What should you look for in collaboration software?
Collaboration software is necessary whether you are working with teams scattered around the world, have a large number of people working from home, or value your team’s productivity. The question is then what you should look for when selecting collaboration software.
Document Control
Collaboration tools must balance access with security. A casual visitor to your website or business shouldn’t be able to access sensitive files with people’s personal information or business secrets. There are many who need to be able to read files like Human Resources documents and product assembly instructions, but they should not be able to edit it. A good collaboration tool will provide access only to those with a need to know, while the ability to change or delete documents is limited even further. However, it shouldn’t be a hassle to
maintain these access controls.
Another variation of this is document version control. The best collaborative tools retain copies of the prior versions of the file. Then you can access version C if version D was corrupted or you just don’t like how the new model came out. It should also prevent two people from checking out and changing the same document at the same time. In these cases, the work of at least one of them is lost if you don’t restrict editing to one person at a time unless you’re in a collaborative meeting.
The Ability to Communicate within It
Collaboration solutions come in a variety of forms. Maybe it is just a way to video chat and share files. Better tools allow everyone to access the same Kanban boards and product development schedules while discussing it. Poor products require you to email files back and forth, though this runs the risk that someone will work on an old version of the document. Another common failure is requiring people to give their input in online digital forums that aren’t easy to read, whereas the ideal tool lets everyone make their recommended changes to
the design with the approval of others.
Supports the Type of Content Your Working With
A collaboration tool is a failure if it doesn’t support all of the types of content you’re working with. Tech support needs to be able to save data files, access logs, screen shots of customer problems and transcriptions of phone calls to customer records. Real estate agents need to be able to save pictures of the property, personal notes and securely stored copies of legal documents. You need to be able to share the types of content your team is using, whether it is marketing videos, audio files, text messages or word processing documents.
Interoperability with Everything Else You Use
Collaboration tools cannot require people to learn a whole new suite of tools. Any collaboration tool you provide should work seamlessly with your office productivity tools, email system and any other apps you use. This will increase the adoption of the tool and improve productivity because the learning curve is as short as possible. The opposite situation is an exotic system that requires complex workarounds to export and import data so that it can be shared. You could end up wasting money on a tool that no one uses because it is worse than what they were doing before.
