Collaboration Tools – web conferencing software

Grace X Kang asked:




Today’s working environment is all about connectivity. It doesn’t matter what the organization, the concept of team collaboration involving staff, clients, partners and others has become a “must do” activity for the success of everyone involved. Dependence upon e-mail communication for project management can lead to serious workflow pauses, possible loss of data and increased project completion times.

So What’s The Solution?

Savvy time management experts will recommend the use of secure online workspaces protected by password only access extranets for team collaboration online, which will provide work flow activity in a more effective and efficient way. If you happen to be working on a global landscape, there are three specific areas you need to examine before purchasing the team collaboration system.

• How difficult is the learning curve? There are tons of team collaboration tools loaded and stuffed with what may possibly be features added for only marketing purposes. More often than not, these added features affect only the buzz about a particular tool rather than actually aiding and abetting in greater, measurable communication efficiency. Complicated collaboration software can make it extremely difficult for getting your users happily on board with the system.

• Keep it simple. Everyday working people find themselves busy enough with their choice at hand that they don’t have the time to dedicate trying to get up to speed with team collaboration tools that essentially are over bloated communication systems. You will find that your clients will be especially frustrated in the event that you compel them to spend a great deal of time adopting too complex system in order to simply more quickly. Stay away from team collaboration tools that do not provide you with a simple intuitive process for operation.

• Online training is an essential feature. A good team collaboration tool provider will offer its clients online training and is easily accessible at any time. The project portals should be intuitively simple and never overwhelming to new users. Collaboration tools that are way too difficult to understand will present a challenge because you will be spending an inordinate amount of time training current employees, dedicating a good deal of time with new employees, as well as trying to cajole and convince customers and partners to use it. All the while, your project productivity will take a hit. You should never be spending that many hours training your team simply how to interact with your team collaboration system. The tool provider should offer you training documents and screen capture videos that can be accessed by new users on their own time.

These three things should be the first things you look for before proceeding to take an in-depth look at any group collaboration system.

Louise

Grace X Kang asked:




Collaboration technology is readily available in the market today. You can find many positive reviews and reports lauding the benefits derived from using such technology. However, the key factor driving the use of online collaboration tools by any company or organization is going to be driven by corporate culture. Any company can purchase and implement the latest collaboration tools including Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Office Communications Server, some type of corporate VoIP telephony system as well as making use of the latest mobile devices such as Blackberries and iPhones, but the challenge remains in getting employees to use these tools. In order to facilitate the use of online collaboration tools by any company, a need exists to create a collaborative culture within the organization.

Big Brother Watching Is an Obstacle

If your company is one of those that does a headcount every morning throughout the cubicle landscape, the culture is not one that is going to encourage collaboration. Although maintaining in-seat, at-task work assignments is an old-school management demand, the workforce employed today has a tendency to run at different paces – following non-traditional schedules, often telecommuting or acting as offsite vendors and contractors. This will actually encourage basically a work-when-you- can, or will, attitude that demands access to information and tools whenever the user is ready to go to task. The collaborative work culture will easily dispel the age-old adages about employees having to spend time sitting in their office berths.

Secretly Warehoused Knowledge

There are many corporate cultures where employees are allowed to hoard their own company knowledge including key documents either on their local computers or most possibly in their own heads, just like someone would store precious objects in a limited access warehouse. Companies that have a central depository for information encourage the sharing of tribal knowledge and communication. How often have you come across a situation conducting daily business where you could not get a document or an answer to a question because a particular person was not available for communication? A collaborative corporate culture would eliminate dependency upon individuals or groups to access information as well as do away with as much need for face-to-face communication.

Contact Beyond The Office And Office Hours

Personal time away from work is something that needs to be not only experienced but well guarded. However, there are many credible and necessary instances when communication must be made beyond what is the traditionally accepted 9-to-5 business day. One only has to look at the growing trend for global participation in commercial activity to realize that traditional schedules are thrown out the proverbial window. In a collaborative corporate culture, tools need to be implemented that allow communication around the clock no matter what weather clock is being watched in the US, India, or even Australia.

Laurie

Grace X Kang asked:




Expect a bit of a trade off when it comes to the amount of structure built into your team collaboration tool and its ability to adapt to various group needs. When the tool structure is so complex and contains several hierarchical levels, users may find it overwhelming and confusing.

