Three unexpected benefits of using online collaboration tools

Kay Oldham Date published: Aug 26, 22

The need for online collaboration has never been greater. With the shift towards flexible working now embedded permanently across the majority of organisations, the ability to facilitate access to shared projects to employees, partners and stakeholders, no matter where they’re located is a corporate priority and is essential in maintaining productivity.

Aside from the obvious practical benefits of online collaboration – such as more efficient processes and easier access to documents – companies that truly embrace their online collaboration tools can start to enjoy some unexpected benefits as a result. When this happens, they find a sweet-spot whereby productivity is maximised, morale is good and the business can thrive.

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What are the unexpected benefits of online collaboration tools?

1. Significant time savings

It’s not just the time saved by using tools to automate some process that can be gained back, there are many examples of how using online collaboration tools can trim off minutes, hours and even days from the working week.

For example, you’re working on a proposal with seven other members of the team. The deadline is approaching and every hour is critical to get it done in time. But without the proper tools, only one member of the team can work on the document at a time, or you’ll risk missing each other’s changes and something crucial could be left out. So, three hours of work each actually takes almost a whole week to coordinate!

There’s also the frustrating circles of searching for documents you’re sure you filed away somewhere sensible and chasing colleagues to check who’s got the final version – that’s without even starting to add up the time someone has to spend bringing together everyone’s comments and feedback into one document.

By using a tool which keeps everything securely in one place, that can be accessed by all members of the team and has the capacity for multiple authors to work on it at the same time, businesses an cut the time taken to work on complex documents by as much as a third – that’s the equivalent of saving four months out of the year!

2. Employee Engagement

In every workspace there will be some people keen to shout and share their ideas with the group, and others who are more reluctant to speak up. By moving the collaboration process online, everyone has the opportunity to provide full, interrupted feedback on important items.

Not only does it provide a space for everyone to contribute, the nature of online collaboration removes organisational hierarchy to some extent – so that everyone’s comments are considered on their own merit. A further benefit to employees is that they can work on their projects whenever it’s convenient to them, they don’t need to coordinate diaries with colleagues to find a slot where the document will be available.

By introducing simple digital tools that improve everyone’s ability to have their say and feel like it’s valued, companies are likely to see a natural boost in employee morale.

3. Better quality final documents

The ultimate goal of using online collaboration tools is always going to be high-quality final documents and projects. An efficient and user-friendly process, with visibility of everyone’s progress towards their tasks, will significantly reduce the risk of working up-to-the-minute on time sensitive documents – causing panic and potentially missing the opportunity for final read-throughs.

Moreover, through using collaboration tools that allow everyone to work on one live version of the document, there’s less chance of grammar and style errors slipping through into the final version – or for the previous amendments to be over-ridden and affect the quality of the work. You’ll also have a full audit trail of when changes were made and by whom, which you can refer back to or use in reporting.

Summary

While the need for collaboration tools in the workplace is now almost unavoidable, using the right collaboration tools will give access to a much wider host of benefits and create a secure and efficient working environment which allows everyone to be at their most productive.

At Ideagen, we strongly believe that great collaboration is the foundation for great business. Our suite of collaboration tools includes PleaseReview, Huddle and Mail Manager are highly secure, simple to use and efficient tools that streamline your projects by bringing people, content and actions together.

Find out more

Find out how Ideagen PleaseReview makes the proposal process simple and efficient for global organization, AAR Corp.