Cloud-based collaboration tools are allowing teams to work together across the globe, more seamlessly than ever before. This streamlined approach has digitized the way that large groups can communicate with one another, allowing teams to collaborate with ease.
Cloud collaboration: what is it and how can it help your organization?
Businesses are increasingly using cloud-based team collaboration tools to bring together teams from all over the world.
Untangle work with Workplace
From informing everyone about the return to the office to adopting a hybrid way of working, Workplace makes work more simple.
According to the latest State of the Cloud report, 81% of enterprises have a multi-cloud strategy, which includes the use of both public and private clouds.
What is cloud collaboration?
Cloud collaboration enables people to work simultaneously on documents that live ‘in the cloud’ – so you can access files from anywhere with an internet connection.
The start of a cloud collaboration process involves one user creating a file or document and giving access to other members of the team. Anyone who has access can make changes to the document at any time, including when other people are editing or viewing it. Any changes that you make save and sync – so every user sees the same version of the project whenever (and wherever) they view it.
Cloud collaboration bridges gaps between remote and onsite employees
This means that people in different locations and multi-disciplinary teams can collaborate on documents together. And there are other benefits too:
Say goodbye to email attachments
It used to be the case that you’d have to email separate attachments to each person participating in a project if they were working remotely. This makes version control hard. People end up with several different versions of the same document which complicates things – parts of the project can get missed or people duplicate the same work.
Cloud collaboration tools simplify the process by keeping files in a central location. Employees can edit and review the same document without having to send an updated version to everyone on the team.
Equal Participation with other team members
Some remote employees can feel left out of the conversation. All too often they think they don’t have the same opportunities as others to share their input, which isn’t good for team morale.
With cloud collaboration tools, every employee has access to projects and can offer their viewpoint and creativity. They can also share ideas in informal online meetings.
Work as a team in real-time
With the rise in flexible working, employees are no longer expected to stick to the traditional 9-5 Monday-Friday. Teams can work on projects at any time of the day and don’t even have to be in the same country. Edits and updates appear in real-time and everyone who has access to the document can read them.
Using the right collaboration platforms is also important. It’s particularly useful if your platforms integrate with the tools you already use. Existing cloud-based tools such as Jira and BlueJeans can be paired with platforms like Workplace, for example. This helps speed up collaboration among your teams and helps you get the very best out of the various tools your organization uses every day.
Brainstorm ideas more effectively
When your teams are disparate and far-flung, it can be difficult to get everyone together to discuss ideas. The cloud can be a valuable brainstorming facility – enabling you to share thoughts and have productive interactions. The cloud is an ideal medium to develop innovative ideas and facilitate better communication between staff, project managers, and other contributors.
Access large files easily
Sending and receiving large files can slow you down. Most email servers can’t handle documents bigger than a few megabytes. With a cloud-based collaboration platform, you can share audio, video, and other large files with ease. Because you’re simply storing them in the cloud, there’s no need to ‘send’ them. People can go directly to the cloud storage service to find the file they need.
What are the Benefits of a Cloud-Based Collaboration Tool?
In the past, enabling your business with the latest collaboration technologies required complicated, time-consuming infrastructure and network installations, lengthy training, and considerable capital investment. However, the proliferation of cloud technologies, where applications are hosted in a vendor’s data centers and accessed through a web browser or mobile device, has made achieving better results through collaboration a simple reality for businesses of any size. But why do you need a cloud-based collaboration tool?
Whether you’re collaborating in real-time through online meetings or asynchronously through shared team workspaces, the anywhere-access of innovative cloud technologies provides immense benefits to your business. By taking your collaboration tool into the cloud, you can experience all of the benefits of cloud computing, including 24/7 global accessibility, simplified deployment, and maintenance, mobility, file syncing, and more.
Easy Deployment and Maintenance
SaaS collaboration solutions are simple to deploy and maintain, often requiring little more than a license activation to get you up and running—no software downloads or expensive, time-consuming hardware installations required. This also means you can almost always sample a cloud-based collaboration product with a free trial, often by simply entering an email address. By taking advantage of a free trial, you can be more confident when it comes time to purchase.
Accessibility
Cloud-based business applications are accessible from any web browser, meaning you can use them anywhere and anytime. This is especially important for global or international businesses; cloud solutions are accessible 24/7, so you don’t have to worry about accounting for time zones or uptime.
Syncing of Files, Data
By hosting your shareable files and presentations, ongoing project documents, and more in the cloud, your files are automatically synced and available from any of your devices. You can upload a presentation from your work computer, then present the file from your tablet at home without any additional action required to have access to the file. You can also easily share files with coworkers without needing to be in the same office.
Always Up-to-Date
Since hosting and updating of cloud-based software is handled on the vendor’s end, you never have to worry about version or compatibility issues. All updates are pushed out to all users simultaneously, often invisibly to end users, providing your employees with new features, functionality, and bug fixes automatically.
Mobile-Enabled
Once you transition your collaboration tools into the cloud, you’ll empower your increasingly mobile workforce with mobile collaboration, accessible either through native mobile apps or your device’s mobile web browser. Advances in mobile hardware and software in recent years have created an environment where the mobile experience is on par with (if not superior to) the traditional laptop or desktop experience.
