Collaboration tools are a great way to work together with your team on projects. They allow you to get ideas out in the open and make sure that everyone has access to everything they need, all at once. Here are two reasons why collaboration tools are an invaluable part of business today:
- They allow for more efficient communication between employees. When everyone is working together on the same project, it makes sense for everyone involved to be able to communicate easily with each other. Collaboration tools allow you to do just that!
- They help employees share information more quickly and effectively than ever before! Instead of having to spend time searching through emails or documents, employees can now access all of the information they need right at their fingertips!
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List At Least Two Reasons For Using Collaboration Tools
Project collaboration tools can help project managers and teams manage change, communicate, and save time while remaining effective. Let’s look at the benefits of using a project collaboration tool in more detail.
Communication and Collaboration
Communication and collaboration are two sides of the same coin. Timely communication is key when it comes to effective project management. To enhance communication among the project team, use a visual project management tool that allows all members of the team to easily see the work before, during and after it appears in a workflow.
The ability to see the work in all its stages is good for individual productivity because it helps team members anticipate, prioritize and coordinate their work:
- Anticipating what is coming up next allows people to feel more comfortable with what’s expected of them
- Prioritizing work based on a holistic view of all the work needing to be done helps people focus on the right tasks at the right times
- Coordinating your work with the work of others prevents team members from working in relative isolation
Seeing the work as it happens is great for project managers because it helps to streamline communication. Good communication helps project managers:
- Manage stakeholder inquiries and expectations
- Keep the team marching to the beat of the same drum
- Coordinate dependencies and contingencies
Once a rhythm has been established in communication, the team can become truly collaborative. Collaboration software helps teams reveal their true priorities and work together on tackling the most important things first. As a project manager, you can’t ask for a bigger win.
Meeting Project Timelines
Project managers cringe when they imagine missing critical milestones due to communication issues. As a project manager, you can mitigate this risk with the right project collaboration tool.
What is the next milestone? Are there impediments that are getting in the way of reaching that milestone? With visual project management, everyone can see a clear picture of the priorities and status of work. Plus, updates can be viewed in real time, so the project manager can easily adapt the project plan as new information becomes available.
Staying on Budget
Being over budget is something that project managers try to avoid. However; if a project must go over budget, it is the project manager’s job to anticipate the overage as soon as possible and inform the stakeholder(s) that an overage is imminent.
Confusion, a common root-cause of delay in projects, causes team members to focus on the wrong work items. This leads to wasted work, which translates into more cost.
Using project management software, project managers can identify the potential for overages when critical milestones are in danger of being missed.
Similarly, project managers who can identify risks early on can re-allocate resources to where they are needed most, mitigating the risk of delay and keeping a project on track. The ability to visually track the history and/or progress of projects helps project managers allocate resources better, a feat that helps estimate future work and avoid over-or-under-estimating a project.
Reducing Work-Related Stress
As a project manager, what keeps you up at night? Not knowing if the critical path will be met in time? Uncertainty over whether a team member will follow through? Fear of missing something that was right under your nose?
You have all the information you need in your project documentation, but tracking that information is another thing entirely. Project managers must take the time every day to check up on status, ensure communication is taking place where needed, and manage the expectations of stakeholders. These three things consume so much of a project manager’s time that most project managers have turned to project management software as a solution.
Managing projects will never be easy, but project managers can take some of the complexity out of project management by choosing a visual, versus list-based, project collaboration tool that will facilitate communication, empower accountability, and reduce the burden on the project manager.
collaborative tools examples
1. Flowdock
Flowdock is a group and private chat platform. Its most interesting feature is its team inbox which aggregates notifications from other channels, like Twitter, Asana and customer support tools.
2. GoToMeeting
GoToMeeting is an online video conferencing software that allows users to schedule meetings and share screens. It’s one of the most popular video tools with millions of users.
3. Slack
Slack is a popular and well-crafted platform offering instant messaging, file transfers and powerful message search. It has many features and dozens of integrations with other tools like Trello and Intercom.
4. WebEx
Cisco’s WebEx provides personalized video meeting rooms where users can to host and join meetings. People can use WebEx for team collaboration, webinars, training and customer support.
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Manage projects and tasks
Project management tools are critical. Who can coordinate effectively when they can’t monitor task progress or keep track of objectives?
5. Asana
One of the most well-known project management tools, Asana allows users to assign tasks to other members, add followers to projects and monitor deadlines. It’s very useful as a to-do list or calendar for strategic planning.
6. Dapulse
Dapulse is a collaboration tool that helps you communicate, set objectives and assign tasks. Its big advantage: it has a great visual design so it’s easy to understand and work with.
7. ProofHub
ProofHub is a work management tool that offers a comprehensive suite of collaboration and project management functions. On this platform, you can organize files, plan and monitor projects and discuss with colleagues and stakeholders. ProofHub also lets you review and approve files through an online proofing tool.
8. Redbooth
Redbooth is an easy-to-use project management tool. Its platform allows users to plan and collaborate through many functions from video conferencing to creating Gantt charts.
9. Trello
Trello has an intriguing interface that resembles solitaire (you can even drag task cards across columns, just like you would playing cards). It’s easy to learn and works well for monitoring projects and assigning tasks. Trello also makes using Agile, Scrum and other project management frameworks easy.
10. Wimi
Wimi offers users their own ‘unified workspaces’ where teams can manage projects and share files and calendars. You can control access in each workspace with a rights-based system. Wimi Drive, their file syncing software, helps you make the most out of cloud technology.
Conclusion
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