Guide to Collaboration Software

Posted by Staff Writer on Monday, June 29, 2009 at 12:10pm.

Web-based collaboration software enables an entire global team to work together. A web designer in Iceland can communicate with the management team in Nairobi. An employer in Kenya can make decisions about pricing with a salesperson in South Africa.

Whether you are managing a group scattered across the globe or keeping track of a single outside salesperson, choosing the right collaboration software is critical to successful team management. Collaboration software can provide detailed task lists, file storage, shared documents, calendars, a private chat room, and progress reports from all team members, in one easy-to-use package. Some packages may include fax, videoconferencing, web publishing and voice-mail features.

Collaboration software is specifically designed to help a group working together achieve their common goals. It has improved a great deal since Lotus Notes was first introduced many year ago. Jack Welch, CEO of General Electric in the 1990s, was an early advocate of groupware. Welch famously insisted that individuals and even competitors must collaborate to succeed in the global marketplace.

Although email is essential in today’s business environment, there are some drawbacks. Email excels at quick messages. However, for long-term projects or ongoing collaborations with a lot of back-and-forth, collaboration software is far superior.

For extended discussions, the business owner may have to check dozens of archived messages to find one particular item. Even worse, some of the information may be lost forever if the owner or his assistant empties out the in-box. There is also a question about whether they are working with the most recent update of any spreadsheet or document.

A great collaboration software product solves all those problems, and more. Any employee can make changes to the document, to be viewed by all of the other group members, especially with a wiki system. It allows users to have a transparent discussion viewable by all team members - unlike private email. It also allows team members to share files, monitor workload and progress and set deadlines.

Experts caution against using free collaboration software. The old adage “You get what you pay for” applies here. Free collaboration software can frequently be unreliable or unavailable at crucial moments. The entrepreneur has little recourse because customers who don’t pay for the service have little influence.

Instead, invest in an affordable workgroup support system such as Basecamp, Box, Socialtext, Acrobat Connect, Huddle, DeskAway or Jive. These programs have good records of reliability. Even more important, as a paying customer, the business owner can demand excellent service and a quick fix when something goes wrong.

Before purchasing collaboration software, check the features offered. Each system has strengths and weaknesses. A calendar may be absolutely essential to the success of your system - not all groupware includes one. A wiki-based system usually excels at sharing documents updated by many different users, which is more important for some businesses.

Security is a primary concern for many business owners - and another reason to avoid free online collaboration software. Proprietary groupware usually has excellent security features that prevent access by unauthorized personnel - an important point when your enterprise involves product or marketing innovation.

Before choosing a collaboration software system, analyze how your group usually works together - or how you would like it to work together.

Small and mid-sized companies in areas with fast, reliable internet connections benefit from web-based systems so they spend less time on maintaining the program and more time working. Clients with slow or sporadic internet connections may want software loaded on their own servers, giving them enhanced control, security and reliability.

Using collaboration software enables every business owner to stay organized and effectively lead a diverse group of workers.