Collaboration is hot. We’re seeing new collaboration solutions pop up left and right, all claiming to enhance team collaboration.
A huge mistake that many businesses are making, however, is turning to free “collaboration tools”. While “free tool” always sounds enticing, it also always means less functionality, less features and zero customer support.
If you’re serious about creating an organized system of information, improving communication between your team members and automating business procedures, you should get serious about investing in good online collaboration tools. A recent Frost and Sullivan study revealed that of the thousands of companies surveyed, almost a half were investing in collaboration tools. What’s even more compelling, though, is that the more they invested into their collaboration solution, the higher ROI (return of investment) they saw.
Still not convinced? Here’s a look at specific examples of why collaboration tools are worth every cent of your investment.
1. Document Management
Document management tools should allow you to not only organize your files, but collaboratively revise and edit them online. Free apps might allow you to create documents and share them online- but this isn’t really any better than standard e-mail.
Paid collaboration solutions, however, come with document revision controls, which allow a team member to upload his or her file into a workspace where the other team members can review and edit it. There should also be a document revision history feature, so that any previous version of the document can be reinstated if necessary. Another essential document management feature is the ability to add comments to each file and choose who to notify when each comment is added. Finally, all of these documents are filed into online workspaces that you can set admin permissions to, so your docs are being seen by only the right people.
2.Task Management
Task management tools include online calendars, task lists, SMS/Text reminders and more. You might be thinking “Well, there are calendars and tasklist applications I can access online, for free.” These free tools, while great for a student wanting to organize his or her personal schedule, don’t offer the deeper features that help businesses and professional teams effectively manage their schedules.
The online calendars in collaboration solutions like Central Desktop, however, allow you to add an event, invite the attendees, schedule audio or web conferencing so remote team members can participate as well, set SMS/text reminders and select which workspace(s) can access the meeting information. Another example is that with more complex task lists, you can set a task, assign it to multiple team members, set a priority level and due date for the task, and request an update at any time. These are only two examples of the deep task management features of good collaboration solutions that free applications simply do not have. (Hence the saying, you get what you paid for. )
3. Project Management
Project management tools are the most important and sought after features in collaboration solutions. Free project management apps allow you to create a site for a project, usually set up as a wiki. You can share documents, images, create discussions and set up simple project to-do lists.
For most businesses, however, this simply isn’t enough- especially when dealing with large scale projects. Businesses need project management features like time tracking, workflow systems and complex databases, all of which are features in the top collaboration solutions. Intranets and extranets are other essential features of project management tools. Intranets allow you to connect with your internal team members, and Extranets allow you to share files, plans, discussion threads and invoices with external members (clients, partners, vendors, etc) in an isolated workspace.
4. Security
Here is something that not enough companies consider before choosing free collaboration applications- is it safer to place your important and classified company data onto an open free application server, or is it better to place it into a trusted collaboration platform that has passed enterprise grade security requirements, has back-up data storage centers in isolated locations and has a team of professional IT support managing it? Surprisingly, not many companies realize that by trusting in several different free applications, they are increasing chances of their data being stolen, misplaced or lost completely. If you aren’t paying for security, don’t expect there to be any.
Free applications usually don’t back up their data, don’t provide IT support (unless you consider posting a question into a public forum&waiting weeks for a reply “good IT support”) , and never have the depth and range of features that businesses need for real collaboration. Don’t be fooled – online collaboration, just as any other good tool, comes with a price- a price worth every penny.
About the author:Grace Kang is a copywriter for www.CentralDesktop.com, an online collaboration software and web based project management company.
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