Non-Intuitive Team Collaboration Tools Present Challenges
Some online team collaboration tools are difficult to set up because they lack any intuitiveness. Even if the tools are chock filled with useful features, they will have no impact if users do not how to execute even the most basic actions. If the team collaboration tool is overly comprehensive, getting your members in a user “comfort zone” may be a huge challenge. A valuable tool possesses the ability to keep your entire team up-to-date about project progress. If the tool provides little, if any, intuitive process for recognizing task completion, one member might be waiting on another to be finished with a chore before proceeding, never realizing that task was previously completed.

Portal Structure Adds to Efficient Workflow
Decision makers need to choose online team collaboration tools that offer either portals or separate workspaces where individual projects can be accessed. This allows them to create message threads for communication within the separate projects and give them the option to subscribe to updates through RSS alerts and e-mail. This compartmentalizing also allows members that do not need to participate in every thread the ability to remain off of it, avoiding unnecessary information overload. Furthermore, the tool should new project members to be easily added to existing discussions.

Central Document Storage
Any documents relating to a specific project need to be located in a single place for easy access so users need not to navigate through streams of endless threads to find a particular piece of information. If this feature is not available with the online collaboration software you’re examining, the software winds up being just like e-mail (inefficient).

Wikis as Online Communication Tools
Recently, there’s been quite a lot of buzz about using wikis as online team communication tools. These easily editable web pages are excellent collaboration tools in certain scenarios. Their flexibility allows segregated groups to continually make contributions to an online shared body of knowledge- the most well known example is Wikipedia. They provide an exceptional model for people who need to develop specific software documentation, FAQ (frequently asked questions), human resource information and policy presentations as a collective body. However, they can be quite cumbersome to use for organizing and posting the essentials needed for team collaboration. An alternative to using simple wikis is to use a wiki based team collaboration software that allows you to create wikis, in addition to providing task, document and project management tools.

Ray

Grace X Kang asked:




IT mangers would find their jobs much easier if every employee voluntarily accepted and used the company’s choice of online collaborative tool. This, however, only happens in an ideal world, and real employees tend to resist change- even if it helps them perform their jobs faster and more efficiently. One way to encourage the use of your online collaboration tool is to involve the future users in the decision making and training process. This allows certain members of your team to become the “software champions” and encourage voluntary participation across the board. Remember, of course, that there are several different types of tool users in your team and the key to successful collaboration is ensuring that each user group’s needs are met.

Stark Difference Between Tool Users

No matter what the workplace business tool involved, there will be different levels of users who employee these tools. Some team members will find certain features more valuable above others. Make sure to identify these distinct types of users beforehand and consider each one’s needs when looking for your solution. A great way to encourage adoption is to provide incentives for their cooperation.

The Software Champions

These are people who are highly active in the workplace community and participate in company-wide projects. This type of person will take ownership of a particular project and ensure that the right processes and tools are being used to complete the project successfully. This type of user can help examine the online tool for any glitches and drawbacks and bring these to the attention of the appropriate manager, while offering solutions. These users tend to be the software champions in a company, and often act as the informal trainers for new hires.

Ordinary Users

This group probably constitutes the majority of your user base. They will login regularly while contributing ideas and suggestions about the online collaborative tool. While they are not as active and enthusiastic as all-knowing users, there is a larger number of them, spread out through different layers of employee activity. This group’s needs should be of utmost priority when choosing a solution.

There will be plenty of different types of users throughout your organization. Make sure your tool fits every type of user in your company, is easy to adopt and navigate, and of course, scalable for your growing organization.

Ruth

Grace X Kang asked:




Successful project and task management are the hallmark features of effective online collaboration tools. Being available online allows fast, easy communication between different departments, business partners and teams.

Handling A Fast Growing Business

A business can use collaboration software to handle continuous growth and expand operations. Collaboration tools are meant to be used by everyone involved including the business owner, the clients, as well as all members involved in successful project completion who may be employees, off-site contractors and possibly other types of information resources. Online collaboration tools allow remote parties to access information and data from anywhere in the world and communication can be completed in a real-time basis. Group decision making is no longer an arduous task, thanks to real time social technology, discussion threads and intranets.

Communication Is Complete and Timely

With online collaboration tools, team members can communicate with any other member whenever the need arises. This allows for faster, easier addressing of concerns and solving those issues. Additionally, project progress can not only be tracked more clearly but it can also be managed more easily since activity conducted online can be viewed with the click of a mouse button. Project managers can gain access to workflow assignments that will allow for performance measurements and assessments as well as implementing any corrective activity in order to enhance team performance.

Online Communication is in Real-Time

Use of online collaboration tools allows the elimination of what was once considered space-age communication technology, when people would still say, “Let me fax the document over to you for your review.” Document management through online collaboration tools allows instant access for either onscreen viewing or immediate printing to a team member’s printer to take a look at a hardcopy version. Project team members can discuss and make necessary document changes simultaneously with features like co authoring, while engaging in discussion through comments. This opens up immediate sharing and exchanging of ideas, providing for a better, more interactive editing experience. This creates higher degrees of work productivity and faster project completions than traditional past forms of communication, such as e-mail as well as telephone and the obvious hard copy.

What Exactly are Online Collaboration Tools, Anyway?

An online collaboration tool is a web-based software that allows people from remote locations to connect, share data and collaborate in an online environment. People working on the same assignment can work with and collaborate with one another regardless of where they are in the world, simply with an Internet connection. Geographical separation is no longer an obstacle.

Use of instant online collaboration tools helps business and other organizations save a great deal of time and money spent on traveling to meetings or high-priced overnight document delivery.

Melissa

Grace X Kang asked:




More and more companies are adopting online collaboration tools to manage their teams and projects. However, even though tools like SharePoint are laden with incredibly rich user features, IT managers seem to express great surprise when these tools are not adopted easily and used frequently. What they should be aware of is that breaking the corporate habit of using e-mail and adopting new work methods is going to be challenging. Businesses are always exploring new technologies with the promise that workflow efficiency, communication, data sharing and project success will increase – but they should always keep in mind that easy user adoption is key to any tool’s deployment, and therefore, success.

Who Uses the Technology?

While companies employ well qualified IT professionals who do a great job at providing a valuation of different technologies, often there is not a great deal of thought put into how you’re going to actually get your employees to use the new technology. Yes, it may be a cliché that it’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks, but the company that wishes to take advantage of all the newest technology will need to find a way to effectively change individual employee’s personal work habits or the solution will go to waste. This is the “people” part of the equation that needs to be understood.

Obtain Employee Input

One possible area for employee disaffection when it comes to using new collaborative software is that it is being imposed upon them without their approval. This can easily be overcome by inviting employees to be members of the software valuation team, allowing them to examine all available solutions before making a choice. The team will then ask fellow employees what features they would look for to make their jobs easier. Instead of presenting the available brands of online collaborative tools, ask employees to come up with a list of workflow needs or even a list of every day work assignment challenges that can point to the popular features they are really looking for that will make their jobs easier.

Employees will be requesting tools for helping with task management, including document libraries, having the ability to establish and maintain team blogs, wikis and other social media type channels. Although employee feedback may not be implemented in the first phase of your online collaborative tool implementation, managers will find this activity important because it will reveal what tool features are important to users, and what features you may want to look for in the future. People throughout the business organization may have particular user needs that the decision-makers are not aware of and will not include when making a choice. Always ask the users first.

Locating the Best Online Collaboration Tool

When you look to improve employee user adoption, you need to start by involving them in the selection process. Not all of them are created equally. Just because one particular tool comes with so many more features than another one does not make it a better choice. Lots of unnecessary bells and whistles may make the software too confusing and much harder to learn, resulting in increased employee resistance. Select a tool that offers affordability, functionality and a user-friendly experience. This will result in faster onboarding and successful user adoption.

Peter

Tia Jones asked:




Virtual teams need the support of a secure, easy to use, web-based collaboration environment that allows them to work and share ideas across time zones and continents.

There are many online collaboration software solutions that support efficient communication among members of virtual teams, their superiors and their clients. These web-based collaboration tools provide group calendar management, task management, online conferencing, group forums, spreadsheets and more. In addition, these collaboration software solutions can even track the amount of time that you spend on a project, which is valuable from a project management perspective.

In order to be successful, virtual teams have a few basic needs in common:

o communicate in real time

o share files, photos, audio and video

o manage project milestones, resources and tasks

Most importantly, all of the members of the team need to have access to the most current information in real time so that they can effectively complete their tasks, and contribute to the team’s objective.

Online collaboration tools have greatly facilitated the effectiveness of virtual teams. These tools have saved organizations substantial amounts of money in travel and relocation expenses and allowed teams to assign tasks to employees in distant locations because they help to solve many of the dilemmas suffered by virtual teams.

Most knowledge workers have used email and IM or chatting as a means of collaborating with team members and other co-workers for many years now. But online collaboration software is quickly transforming the world of online collaboration.

So, with the support of a robust online collaboration environment, virtual teams can use the various collaboration software tools to manage their tasks, communicate with each other, and share resources easily and securely to help the team be as effective as possible.

Ann

Jacob Wright asked:




Life online has continue to grow and develop.