Today’s working environment can be very overwhelming. As professionals, we are expected to work as cohesive teams within our workplaces, but advancements in technology make us rethink traditional means of communication as we have less face-to-face contact with our colleagues.
This poses a challenge in finding ways to work productivety with colleagues to whom you may rarely, if ever, speak in person. The inability to speak with someone face-to-face and ask them for clarification on an idea, for example, increases the chance for miscommunication.
In the past, when a meeting was scheduled, we’d all gather in the board room. Now, we find ourselves relying on VoIP (Voice over IP) products to host conference calls.
Traditionally, when we wanted feedback on our work, we’d print off the pages and pop it on someone’s desk. Now, we’re relying on online tools to collaborate on our work instantaneously with other team members.
The world is evolving and the way in which we work in a team environment is evolving accordingly.
In this blog post, I will explore three collaboration tools that are currently being used by organisations across Australia to help their employee teams work better together.
SharePoint
SharePoint Online is a document management, collaboration, intranet and social portal tool. It is part of Microsoft’s Office 365 Suite and syncs up with other compatible tools like Lync, Exchange and Word.
Organisations use SharePoint to store their important documents and make collaboration efforts less complicated. It works by allowing an administrator to create ‘sites’ for various categories, including client name or type, document type and organisational department, based on the users’ specific needs. Generally, users prefer to create sites for each of their organisation’s main departments. Once a site is created, you can upload documents, assign permissions for viewing and editing and add news feeds or other important information that might be beneficial to the user. Each site becomes a page through which team members can collaborate and find relevant information.
As mentioned, sites aren’t just designed around an organisation’s departments. At R & G Technologies, we use SharePoint sites to organise our clients and projects, with each being given their own site so that every team member can access important documents and information quickly and in an organised way. If four of us are working on a project, we’ll use SharePoint to collaborate on documents and use the news feed to communicate our ideas to one another. This removes the always frustrating need of sending documents and ideas back and forth in lengthy, confusing group emails.
How does SharePoint increase collaboration?
First and foremost, SharePoint provides one central location for your team to work on documents and share ideas. No longer do you need to send group emails, attach documents and worry about whether you have the correct or most current version of a file. All of the important information pertaining to a department, client or project can be organised into an easy-to-use site to which your team members have instant access.
Secondly, the intranet feature brings your team members closer together by providing a place to highlight your organisation’s values, broadcast important updates and brainstorm ideas for the upcoming Christmas party! Forget those huge ‘staff all’ emails that force you to sift through 20 emails just to compile a list of ideas. SharePoint makes inter-organisation communication a much easier, much less cumbersome task.
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Lync
Lync is a service that simplifies communication inside organisations by providing a consistent, single-client experience for presence, instant messaging, voice and video conferencing, as well as a great meeting experience.
You may have heard Lync referred to as the ‘MSN messenger for business.’ As someone who grew up chatting to friends on MSN messenger, I love this analogy. Lync is MSN on steroids. Not only does it let you quickly communicate with colleagues, it has inbuilt video conferencing, screen-sharing and can be used to make regular calls via VoIP.
The biggest reason Australian organisations are choosing Lync is because it eliminates a lot of internal email. How many emails do you get from colleagues every day? Lync empowers your teammates to quickly reach out to someone if they need a question answered or want to pitch an idea. These brief Lync conversations result in quick answers and reduced inbox clutter. Win-win.
Imagine if you were to implement Lync today. How much less time would you spend inside your inbox?
Furthermore, Lync has the ability to automatically sync with your event calendar. In other words, when you are away from your desk grabbing lunch or in an important client meeting, Lync will automatically pull in your calendar and update your status instantly. This is a great feature for your team because it saves time and effort. In the past, one of your colleagues might walk all the way across the office to speak with you, only to find that you are not there, whereas now they can quickly check Lync to see if you’re available.
How does Lync increase collaboration?
Lync makes it easier for your team to communicate with each other. Before we were inundated with technology in our workplaces, we dedicated the time required to organise meetings and collaborate on projects. Now, we just don’t have the time. But, through technology like Lync, we have the ability to perform most job duties by ourselves and from our computers. Lync offers the perfect solution for keeping lines of communication open and for working instantaneously with colleagues.
Related: What is Microsoft Lync? Why it matters
Dropbox
Dropbox is a file-hosting service similar to SharePoint, but that allows you to upload photos and videos in addition to documents and to share or access them easily from any computer or smart phone. This effectively eliminates the need to email yourself or others large attachments that take forever to upload and/or download and, again, add clutter to your inbox.
The tool works by allowing the user to create a special ‘Dropbox’ folder on the computer of each person to who needs access to stored documents. Dropbox synchronises that folder into the cloud and then with all other devices on which that Dropbox folder was created, including tablets, PCs and smart phones. When a document saved in the shared folder is updated, Dropbox automatically syncs those changes for all other users of that folder.
How does Dropbox increase collaboration?
Dropbox makes it easier for you and your team to work on the same document or file. No longer will you have five different variations flying around via email. Keep it saved as one document in Dropbox and that’s all you need.
If your teams are anything like the ones of which I’ve been a part, we all have different to-do lists and schedules and we may even be in different locations nationwide or in difference countries. No matter your schedule or location, you’ll always have access to the same important files with Dropbox.
I particularly like to use Dropbox when dealing with graphic and web designers, where there can be a lot of back-and-forth sharing of designs, photos and copy. By sharing a single Dropbox folder, we can all collaboratively work on the project and instantly have full access to the information we need to do our jobs well. The designer doesn’t have to wait around for me to email him the latest copy and I don’t have to wait for the designer to email the latest revisions to me.
Get your team working better together with these collaboration tools
Technological advances in recent years have diminished face-to-face meetings and allowed teams to work together even when they’re not together. You need the right tools to ensure that you can keep your teams working efficiently and productively.
Collaboration tools like SharePoint, Lync and Dropbox empower your team to communicate better and stay more organised. I challenge you to leverage these new technologies to increase the effectiveness of teamwork and collaboration.
Related: 3 Collaboration Tools That Can Improve Your Productivity
Do you need help to finding the right collaboration tools for your workplace?
R & G Technologies is a Brisbane IT Support and IT Consulting firm that helps organisations across Australia. We can help you make better use of new technologies - like SharePoint, Lync and Dropbox - to increase collaboration and boost productivity. Call us on 1300 562 886 or contact us via this page.
