Harris KhanWorking from the office isn’t mandatory with many businesses, especially if you can work from home. The need to work remotely grew steadily when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world. Measures to curb the spread of the virus demanded that social distancing be a must. Therefore, alternative means of bringing together employees were necessary to ensure that work was not severely affected. As a result, online collaboration tools came in handy.
Collaboration for remote workers is essential, especially when working on joint projects. For instance, if you own a software development company, it may have to go through different stages such as design, development, testing, and then implementation. These stages need to be seamless, even when working online. In software development, designing and development are highly interdependent. Your designers and developers working together ensure that developers can quickly grasp the spirit behind a particular software design for proper implementation.
However, collaboration in other types of work is needed rather than software development alone. Here are some benefits that your business can reap from using online collaboration tools such as SharePoint online training:
1. Central Place For Files, Announcements, Calendars, Among Others
It would be impossible for you to work as a team remotely if there was no collaboration. Before the collaboration option, people had to meet in one place to exchange ideas. However, it is now the game-changer that avails convenience for working from anywhere. Data storage is done at a central location where all people can access it. Moreover, any changes done to any file can be updated immediately on the computer of every person.
Collaboration tools come with an embedded calendar for coordinating deadlines, appointments, online meetings, milestones, and individual availability.
If there are announcements to pass to the team, you only need to type them, upload a video or audio, and everyone will see them. If you’re a team leader, you have to deliver the work of sending hundreds of emails to your team members. In addition, if someone is online, every announcement is seen real-time. The output of the team leaders is thus simplified because their coordination is centralized.
2. Convenience In Meetings
As a business leader, you don’t have to mobilize your team to meet at the office whenever you need to call a meeting. You only need to inform them about the timings of the meeting, create the online meeting room, and send the link to be used to attend the meeting. You can hold an online conference with your management team to deliberate on the position of the business.
On the other hand, a section of your employees working on the same project can meet to exchange ideas.
Online meetings can also leverage other features that come with collaboration tools. If someone has a presentation to make, they can use the ‘share screen’ option for others to follow it easily. Moreover, if you need to contribute during the meeting, you can raise your hand using the hand-raising icon. Then, you can turn your microphone and camera on to project your ideas. Finally, there is a chat section that one can use to make contributions by typing rather than speaking.
3. Easy File Sharing
File sharing is an essential aspect of business operations that differs from file storage. A single file can be opened at the same time by more than one person. Then, they can work on it simultaneously. All changes made by any of the members are reflected on the screen of all people in real-time. Apart from typical documents, you can share databases.
Before the invention of collaboration tools, version control was a challenge when you make updates on a document meant for several people. Thus, different documents would have variations in standards and guidelines. When working on large projects, it would result in a wastage of time when backtracking.
Filesharing means you can coordinate your team in different places, with a good network being the only requirement.
4. Easy To Track Projects
From the first day when a project begins, you can track the project evolution and development with the capabilities of online collaboration tools. Moreover, you can track who was last to make changes on a document, the previous version before the changes, and tag someone to review the document.
Final Thoughts
It’s believed that online collaboration tools will continue to grow in demand rather than decline. Some businesses prefer to have customized intranet collaboration software instead of the public suit. If you would like to allow your employees to work from anywhere, you might think of leveraging the effectiveness of collaboration tools. The benefits are sure such as a centralized place for all business files, announcements, and calendars. Additionally, sharing files is no longer stressful, while you can hold meetings with your employees and management wherever they are. You should also not forget that tracking projects are simplified.
