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Collaboration Tools Examples
Why the Workplace Needs Collaboration
Collaboration can be very useful in many organizations today. From financial companies to restaurants, working with others to achieve a goal is a tactic that many businesses use. And given the abundance of tools we now have, collaborating with others and tackling challenges is becoming a little easier. In fact, there are now numerous collaboration platform solutions that are solely focused on collaboration.
What Are Collaboration Tools?
According to Wiki, collaboration tools are there to support a group of two or more individuals to accomplish a common goal or objective. Team collaboration tools, collaboration tools for business, or collaborative technology tools are tools used to improve processes or strategies by working together. These work essentially like team communication tools due to the fact that collaboration has a lot to do with how we communicate.
Where Collaboration is Needed
There are a multitude of reasons for using collaboration tools as well as many benefits for using collaborative tools. While there are many environments where it is obvious that collaboration is needed, that isn’t very clear in other instances. Take a look at various environments that can benefit from more collaboration.
Classrooms
A learning environment can always use more collaboration. With the complex learning styles out there, including the wide variety of material covered, it always helps to work with others to determine the best curriculum to teach students. In addition, teaching styles and other communication tactics can be improved during collaboration meetings. However, this can also relate to educational technology tools for students. Digital tools for students can be very useful for group collaboration and group projects or when speaking to other students about classroom material. Technology and collaboration in the classroom is where we need to aim our focus. Doing so can result in exceptional students who work together to tackle challenges. Online collaboration tools for education should be a strong focal point as we work towards making strides in the educational space. It doesn’t have to be expensive as there are many free online collaboration tools for education available to use.
Marketing
Marketing companies should be especially interested in the collaborative work management tools of today. With how marketing frequently involves coming up with catchy ideas and creative strategies for commercials, ads, and other forms of marketing, utilizing sophisticated project management tools and asynchronous collaboration tools can be extremely useful in this environment. Developing marketing ideas can be very opinionated, so working with other perspectives and coming together to reach a goal is a strategy that can become even more powerful with the right team collaboration tools.
Sales
The collaboration tools used in the business world today are also very useful for sales. While many companies–and employees within them–have different approaches and tactics when it comes to sales, collaboration tools can help these organizations mold new strategies that are developed from multiple ideas. These teams can use these tools to come together to combine different perspectives to help achieve goals as it pertains to sales.
Technology Teams
The fast-paced environment of those building software creates a strong need for collaboration tools useful to a network administrator, product manager, and engineer all focused on a project together as a team. This may be accomplished in a variety of ways using Google collaboration tools, Microsoft collaboration tools, and many other options to communicate and share ideas and questions until the work is completed.
Nonprofits
From a work perspective, nonprofits are businesses on a tighter budget. They still have meetings and other collaborative efforts but need to watch the bottom line so taking advantage of free online collaboration tools for nonprofits is a great way for them to work together without a significant financial investment, saving their funding for their main purpose.
Collaboration Tools Examples
Now that you understand a little more about where collaboration tools can be most useful, we’ll now dive into some specific examples of the effective tools out there. Take a look at some popular collaboration tools that are in use across multiple industries and businesses:
Chat Tools
When it comes to collaboration, communication is one of the most important factors to consider. But when obstacles play a part in how your team communicates, your collaboration efforts can start to see some serious problems. To help solve communication issues within many organizations, chat tools are extremely effective. Instead of walking across the building or office to talk to an employee, now you can save time and energy but simply sending them a chat. And better yet, these chat tools keep everything confidential. Want to send a message to your colleague that no one else should read? Want to tell your team something, but don’t want to go to separate offices or call a formal meeting? Well now you can tackle all of these problems and many more by having the right collaboration tools in place!
Document Tools
Many businesses will create documents that multiple people help create and finalize. Employees may send notes to this document, or they might make changes as they see fit. However, downloading and emailing files, or having everyone work on one computer can all lead to a very complicated and inefficient process. That’s where document collaboration tools can help! The advanced technology out there today helps focus on document creation and workflow in a collaborative environment. It is now very simple for companies even across the globe to effectively work on the same document to create a collaborative experience that is beneficial and efficient.
Video Conferencing
With the complexities involved in many organizations today, sometimes sending a chat or email isn’t the right approach to tackle problems and work on operational processes. But with how many teams across various industries have offices or team members located across the globe, meeting in person can be a challenge. That’s where video conferencing has become very useful. This collaboration tool has made it very easy to communicate with various employees to tackle problems and work throughout processes. And today, video conferencing tools have really advanced, and we now have features that we never thought were possible. As our enterprise collaboration tools become more intelligent, we can expect to see video conferencing tools to be at the forefront of collaboration tool advancements over the coming years.
Project Management
With the complexities involved with many businesses today, including the abundance of work that keeps piling up for many organizations, collaboration tools have been very successful at keeping things organized and efficient. In fact, there are even free online collaboration tools on the market that are focused on project management. One reason why these tools are so popular and effective is that they help many aspects of a business. From communication to auditing, project management tools help organizations stay efficient, stay organized, and stay on top of what needs to be done.
Tools That Do It All
There are collaboration tools like Docket that help facilitate all stages of a meeting and help coordinate other collaborative efforts through use of integrations, making collaboration easily adaptable among an already established business process that requires more collaborative effort to be successful.
Collaboration Tools Features
While you may now have a better understanding of the different types of collaboration tools out there and how they are useful for many different processes, let’s now dive into some features involved regarding the technology tools for collaborative work:
Offline Collaboration
While many collaboration and communication technologies can only be used online, there are some tools out there that provide offline compatibility. This can be especially useful for companies that travel or have network issues so the work can still get done. Some of these tools work as programs that can be downloaded on a computer or other device, then the features work offline. This workplace collaboration technology can be extremely impactful for many organizations, and this feature also means that you never have to deal with network issues while using the tool.
Guest Access
Daily business operations typically involve working with other team members, but working with clients is also very common. That being said, there are many tools on the market today that allow guest access to certain documents or other areas of the business. This can be extremely helpful when clients need to review documents, designs, or other works done on their behalf. An organization can even give them specific access to certain areas while leaving other areas secure and confidential.
Notifications
Notifications are another very useful feature that comes equipped in some collaboration tools we see today. Many collaboration tools allow users to enter the emails or usernames of who is involved with a certain project or process. Once a user is needed for input, feedback, a meeting, or anything else, they can easily be tagged, then the tools will send them a notification that they’re needed on that certain project. With the extremely busy schedules that many of us have today, it can be very easy to get sidetracked. These visual collaboration tools help team members understand when they’re needed on a project and what exactly they are needed for. This helps to create an efficient workflow where everything is covered and deadlines aren’t missed.
Responsiveness
Even the best online tools of the past had many issues. While a lack of features was a huge problem, many of these tools also weren’t very responsive. But today, whether you’re dealing with an email collaboration tool or free online discussion tools, all of these are far more responsive than the options in years past. Not only does this help businesses stay efficient and tackle problems faster, but this responsiveness also makes more organizations more inclined to give these tools a try.
Interactive
Another feature of both paid and free project collaboration tools is that many of them are interactive and engaging. If you look at the common tools used just a few years ago, you’ll notice that many of them don’t have a user-friendly interface and many of them aren’t very interactive. But today, there has been a gigantic leap in this regard, and we now have the tools that users actually love using. And better yet, many of these tools even offer tips and tricks on how to become better team members. Whether it’s interactive classroom technology tools or tools that help to better manage projects, these tools are helping employees feel more engaged in an interactive environment.