Teamwork is one of the most important aspects of the modern workplace. However, widespread internet availability means that members of the team could be just about anywhere in the world. So for teamwork to be effective, it’s important for companies to adopt modern work practices and technologies that help co-workers, wherever they are, share their work in a simple and efficient way. This is where a good online collaboration tool comes in. If you’re contemplating adopting — or proposing the adoption of — online collaboration tools, the list of online collaboration benefits below may help you and your organization make a decision on this useful technology.
It’s Easy to Keep Track of Projects
Online collaboration tools have a variety of project tracking capabilities that make it easy for team members to see the evolution of a project from day one. From tracking who made the latest changes to a document, to how the document was before the changes, to tagging a colleague to review the document, it’s never been easier to manage a project. Online collaboration tools remove the need to use e-mail as the primary means of communicating with team members, so the need to search an inbox for a lost document, for example, is completely removed.
Team Members Can Be Anywhere
As long as they have an internet connection, team members can be working remotely from anywhere in the world. This means that it’s possible for a team to be completely dispersed, while still working in an organized way. Co-workers in different states or even countries can easily work together on the same project, helping organizations put together the best possible team for a project, regardless of the location of the employees. It also means that while employees are away from the office on a business trip, they don’t need to be disconnected from the project, and can contribute to it as if they were on their desks.
Ease of Reporting
Nearly all work projects have some kind of reporting associated with them, and report time is usually stressful. Sometimes, it’s easy to lose track of some of the activities that have been done for a certain project, especially when you’re working with a large team. However, by using a good online collaboration tool, it’s easy to quickly generate detailed reports that include all of the activities associated with a certain project, giving team members more time to work on result-generating activities.
Actions Are Done Quickly
With a good online collaboration tool, there is no longer a need for arranging a meeting or phone call in order to review documents. Documents can be uploaded into the tool, and reviewers can be automatically notified via email that documents have been uploaded. Reviewers can then annotate the document and make any necessary changes and notify all team members that the document has been reviewed and is ready. This makes it much easier to keep a steady and organized workflow on a project, with team members promptly contributing when necessary.
Documents Are All Stored in a Single Place
This makes it easy for all team members to have access to all necessary documents, regardless of their location. Also, employees don’t have to save documents onto a USB drive or other storage media if they plan on working on them remotely, and any updates to a document are seen immediately. There is no need for different versions of a document to be e-mailed back and forth, and team members know at all times where to find the latest version of a document.
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