4 Ways Collaboration Tools Transform Modern Businesses

05 Nov 2015 5 min read
Written by Silvia Macovei, Head of Cloud Business

As more businesses go digital we see an increased interest in collaboration tools, not as means to replace face to face communication, but as a way to amplify and structure interactions. When done well, the adoption of collaboration tools leads to a better implementation of the business objectives, better strategic decisions and ultimately to a positive cultural shift in organisations.

Collaborative communities

With many companies running their business in different offices and countries, often operating on different timezones, a strong collaborative tool becomes an essential part of everyday communication. While email still plays a strong role in staying connected, it’s the collaboration tool that makes it easy to organise all the information and create an engaged community that scales. Collaborative communities have the unique quality of encouraging users to look beyond the benefits of individual contribution. Facilitating cohesion, they align employee efforts on the same collective mission, advancing a common purpose.

Structured information anywhere, anytime

With the right tool in place knowledge workers gain quick access to the right data, but most importantly they can easily contribute new information to the benefit of the whole organisation. Harnessing the collective know-how, once a challenge, becomes a common practice. Gone are the days when different employees kept copies and backups of the same documents on their computers, sending them back and forth by email every time they wanted to make the slightest addition. With collaborative tools storage is no longer an issue and everyone enjoys access to up to date documents anytime and on any device.

Customer centricity

Collaboration through dedicated tools helps accelerate the process of solving issues. Knowledge bases improve efficiency and help reduce errors by providing immediate access to accurate and relevant information. Self-service tools offer a great way to cost effectively manage and scale customer support. Customers can quickly get answers without having to pick up the phone or write emails. This leads to increased customer satisfaction and ultimately to higher margins on knowledge-intensive work. 

Transparency

Finally, exceptional communities promote an ethos of transparency by defaulting to open. Access to accurate and updated information will help stakeholders make faster, better informed decisions. Security permissions can still be set in place, but instead of thinking about what should be shared, companies can make sharing the default and then select the things they consider should stay private. Giving access to information enables employees to do their jobs better and come up with unexpected positive contributions.

Summing it up collaboration tools are a key asset for building engaged communities, for structuring company data and growing customer centric, transparent organisations.

You may also be interested in: