Collaboration Tools

Home office could be the business word of the year. Never before have so many people swapped their office for their home desk. According to a survey by the industry association Bitkom, almost every second working person has moved his or her workplace at least partially to the home office as a result of the Corona pandemic. This is a significant change compared to the pre-Corona era, when only one in four companies offered or enabled work from home.

There are understandable reasons for this, because the technical prerequisites for a smooth and secure workflow are not always in place in living room offices. There is a lack of inadequate hardware, a lack of software licenses and sufficient and secure data lines. It is not uncommon for employees to be overwhelmed and left alone with the task of setting up a professional work environment.

COLLABORATION SOFTWARE WILL PLAY A MORE IMPORTANT ROLE IN THE FUTURE

It is not yet clear when the office will return to normal. But it already seems certain that the home office has conquered its place in the working world. To ensure that collaboration continues to succeed in the future, companies should adapt their work processes. Collaboration tools such as Microsoft Teams help them do so by enabling decentralized teams to work together productively and efficiently in a more flexible work organization.

• Collaboration software used throughout the company makes it easier for employees to communicate regardless of location and thus enables joint collaboration on projects.
• Collaboration solutions require a corporate culture based on results and not on the mere presence in an office. This requires trust, but in return creates more creative and solution-oriented scope for employees.
• With the help of collaboration tools, project teams can be put together and work together in a short time. New team members can be integrated quickly, and external support can be consulted as needed.

COLLABORATION TOOLS SUPPORT CONTEMPORARY FORMS OF LEADERSHIP

In German companies, the culture of presence is deeply rooted and represents the rule in everyday business life. But the working world is not only changing due to Corona, even though the pandemic has accelerated this development. Agile organizational development is one of the most used operational buzzwords in recent years. Strictly hierarchically organized companies and their managers have their difficulties with it. But the development is progressing, self-management and personal responsibility are now common terms in everyday business life. Leadership is increasingly understood as leadership combined with the ability to moderate decentrally organized projects. Collaboration tools are used for this purpose.

WHAT ARE COLLABORATION TOOLS?

Collaboration software or tools are used to manage projects and centrally control the project-related information flow. The name says it all: collaboration in decentralized teams becomes more efficient and goal-oriented. To optimize work processes, various tools are available to plan projects or tasks and organize them in a team. Good collaboration tools also enable the analysis of work steps and results. These requirements are met by various features:

CORE REQUIREMENTS FOR MODERN COLLABORATION SOFTWARE

Communication: The immediate communication of team members is one of the most important features of a collaboration tool. This form of real-time communication is also called unified communication. Here, a wide variety of communication channels such as e-mail or messenger are integrated into one application – the collaboration software. This is to ensure that all team members receive the necessary information and processes are accelerated. To ensure that the integration works smoothly, the communication channels are connected via an interface to e-mail programs, for example. Common to-do lists and the distribution of tasks are also important features.

File sharing: The simultaneous use of documents contributes directly to a smooth work process. All documents can be shared and used with the team members within the collaboration application. Thus, all project participants have access to the required information at all times. Access rights to the individual documents can be controlled centrally in most applications.

Calendar functions: Virtual meetings, arrangements and deadlines play an important role even in decentrally organized teams. For this purpose, most collaboration applications have a central calendar to which all team members have access. This ensures an overview of all upcoming appointments at all times. Individual team members’ acceptances or cancellations can also be quickly entered in the calendar.

Mind-Mapping: Teams often work together on creative solutions to business challenges. Brainstorming applications such as mind mapping are suitable for this form of decentralized idea generation. On a common mind map, the members involved can contribute their ideas and, if necessary, invite external support.

Analysis and steering: Decentralized teams also have team leaders or coordinators whose tasks include moderating, steering and controlling the project. Good collaboration applications support this work with features that allow an optimal division of the individual work steps, document progress and evaluate project developments.

UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS MODULE

The basis for the collaboration of decentrally organized teams is fast, uninterrupted and standardized communication, also known as Unified Communications. Distributed project teams must be able to quickly come together in one-on-one meetings or group dialogues to exchange information about progress and tasks. However, this is exactly what project communication often fails in practice, especially in complex projects with high time pressure. Today, most employees have access to powerful communication tools and terminals. Only if they understand each other and can be used purposefully, they can provide an advantage for collaboration. Unified communications software creates exactly this platform, on which the most diverse communication channels and communication technologies are brought together and enable all team members to communicate smoothly. By displaying the availability status, collaboration becomes possible quasi on demand. If these platforms are supplemented by additional services such as file sharing or integrated into other business software, the boundaries between collaboration software and unified communications become blurred.

COLLABORATION TOOLS IN THE HOME OFFICE

The Corona pandemic has set several records. One relates to the use of the collaboration software Microsoft Teams. According to the company, more than 44 million people would log in daily, compared to 32 million at the beginning of the year. Even if this development can be attributed to the current circumstances, the home office has taken its long predicted place. Basically, three forms can be distinguished. The complete relocation of the workplace to the home office, the alternating use of office and home office workstations and mobile work from different locations, as is already common in sales.

This has an impact on the corporate culture and, above all, on the company organization. Clear objectives and the promotion of personal responsibility are basic requirements for integrating the home office into everyday business life. Collaboration tools create these conditions, offer a low-threshold entry into the use of communication tools and must be able to be adapted quickly. The complexity in terms of technological equipment and management is incomparably higher compared to the presence workplace.

A clearly formulated requirements profile makes it easier to select the appropriate collaboration software, because not every software is equally suitable for all tasks and situations. Specialized consultants are very helpful at this point in order to avoid wrong decisions and not to overtax your own employees. Without the willingness of the people involved, decentralized work organization is difficult to realize.