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

hootsuite asked:

HootSuite introduces Team Collaboration tools to the popular social media dashboard. Now, each social network account in HootSuite is assigned an Owner who can add a variety of Team Members to manage social network accounts. Further, teams can be assembled around topics, projects, or client and can include colleagues, consultants, interns and owners – all without compromising account security. We think this release will be particular interest to enterprises, agencies, publishers, customer service groups, marketing teams and organizations with multiple editors.

Adrian

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

GetYourSuccessNow asked:

Looking for a cost effective, easy to use and effective collaboration tool for your team? Join me as I review one of the best free collaboration tools available for your small business or personal projects.

Lydia

Grace X Kang asked:




Have you ever noticed a bit of resistance from users when introducing new team collaboration tools that they were never consulted about? The simple way to avoid this resistance is to involve your team members in the decision-making process. This simple move will go a long way toward your team members “buying into” the software choice.

Ask for Member Opinions

Welcome opinions from prospective project members about their choices for online collaboration tools. In fact, steer clear from inserting your own opinion during discussions about what is available, allowing members to develop a “pain point” list of tasks they wished addressed by a potential online team collaboration tool. You’ll likely find requests for different project activity management features, as well as document library access, team blogging, using wikis and much more. You will also find employee input provides you with invaluable information about what the major users of the prospective system are need to streamline their daily chores. Users of software often have deep, brilliant insights about their needs that decision makers do not.

Choosing the Appropriate Online Team Collaboration Tool

Creating greater acceptance and participation in the software system you purchase begins by involving users from the start. There are varying degrees of quality associated with different online team collaboration tools. Even though one may have a ton more features than another, that alone does not make it a superior product. Many manufacturers of online team collaboration tools unfortunately infuse unnecessary features that actually make use of the product confusing, and cause the need for long training hours just to gain a basic grasp of system operations. Overly complicated and complex tools do more to develop user resistance rather than welcomed participation.

Prioritize your Software Needs

Depending upon the type and depth of your project needs, you will find disparate member “groups” presenting a “must have” priority list for software features. However, once the system is launched, it’s common that these “absolutely must have” features are used only occasionally. Therefore, during the information gathering process prior to purchase, it’s important you develop priorities for the “necessary” functions and features so you aren’t making a trade-off between features and intuitive usability. You will learn from seasoned users of online team collaboration tools is that a simple, intuitive interface is the most ideal and helpful for team adoption.

How You Get Your Team Onboard

There are only two methods you can employ to help generate user acceptance of a new online team collaboration tool – 1) Provide a system that makes their every work day easier and more enjoyable; 2) Order them to use it. Obviously, encouraging voluntary acceptance and use of the new tool is the preferred method. This can only be accomplished if the tool produces tangible and valuable services for each user.

Allison

Andrea Kalli asked:




Whether your need is to have a central communication place for your department or to manage ongoing projects, virtual teams are becoming more of a normal way of doing business today with the advent of the means to communicate with each other, their managers, and the clients they serve. Instead of going to the expense and inconvenience of having an office with employees who have to be covered with unemployment insurance, disability, taxes, and the million and one things that having a traditional office entails, a virtual set-up is more cost efficient and serves the purpose just as well.

Not only are the virtual teams a great convenience for employers but they are increasing as an alternative method of working for employees as well. Many more people are finding the convenience of working from home today than ever before. They are saving money when it comes to sitters, commuting costs, and many other aspects that a typical job can entail.

While virtual teams may be in different parts of the country, team collaboration tools will allow communication no matter the distance between the members of the team. If team members need to have an online conference, communication, or the exchange of business data of a secure nature, the collaboration software can make this happen.

When you are in doubt as to whether your time is being spent wisely by your employees, the collaboration software can keep track of this, which is managements way of knowing what their employees are doing. Virtual teams need to be able to use this software to stay in touch with each other so the clients are taken care of professionally. If they need to contact a client the software will allow this as well.

In order for these virtual teams to work they need to have the real time communication that allows them to communicate with each other, their superiors, and their clients. The access they need to up to date information is extremely important when dealing with clients and is an absolute must when speaking with them about the business that is being taken care of for them. The use of outdated data is one thing you definitely do not want to happen. When they need to share files, audio and video the means are available when using this software.

Collaboration tools are one of the most effective ways of allowing virtual teams to do their job in the easiest way possible. The savings this resource instigates when it comes to the relocation or travel of employees to remote areas of the world has been well worth the wait. The sharing of information across time zones and the ability to collaborate with others to arrive at the solutions needed is one of the most effective methods ever created.

The needs that allow the collaboration of these teams are very simple. The ability to communicate in real time, the ability to share audio and video, files and photos, manage project objectives, assets, and jobs. The most significant need is the team members have to be able to do their job so their work completes the teams objective.

Team collaboration tools are so much safer than the older way of communicating via email and IM. The use of these methods left them wide open for hacking by those who might gain from the information they could get from companies. The security of collaboration software is much more effective than the previous methods. Resources can be shared without the fear of it falling in the wrong hands and the use of collaboration software is a much easier way to communicate no matter what part of the world the workers are located.

When team members use the collaboration tools of which there are many, the ease with which they can rearrange the items in the pages they are working on is as easy as the work one does in office or word documents. The process is not hard and it is catching on very quickly. The customization of these tools can be made to fit your company’s needs in no time.

The insertion of tables and images and any other work is put in as easily as adding them to your office documents. It just could not be much simpler to use the collaboration tools to fit the needs of your company and capture any information that you specify. Rest assured the web-based team collaboration tools are safe. They are password protected so the business data is secure.

Just a few of the more popular team collaboration tools are:

Basecamp, Backpack, Central Desktop, Zoho Office, HyperOffice, Smartsheet, Google Docs, Office Live, and SharePoint.

Joan

osiris2561 asked:

Why is collaboration software so important? That’s what turns two people (or more) who work in different locations into a team. With collaboration software, you can meet face-to-face, view files on a common screen, coordinate tasks, manage documents, discuss topics, you can even edit the same document simultaneously – and on the fly. In-office employees can cost a company two to five times their salary – a virtual assistant charges only for the time they’re working, and you have virtually (no pun intended) no overhead. In this tough economy, it’s a very smart move – but don’t forget the collaboration software.

Rhonda

StephenfromIBM asked:

IBM provides the most complete, end-to-end solution by integrating Web 2.0 team collaboration tools with industry-leading ECM systems to address organizations across the spectrum of collaboration & content. IBM can help you unlock your enterprise content so that it is more accessible across the organization from the tools you use every day (such as IBM Lotus Notes, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Outlook, and more). IBM Lotus Quickr and your ECM solution, together, can help make advanced ECM services (records management & business process management, for example) easier to access and use.

Carolyn

TeamBISM asked:

Team bism’s video presentation on four collaboration tools. This video is for ksu’s BISM 2100 class.

Sue