December 2021

At the heart of any successful business is collaboration. Business success can’t exist without some level of collaboration between colleagues to work toward a single purpose. Making collaboration easy and efficient is what sets a great business above the rest. Unfortunately, for many businesses, collaboration has become stagnant and technology has passed their existing processes behind. A culture of collaboration has to exist before any tools can be added. But, once the right people and ideas are in place, technology can help ideas and innovation flow within a business better than ever before. These tools have become even more important since the COVID-19 pandemic sent many to work from home. Today, 40% of workers are still working from home. The usual in-person meetings that some businesses relied on for communicating with colleagues were gone. Regardless of whether employees are working from home or hanging out in the office, these tools can improve collaboration, productivity, efficiency, and teamwork. Cloud Storage for Editing and Sharing There was a time when working with someone else on a document or presentation could happen one of two ways. Either they would get together in-person to collaborate or they would email back and forth sharing a new update of a Frankenstein document with new edits and notes. Neither method was particularly efficient. Today, cloud storage platforms have changed the “how” of collaboration. Documents can be uploaded and shared with necessary people, edits can be made and updated instantly, and version history can be retained. Most importantly, this capability is available whenever and wherever as long as there’s an internet connection. People are able to collaborate more freely on their schedule rather than coming together for a meeting. Cloud storage is a must have when team members are working from home or trying to collaborate from multiple locations. Video Conferencing for Meetings There will still be a time when meetings are needed. With in-person employees, hybrid employees, and remote employees; meetings can prove to be challenging. Having a good video conferencing platform makes it easy to get the closets thing to a real face-to-face experience. However, a great video conferencing platform is about more than just seeing each other and talking. It can also be a tool for collaboration. Since the pandemic began, many platforms invested heavily in increasing the capabilities of their tools. For example, users can share files or images and enable others to draw or annotate in real-time. Videos can be recorded for training or review purposes. Client meetings can be more flexible and bring together everyone involved for a truly professional, “all-hands-on-deck” sort of meeting. The possibilities are endless with the right software in the hands of employees. Instant Messaging Not every discussion needs to be a meeting, but may require more than an email chain. Internal chat platforms have also become incredibly popular in recent years as teams look to improve their collaboration. They can provide anything from the one-on-one water cooler conversation (water cooler not required) to a team chat where multiple voices can be heard and share. More advanced platforms can be broken into rooms, assigned to specific projects, or use a number of other co-ordination methods. Given that many people use instant messaging in their personal lives, these platforms for business provide a more intuitive feel and spur more conversation than email, for example. Manage and Prioritize Task and time management will always be an important part of business. Keeping everyone in the loop about a specific task or set of tasks is perhaps one of the greatest challenges of teamwork. Thankfully, there are a number of tools created with task management in mind. Teams can organize and assign tasks, design workflows to move tasks along and re-assign if required, and monitor progress so everyone is on the same page. Business success requires good communication and task management. If everyone can clearly see tasks as they progress and change hands then they can be better informed, prepared, and efficient. Implementing Effective Tools for Success There are a wide range of different collaboration tools available. It’s important to understand the needs of the business and implement thoughtfully so that processes are made more efficient while also staying within budget. To learn more about how to improve collaboration and select the right platform, contact the business success experts at CDS Office Technologies today.

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