Imagine being in a large ship. To steer it an inch ahead, a series of tasks need to be done simultaneously. Only perfect co-ordination can keep it moving forward. Any project experience feels nothing less than that. Multiple stakeholders, multiple team members, and multiple tasks – everything has to be managed to accomplish a goal. No wonder, collaboration tools have been around for a long time. From Lotus Notes to scheduling tools, programs have been evolving to cater to just one need – Collaboration!

Why is it so important to have collaboration other than to just get the job done?

• Team Oriented Organisations – Not one can claim to have succeeded due to an individual’s contribution. No person can work in isolation and keep on succeeding in the context of an organisation.
• Flow Of Work – There are no end-to-end jobs in real sense anymore. Every job is broken down into several pieces. Every piece is completed and sent forward to join with the next piece. This flow of work is not necessarily linear. It sometimes happens simultaneously. Collaborating on each other’s work has become a necessity now, from the knowledge perspective.

For Ex – If a contract is to be drawn up for the customer, it involves several departments like sales & marketing, accounting and legalities. There is constant inflow and outflow of information between them to achieve the end goal. It is impossible to achieve it cost effectively and efficiently without a technology enabled tool.

• Knowledge sharing – Organisations no more work in silos. Most processes are interdependent. With a collaboration tool, knowledge sharing becomes as easy as sending out a mail to communicate
• Avoid work hassles – Often miscommunication can lead to double efforts for the same work, missing deadlines, wrong dependencies and ultimately wrong outcomes. To optimally use existing pool of resources and their skills, thoughts must be exchanged freely without investing many resources.
• Internal & External Clients – Organisations have evolved and taken to the concept of scalability. To keep a process scalable, customer delight is important both internally and externally. Collaborative efforts are crucial not just to achieve goals but to exceed expectations.
• Teams On The Go – It’s the mobile age now. Teams are not required to be in one geographical location to work on a project. Cost benefits and availability of talent have forced companies to think out of the box. Some organisations are practically scattered around the world and managed to bring in great results with collaboration tools

We usher in the whole idea of collaboration to reinforce it for those readers who are aware of it and to spread the word for the uninitiated. However, we seldom know of a business that thrived without collaboration – in some form or the other.

However, it is important to select a technology tool that meets your style of collaboration. A tool that takes into consideration the unique requirement sof your industry and can be tailored to deliver great results.

Watch out for our next piece on the best collaboration tools.