Working as a team requires the use of collaboration tools. This goes for both remote and face-to-face contexts. In both scenarios, therefore, it is essential to adopt the right solutions to focus on the tasks to be carried out, monitor goals, share documents and hold meetings, among other examples.
Such resources imply two essential characteristics of business: mobility and productivity. Since they optimize activities and allow them to be carried out anywhere, they directly contribute to speed and safety in deliveries.
In this article, we’ll talk about these features and detail the importance of each one in the business environment.
What Are Collaboration Tools?
It is where technology meets productivity. We are talking about digital solutions that can be implemented in the work environment to favor the accomplishment of team tasks.
Doing this management tends to be more challenging with home office employees. Therefore, these resources are increasingly used in companies of all sizes and segments.
Collaboration tools can facilitate communication between teams, a decisive characteristic for the success of projects. Such solutions are usually allocated in the cloud, taking advantage of all the benefits this type of infrastructure offers. Some of the main ones are mobility, scalability, agility and availability.
And this is only possible with the use of this type of technology. Therefore, innovations that facilitate communication and group work become fundamental.
With each member in a different location, resources such as videoconferencing and messaging applications, for example, can connect all ends: teams, customers, partners and other stakeholders.
Types Of Collaboration Tools
There are different collaborative platforms with other uses and objectives. The most adopted in the business context have been:
- Video Conferencing software: allow virtual meetings to be held and file sharing and storage in specific environments. Right at the beginning of the pandemic, for example, Microsoft announced that there was a 1,000% increase in the use of this type of solution;
- Agenda: online calendars for viewing all events and commitments of team members;
- Programs allocated in the cloud: the possibility to create and work on shared documents and presentations in real-time;
- Messaging: applications that send and receive content in text, video or photo. An efficient way to connect and contact all members of a team;
- File storage: cloud environment to store documents, spreadsheets, presentations, photographs and videos, among other items, which can be accessed by everyone who has the credentials;
- Project management: platforms for monitoring ongoing activities, deadlines, and established goals.
Such features result in workflow automation, ensuring that activities are more agile and efficient. In addition, technology reinforces the integration of employees, a crucial part of remote work.
Everyone can participate more quickly in the project stages, while managers have a panoramic view of the tasks assigned to the teams. These are solutions that directly contribute to the reduction of IT operating costs.
Main Advantages Of Using
Using collaboration tools has direct business benefits. We highlight the main ones below:
- Mobility: it is possible to work in different spaces just by having the credentials of the adopted tools;
- Practicality: all information is always at hand;
- Economy: they are relatively inexpensive resources for companies. That is, they usually have an excellent cost-benefit ratio;
- Productivity: tasks are performed more efficiently and with optimized management;
- Communication: teams are integrated, especially when working remotely;
- Agility: it is usually easier to solve problems when you have a vision of the whole;
- Security: choosing the right platforms also implies protection since the software is built to protect the data exchanged in their environments.
Conclusion
Collaboration tools are essential in connected environments because they integrate people and allow teams to move.
Such resources can meet different needs, such as virtual meetings, file sharing and message exchange, real-time updates, task planning and monitoring, among other facilities.
Also Read: How Asana Can Streamline Your Company’s Workflow!