaboration the need. Collaborating online is used to remove the gap between employees due to far-away locations, run effective meetings online and ensure that they work together at the same time on the same page. And this will help to run projects faster and an improved communication between employees.

List of online collaboration tools for business

1. ProofHub

If you have ever looked into task management software and project management system, then you would have undoubtedly come across ProofHub. It is an advance online task collaboration software for project management. It is one place to run your business and plan everything in your projects and stay more productive at work. It makes it easy to collaborate with teams and clients and deliver projects on time. You can easily assign tasks to individual and assign them different roles by defining who will be doing what. And, the option to set dependencies on tasks and proofing of documents makes it even easier to plan your project activities.

2. Filestage

Filestage gives teams the easiest possible way to manage the content review process. The project management platform makes it simple for internal and external stakeholders to leave in-context feedback on videos, images, PDFs, and more. The tool also generates to-do lists based on those comments to make sure your team never misses a piece of feedback. With Filestage, you can review and approve in real-time, external partners and clients can comment without registering, version control makes projects easy to manage and easy to see as to which stakeholders have approved a file.

Customer Support

3. Acquire

Acquire customer support software is an easy to use, multi-channel customer communication platform. It is ideal for businesses of all sizes. The software is equipped with the latest customer engagement options, particularly live chat, chatbot, cobrowsing, voice calls, and video chat to deliver high-quality support to your customers quickly and efficiently.

Acquire customer support software is an easy to use, multi-channel customer communication platform. It is ideal for businesses of all sizes. The software is equipped with the latest customer engagement options, particularly live chat, chatbot, cobrowsing, voice calls, and video chat to deliver high-quality support to your customers quickly and efficiently.

Communication

4. Troop Messenger

Troop Messenger’s feature-stack is functionally powerful, flawless, and is the one best slack alternative for team communication and collaboration. It can be considered as an apt tool for all sizes of organizations. The user navigation across this business chat application is promisingly seamless for any novice user. Its impressive and immersive user interfaces make each feature self-explanatory to the end-users. Troop Messenger is cross-platform enabled; it is available on Windows, Linux, Browser, Android, and iOS. Troop Messenger is coming up with an exceptional feature called an Orange Member. This feature enables the non-company employees to be a part of the application with their public/private domain email id’s. Try out your hands-on the new-age business collaboration chat application, The Troop Messenger right away.

How do I choose E- collaboration tool?

Now as you know the importance of collaboration tools and some common use tools, how do you choose one for your teams? Companies should choose a software according to their needs and identify the best service for your team.

Prefer multiple features

Pick tools that offer excellent service and multiple features for team collaboration. Choosing multiple features will improve your work efficiency and allows people to use it in many different ways.

Easy to use

Nobody wants a complex structure to work. Make sure that the tool you use delivers services that do not take a lot of time to get used to and keep an eye out for an intuitive interface and simple navigation.

Prefer a cloud-based

Cloud-based technology is far better to others as you are saved from the headache of version controls. Every information is stored online and you can access it from anywhere.

Check for integration

Integrations are key to convenient work. Look for tools that seamlessly integrate with some important tools and are also compatible with various devices.

So, pick one that brings out the best for your teams. These tools are increasingly making every kind of business likely to be successful.