May 8, 2024
Over the past four years, we've fundamentally shifted what it means to be a workplace, and for many of us, our communication practices are still playing catch up. But in many ways, the big picture hasn’t changed: Workplaces are still more effective when there is open, consistent communication among employees.
Now, perhaps more than ever, the collaboration tools you use can affect your productivity, innovation, culture, talent retention rates, and more. But the popular wisdom regarding what communication platforms brought the most ROI and for whom has also fundamentally changed. Here’s what you need to know in 2024 and beyond…
Why Is Collaboration Important for Businesses?
It’s hard to overestimate the importance of effective communication and collaboration in any relationship. And that’s obviously true for business relationships as well.
But beyond making 8:00-5:00 M-F feel less frustrating and more empowering for your entire staff, here’s what better collaboration brings businesses:
- More innovation
- Better problem-solving
- Deeper relationships
- Increased knowledge-sharing and skill development
- Fewer misunderstandings and rework
- More effective division of tasks
The Best Collaboration Tools To Implement for Your Business
Enabling collaboration through technology looks different depending on your industry and workplace infrastructure. But over the last few years, many business communication specialists have had to rethink which tools would bring the most ROI.
Today, here are the cloud collaboration tools I frequently recommend:
Video Conferencing
Not that long ago, video conferencing wasn’t widely used by most businesses. So much has changed! But as of July 2022, around 90% of businesses invested in video conferencing software as a way to “meet” people face-to-face, share their projects, and stay connected from anywhere.
Some of the most popular video conferencing platforms for small businesses include:
Many of these tools are similar, but the right one for your business depends on what else you’re hoping to accomplish!
Instant Messaging
When you want to connect instantly with coworkers, chat tools are extremely helpful. Some of the leading chat tools for businesses to use internally are:
Don’t underestimate these tools! Enterprise instant messaging (EIM) combines the features and abilities of common instant messaging systems — such as instant connectivity and multi-platform support — with the security your business environment requires. EIM programs offer a corporate identity, an audit trail to track messaging, and administrative controls to block inappropriate content.
File Sharing Platforms
Collaboration can be wonderful, but it can also have unintended consequences, like having multiple versions of the same file and losing important edits. Fortunately, modern cloud tools can make it easy (and much less confusing) for multiple people to contribute to the same document or deck in real-time, from anywhere.
Some great options include:
Audio-Video Rooms
For businesses that have employees working both in and out of the office, audio-video rooms can be an excellent collaboration tool. From weekly meetings and hosting guest speakers to high-pressure presentations, a well-outfitted audio-video room can make all the difference in terms of experience and retention.
Unified Communications: One Solution To Rule Them All
Unified communications (UC) tools merge all forms of communication under one user-friendly platform. While that’s convenient and sometimes helps businesses save some money, it doesn’t sound all that revolutionary. And before the pandemic, traditional thinking was that only larger organizations or those with special collaboration requirements really needed these exceptionally powerful one-and-done tools.
But these platforms got the chance to demonstrate their worth in the real world over the past few years, and the math is…astounding. We’re talking hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of astounding. It turns out that moving from, say, five or six separate communication tools to one tool that does everything makes just about everything take less time. Our recent blog — complete with an easy infographic — goes into more detail about how UC tools turbocharge productivity.
Click the link below to access it!
