¿Do you have collaborative tools to optimize the management of your work teams? With the new labor paradigm, it is essential to identify tools that enable smart work methods and enhance team connectivity to promote your company’s growth.
Collaborative tools are key to managing telework or a hybrid work model, flexible work hours, and remote teams.
After a year of telework due to the pandemic, companies found that collaborative tools were essential for continuing operations. These tools increased productivity during remote work. Now, with the hybrid model and digital transformation in play, dispensing with these tools is not an option.
Collaborative Tools
Collaborative tools, by promoting work flexibility, motivate professionals by allowing them to self-manage, fostering a positive work environment and strengthening corporate culture.
Identifying a connected work method, regardless of location, time, and device, based on the pillars of collaboration and exchange, is the key to success for companies in today’s reality, where collaborative business process management is free from the physical presence of workers.
What Are Collaborative Tools and Why Are They Essential?
In a reality influenced by digital transformation, any project requires proper technological qualification, which translates into the need to adopt collaborative tools according to the needs of a specific project or company. But what exactly are these types of tools?
Collaborative tools refer to platforms or applications that foster connectivity and teamwork. They operate through a cloud storage model, allowing all employees of a company to interact; not only among themselves but also externally, with clients or partners.
The goal of collaborative tools is to improve the work process through specific features that allow planning, executing, controlling, and analyzing the different tasks and processes of a business project.
These platforms, within a work environment, promote the exchange of resources, communication, and collaboration in tasks and processes, thus keeping information updated and boosting work performance.
Besides the accessibility of cloud-stored documents, the major benefit of collaborative tools is their native ability to bring the entire workforce together in a single virtual environment.
Criteria for Choosing Effective Collaborative Tools
As previously mentioned, collaborative tools include functions to manage projects and tasks, facilitating and optimizing teamwork.
The market for collaborative tools or project and task software is extensive, so choosing the ideal solution package requires a precise functional analysis according to the needs of the team and the company. It’s important to consider a series of key features to guide you towards the best choice of tools.
Cloud Storage
One of the pillars of collaborative tools is the possibility of storing all information in the cloud, this allows the whole team to access, edit and share any document, table or data without any problem, from anywhere and at any time.
Most tools allow you to define individual access permissions, the directors or project managers are responsible for establishing what data each member has access to or allow access to all panels and features of the platform.
Make sure that the collaborative tool you choose has sufficient storage space for all the information handled in your company’s projects.
Real-time Communication
The possibility of having real-time communications is a feature that most collaborative tools have. This allows to have updated processes and tasks linked to the company’s projects.
Beyond traditional digital communication systems, such as video calls, instant messaging or e-mails, collaborative tools usually have panels dedicated to maintaining communication on the progress of activities and tasks, through comments or updates on progress, immediately visible to the entire team involved.
Shared Calendar
The work calendar is essential for the organization of times, shifts, meetings, vacations, events, visits and delivery dates for the progress of any project and the correct organization of the team’s work time.
Having a shared calendar within any of the collaborative tools chosen is useful and beneficial for the team, since on the one hand, it allows them to identify the availability of their colleagues and visualize relevant dates, and on the other hand, it optimizes the management of their work time.
Integration with Other Collaborative Tools
Generally, a collaborative tool has the option of integrating with another tool that can complement it, thus generating a more effective and complete virtual work environment.
However, there are very complete tools with different functionalities that cover and automate most of the processes for the development of the company’s projects.
The Best Collaborative Tools on the Market
To correctly configure the virtual work environment with 2.0 collaborative tools, here are some of the best on the market that will elevate the productivity of your professionals and help them achieve their goals.
Google Workspace
Google Workspace tool is a virtual workspace that brings together all work productivity applications: Gmail, calendar, drive, documents, spreadsheets, presentations, videoconferences, chat, task lists, etc.
That too has created a very complete tool through which professionals can share documents, comment and edit them, make video calls with clients, partners, colleagues and teams. In addition, it offers the possibility of transmitting direct videos through YouTube to enrich your public profile with additional content.
Not to mention its efficient communication channel, which allows you to create group chats for up to 150 people, video calls with up to 10 contacts at the same time.
WorkMeter’s Project Management Software
WorkMeter’s Project Management Software is a project measurement and cost control tool that allows for billing and margin management, as well as identifying potential deviations and comparing results with initial forecasts, enabling a quick analysis of project, product, service profitability, and even the company’s client portfolio—all in real-time.
Moreover, it features a unique technology in the market that enables the creation of different projects and tracking the time each professional invests in each associated task, completely automatically. This facilitates real-time monitoring of overall activity and productivity.
All employees can access and export reports for each project, which include various charts illustrating the overall progress, making it straightforward and visually appealing. The export feature allows integration with other platforms for process automation and data updating.
WorkMeter’s Project Management Software is a comprehensive collaborative tool. Employees can input and share expense notes, comments, and attach documents. All information is reflected in the project history and can be accessed at any time.
With WorkMeter’s software, it’s possible to thoroughly monitor the company’s projects and identify their profitability, as well as that of the client portfolio. Additionally, it comes with a comprehensive help center, which facilitates navigation within its web environment. The project management software offers a free 15-day trial.
Trello
A perfect collaborative tool to develop and manage the progress of complex projects together with other collaborators. Unlike WorkMeter project management software, Trello only offers a dashboard that focuses mainly on tasks and their achievement, plus reporting is manual. It stands out for its ease of use.
It allows you to set deadlines, attach task lists by dashboard, categorize teams and individuals, attach links or files, and keep track of the activity log, all through columns. Each vertical section identifies a status for each task.
Slack
A very useful collaborative tool for communication between teams and colleagues. It is one of the most widely used communication applications as it offers an excellent instant messaging service and facilitates sending files within a group of contacts. Perfect to integrate with Skype, Twitter and Google Drive as well.
Actually, the collaboration opportunities are greatly expanded, also touching Google Calendar and Trello. Plus the possibility to use this app from any mobile device and web browser app, which makes everything more flexible.
Loom
Loom is ideal for providing detailed explanations to colleagues. It is a Chrome extension that allows you to create video recordings, with or without audio, stored in a shared online space.
For business success in the digital era, teamwork is fundamental. This requires constant communication, coordination, and motivation through flexible models and work-life balance benefits, regardless of location or device used.
Now that you know the most effective collaborative tools on the market, it’s time to identify what your team needs to be more effective and make the best decision to optimize the management and development of your company’s projects.