Technically, cloud collaboration solutions come in a few types:
Communication-Based
Naturally, we can’t talk about collaboration without addressing communication. There are so many different solutions for this purpose out there nowadays, and a vast number of them are delivered via the cloud. This only makes sense, as it means you can effectively keep in touch with the rest of your team from anywhere an Internet connection can be established. Make sure you impress upon your team how important it is that they use these resources to the fullest extent.
Software
If your team is going to work, well, like a team, they are going to need to have the tools to do it. By supplying them with software that is actually hosted in the cloud, they have access to these necessary tools whenever they have access to the Internet. These solutions mean that collaboration isn’t reliant on them all being in the same place to work, or even working on it at the same time. Plus, it is very easy to guarantee that your entire staff will be working with the same toolkit, as you can push out updates through the cloud as well.
Documentation, Note-Taking, and File Sharing
Notes are a very important thing in the workplace, as they enable important insights, facts, and thoughts to be preserved for future reference. Considering this future-focus, it makes sense to make sure that these notes are saved in a place that can be accessed by everyone who may (at some point) need to do so. Using one of the many cloud-based apps out there can simplify the collaboration process. As a result, your team can quickly create a shared pool of knowledge to draw from as needed.
Project Management and Customer Relationship Management
The use of a cloud-based CRM or project management tool is motivated in a very similar way as a cloud-based note taking app is: they allow your team to all access the same data regarding your clients, customers, and internal processes, encouraging and simplifying your collaboration. That way, different members of your team can, again, reference the same data as they interact with your customers and clients, improving the relationship overall. The same goes for project management solutions. Using one of these tools, you can ensure that your internal processes are well-established, consistent, and efficient.
Data Visualization
Part of running an effective business is the capability to take the information you collect during your operations and use it to improve these operations in the future. A helpful means of doing so is by using a cloud platform to collect the data that all of your users generate, aggregating it and identifying patterns and trends that appear. Since the amount of data involved is staggeringly massive, a cloud solution is the preferable option for most businesses to do so. In this way, a business can pool the collaborative efforts of their staff into a single endeavor.
Collaboration is only becoming more essential in the modern workplace, so the simpler it is to facilitate, the better. The cloud can help provide that simplicity.
THE UP-AND-COMERS
The vast majority of cloud collaboration tools are available in a free version. These free versions are usually stripped down, but that doesn’t mean they are not useful. Many of the free versions offer enough benefits for them to be helpful for many businesses. First up: Co-op.
Co-op is the definition of no-frills. It offers a user interface similar to Twitter that allows individuals to post updates, ask questions of co-workers, share links and track time. This tool is particularly useful for helping co-workers track the daily schedules of one another to avoid confusion and miscommunication. Co-op even records activity to track project progress daily.
Next is Obayoo. This cloud collaboration tool combines multiple features into one comprehensive package that your company can operate on a private network. One of the greatest benefits is the guaranteed SSL security that comes with Obayoo. Primary features of Obayoo include activity streams, message archiving, unlimited groups, client connection, file sharing, and the ability to upload images and share websites.
Last but not least in the free and easy-to-use category is Present.ly. The free SaaS (Software as a Service) is hosted on secure servers and provides the ability to post short updates, follow the feed of a co-worker and conduct private conversations not visible to others in the group. Present.ly users can also share documents and media files, and access the platform from a desktop as well as iOS, Android, Blackberry, and Windows mobile devices.
MAJOR PLAYERS IN CLOUD COLLABORATION
As with everything in the mobile world, cloud computing has major players that offer cloud collaboration tools. The likes of Google, Microsoft, and others have platforms that offer businesses some of the best tools for collaboration. The best examples at the moment include Google Apps, Dropbox, and Yammer.
Google Apps is undoubtedly the first collaboration platform that businesses think of – whether they know it is in the cloud or not. As a service, Google Apps has been around for the longest period (since 2006) and is used by a large number of businesses, five million and counting.
Google Apps allows businesses to sync information from Gmail, Calendars, and Drive (its cloud storage service). Users can collaborate through Google Apps in real-time; for example, you can share and edit files (Word docs, PowerPoint presentations, and Excel spreadsheets) with authorized users in Docs. Google Apps is available as a free platform, as well as a paid version.
Dropbox gained initial popularity as a free consumer service but has since evolved and created a specific ‘Dropbox for Business service. This paid version allows employees to sync files from various devices and work from anywhere they have an internet connection – securely. Individual files and shared folders can be password protected to enhance security. These enhanced security features allow IT managers to view information on linked devices, sessions, and applications to ensure data is protected at all times.
Finally, there is a newcomer with the backing of a major player. Microsoft recently spent $1.2 billion to purchase Yammer, a social network for businesses. The platform allows for file sharing, versioning, and the option of compiling notes from various users. Employees can filter content viewed on the network-based upon search terms or even shared content. Microsoft has stated that Yammer has grown to include eight million users, with paid services increasing by more than 200% year on year.
AT THE END OF THE DAY
There is a cloud collaboration tool out there that is right for any business – it’s just a matter of identifying your collaboration requirements and choosing a tool that best facilitates them. Whether your business needs better ways for employees to communicate and collaborate in and out of the office, or you need a full-service application to share files and media, there is a cloud collaboration tool available to get the job done.
Conclusion
Cloud collaboration tools are on the rise and for good reason. They can help boost the productivity of teams and also allow more people to get involved in projects, even remotely.