The rise of globalization has transformed traditional office environments in ways we could have never imagined. Organizations that once found success in working on-premises, holding face-to-face meetings to discuss deliverables, and delegate tasks come across a new challenge. They must ensure that geographically dispersed departments can connect and work together to meet common goals effortlessly. This represents a dynamic shift that calls for team collaboration software to facilitate online communications, collaboration, document sharing, and project management. These solutions are no longer luxuries; rather, they have become necessities.

This brings us to online collaboration tools that have been around for many years and are now an integral feature of today’s workplace. Companies are interested in the possibilities associated with cost-effective technologies that enable them to manage remote and hybrid teams. These work models represent the new norm in a post-COVID-19 world, meaning employees should be able to perform their job duties anytime, anywhere, and from any internet-supported device.

Whether you run a startup, SMB, or enterprise, adapting to the new-age business field is crucial if you expect to stay relevant and competitive. You must focus on digital transformation, and there are several tools to help you achieve this.

In this post, we will talk about how online tools improve team performance and help you deliver positive outcomes.

Time & Location Independence

Two clear benefits of investing in online collaboration apps are effective teamwork and productivity. Employees get the necessary tools to connect with their co-workers and managers remotely, at a client location, or from home. Allow teams to gain real-time access to a content management system and locate data quickly. Brainstorming sessions, conceptualizing ideas, sharing content, files, data, and other materials with anyone from anywhere, anytime becomes a reality. This also offers flexibility, you can keep team members in a closed-loop for precision feedback, encourage them to maximize productivity, and keep work moving at a quick pace.

This has proven results for companies, as shown in a study by Deloitte. In this, three-quarters of respondents are of the view that access to collaboration platforms enhances productivity up to 20-25%. So, we can see that 24/7 connectivity and responsiveness irrespective of time and region instills accountability and ensures that everyone meets deadlines.

Eliminate Email Culture

Did you know that employees typically spend around three hours a day looking for information and/or writing emails? They also put in over five hours per week checking their emails. Do the math, and you can see how much these numbers add up to. The result is employees wasting their effort on redundant tasks when they should be prioritizing high-value activities that bring revenue to the company. This can also lead to a tendency of slacking off, a habit that can have severe consequences down the line.

Furthermore, it is difficult to keep up with long email threads and find the right files/documents in urgent scenarios, and doing so can decrease efficiency. Luckily, online collaboration apps improve team performance and output when you capitalize on them properly. With all communications in a reliable, secure platform, departments can easily find the exact information they need to do their job. Everything ranging from files and data to other intellectual property resides safely in a centralized knowledge hub. This greatly decreases the time employees would otherwise spend on making back and forth phone calls and going through long email exchanges. As research shows, the best online collaboration tools can minimize email volume by approximately 30%.

Greater Visibility & Transparency

Businesses often have reservations about letting employees work remotely or on the go. Today, many professionals work and interact with customers, partners, and co-workers outside the office, making it difficult for the management to keep a check on what’s happening. This can confuse departments like the C-suite and HR when they conduct performance appraisals or compile progress reports. After all, they want to be sure that every employee is pulling their weight even if they’re not working in the same space.

Collaboration software addresses these concerns by digitizing processes and modernizing applications for enterprise deployments. For instance, you can supervise the overall status of a project and ensure that it’s fully up-to-date. From the start, you can review what needs to be done, tasks that are underway, and initiate conversations on apps like Convo about workflows. Doing so eliminates micro-management, hence lightening the burden for project supervisors. Everyone can maintain an open line of communication and ensure that things remain on track so they reduce the margin of human error or costly mistakes. This is where Convo’s centralized knowledge base comes in, as everyone can refer to a single source of truth.

Security

Trusted online collaboration software and tools leverage advanced security protocols to safeguard user data. They use end-to-end encryption, firewalls, two-factor authentication, single sign-on, and password protection to reduce security vulnerabilities and data breach attempts by intruders or unauthorized third parties. Most online collaboration apps function on cloud-based workspaces, so they guarantee information security at every layer. 

High-risk industries such as the public sector can ask vendors to provide evidence about their security credentials and check if they are up-to-date. You can even ask online collaboration tool providers to host your data if you’d like, and many would say that this is a better option than storing intellectual property on personal servers.

Problem-Solving & Decision-Making

To guarantee smooth business operations, collaboration solutions help IT quickly troubleshoot problems that prevent employees from moving forward with their work. Teams can immediately inform each other if the company is pushing important updates or developments that may result in bottlenecks or downtime. Simultaneously, other users can offer assistance by finding a way around these roadblocks. One way of doing this is to utilize a collaboration app that incorporates audio/video conferencing. With this, teams can share their screens to explain the situation in detail and proactively resolve issues no matter where they are.

Moreover, these tools break down silos when teams have all-around communications. This reduces delays in business operations so that employees can focus on delivering tangible results. You can even simplify problem-solving, especially for remote employees by enabling them to meet virtually and make the right decisions with accuracy.

Effective Teamwork And High Productivity

Imagine that you run a company with offices in New York, London, and Sydney. Next, think about the costs of traveling to and fro or making international phone calls just to ensure that all your workflows are aligned. A flexible and convenient arrangement would be to invest in online collaboration apps. This improves communication between stakeholders such as HR, sales, marketing, IT, manufacturing, and procurement creates an agile organization that accelerates time to market. 

Here are some examples of how online collaboration software can help you manage all this. HR can share SOPs, policies, performance reviews, promotion announcements, and manage payroll. Coordinate with external stakeholders like logistics and procurement and emphasize timeliness by using team productivity software to request inventory replenishment, refunds, exchanges, etc. 

The customer support department also benefits when they have reliable collaboration software to work with. Employees can communicate their availability before the management assigns their shifts. This enables you to focus on delivering great customer service and cater to clients without sacrificing quality. Managers can use collaboration tools to encourage innovation by tapping into the best talent and moving quickly from ideation to implementation.

Final Remarks

As an all-in-one solution, Convo is a collaboration tool that works for modern teams in startups, SMBs, and enterprises. Engage desk and non-desk teams on the web-based or mobile (Android, iOS) app, improve efficiency, productivity, and guarantee high ROI in the long run. This leads to productive teamwork, and you don’t have to worry about losing communications, files/documents, and progress updates. This is because they’re centralized and archived, allowing you to retrieve them whenever you want. These tools pave the way to a wide network of learning and expertise so that teams always perform well.

Are you using an online collaboration platform to prepare your business for the future of work? We’d love to hear from you, so feel free to let us know in your comments!