Setting up a company collaborative platform (digital workplace) and boosting its performance by choosing the right tool?

Online collaborative tools allow employees to work in a single workspace that is customized and adapted to their needs. They can centralize all their documents, all their tasks, their calendars and work together on different projects. Everything is up to date in real time and accessible from different spaces (computers, tablets, mobiles…). Thus all the teams work with the same objective, in an efficient and collaborative way. They share all the knowledge, save time, are more autonomous, but also more motivated and aligned with the company’s vision!

There are very many collaborative tools for working in a company, but they do not all have the same objectives, so they must complement each other, but not accumulate, and each tool must be used for specific purposes so as not to create confusion!

What is a collaborative tool?

Online collaborative software allows employees to work in a single workspace. Thanks to these tools they can centralize all their documents, the tasks they have to accomplish, share their calendars, but also work together, exchange, share work, help each other… They become more mobile as soon as their tools become accessible on all their devices (smartphone, tablets, laptop or desktop computer). As a result, working methods are changing considerably and organizations are becoming more reactive, and work is becoming more cooperative by relying on these new tools.

Quels sont les différents types d’outils collaboratifs ? Comment optimiser votre intelligence collective ?

There are several types of collaborative work tools:

🔹 Collaborative storage and file sharing tools :

These allow you to consult, share and manage all your company files online. This is one of the most widely used means of file sharing, known as EDM (electronic document management). It has many advantages and online storage makes documents more easily accessible by everyone, the curation of these contents makes them easier to search, they replace many paper documents… They are, moreover, very often very secure! We know among others tools such as Google Drive, Dropbox, SharePoint…

🔹 Collaborative writing tools :

These tools allow you to work together on the same document, which allows you to be faster, to not redo what has already been done, to be more agile in adjusting errors, to take notes together… Many platforms offer this function on, we know notably Google document or zoho writter.

🔹 Collective brainstorming tools :

They allow you to mobilize your ideas together for a project, a text, a collaborative work, to bring out the representations of a group, to work together around a specific task. Collaborative tables and mind maps are part of them!

🔹 Collaborative project management tools :

Project management tools are used to manage together all the steps in the conduct and monitoring of a project as well as to distribute the different tasks, to avoid wasting time redoing what has been done and to distribute the tasks more intelligently.

🔹 Instant messaging tools

It is no longer possible to ignore instant messaging tools in today’s business world! Well known by the general public, this tool is becoming more and more an indispensable tool in companies, to better communicate internally. The cause? A real saturation in front of emails! They allow us to respond better and faster, but also to survey our employees, to discuss within groups…

🔹 Corporate intranets and social networks

A corporate social network (CSN) is a collaborative tool allowing different members of the same company to centralize all the company’s information on the same platform and to communicate better.

In particular, employees can work more efficiently in groups and carry out joint projects more easily in order to save time. Workplace from Facebook, Yammer or Jamespot is well known.

🔹 Knowledge sharing platforms

Being able to put the different skills in one place is very important for companies. They will therefore be grouped together in a safe place and become easily accessible at any time for everyone!

How to choose your collaborative tools?

We give you our great tips for choosing a collaborative platform! If you have any doubts about which collaborative space to adopt, think about building a list of what you want, what you need and what you don’t want!

We help you by citing some of the possible requests to better collaborate:

• Ergonomics for an intuitive interface and ease of use.
• The possible integrations to centralize as much as possible all your tools to connect them together such as Google Drive, Dropbox and even your CRM tool, your calendars …
• The exchange and storage of your files, but also making it easier to find them.
• The different types of profiles, whether or not access is controlled by an administrator and secure, how content is moderated.
• How does the figuration of information work and how can it be searched for.
• Customization, so that everyone has a workspace that suits them.
• The possibility of feedback from the field, the ease to react and create interaction, but also surveys.
• Chatting, discussion and the possibilities that arise from it (audio message, video).
• The possibility of a mobile application version, especially for remote teams.
• Videoconferencing or videoconferencing and the possibility of organizing meetings.
• Make it easier to manage and share tasks for better project management.

In short!

In short, make a list of your uses, your needs and the functionalities you will need! Then look for the tool that will best suit you, or which tools, if you don’t cover all your uses with a single tool (which is most often the case!). Very often suites will include several tools in order to become very complete (we think among others of Microsoft with Teams for messaging, SharePoint for the intranet, Yammer, Onedrive and all the Microsoft tools included (Word, OneNote, Excel…) and the possibility of integration.

It is always important to encourage collaboration, because it is indispensable for the proper functioning and development of a company’s business! So look for the best tools, and the best collaborative tools, new platforms to facilitate communication, project management, online meetings, conversations within your team. And finally, to create a real collaborative workspace with your collaborative tools!