Do I need social collaboration software?

A HyperOffice presentation

YES YOU DO. BECAUSE..

No doubt about it!

This question is the same as companies asking "do I need a website?" 10 years ago. The benefits of social collaboration in terms of improved productivity, knowledge management, team engagement and competitiveness are now universally established. Here's why you should think about collaboration software:

 

Enter the post email world

Increase productivity

Build remote teams

Avoid information scatter

Impress clients and partners

Free organizational knowledge

Enter the post email world

Email is a 50 year old technology that has barely evolved. The reasons to dislike email are many - take it beyond two people and you're drowned in a torrent of replies; it is beset by spammers, scammers, salesmen and solicitations;  it is a black hole which devours  important communications and documents. It ultimately spells just one thing for workers - wasted time.

 

Finally, social collaboration offers a viable alternative designed for simplicity and efficiency. It has been designed for groups of people to work together, and each type of information - documents, projects, schedules, discussions - is optimally handled.

Workers Spend One-Fourth Of Workday Reading, Responding To Email

Improved communication and collaboration through social technologies could raise the productivity of interaction workers by 20-25%

"Collaboration Will Drive the Next Wave of Productivity Gains"

Tammy Erickson

Improve productivity

McKinsey found that only 39% of a worker's week is spent on role specific tasks, while remaining 61% is spent on email, finding information, and communicating and collaborating internally. Social collaboration promises to reduce dependence on email, and profoundly impact 61% of what workers do. A few benefits:

 

Speed. Everyone makes quick decisions when they have    easy access to the right business information and colleagues who can help them decide.

 

Coordination. Tools like project management and calendars ensure that everyone knows exactly what is expected of them, and there no mix-ups in terms of responsibilities and schedules.

 

Collaboration. Document version control, co-editing, conversation threads and other collaboration tools ensure that groups work efficiently and the company functions like a well oiled machine.

 

Build Remote Teams

Today, companies are looking to build leaner and more nimble structures. This means smaller offices, more field based and traveling teams, and outsourcing of all non-essential functions.

 

Social collaboration offers a complete "virtual office" environment where globally distributed teams may be managed and motivated even though they never meet in person. Best of all, it is well within the reach of any SMB in terms of cost, allowing them to leverage technology to have a far reaching impact on business strategy.

Avoid information scatter

Email is the worst possible way to manage organizational information. Information gets locked in thousands of inboxes across the organization and offers no value to anyone beyond the people who created and shared it. Even there, it is quickly buried and rarely accessed after the initial act of sharing. Even early collaboration software suffer from some of the same problems. In their hurry to get away from email, companies tended to implement scores of "point" applications for specific collaboration needs, resulting in new information silos.

 

Social collaboration brings a "unified" approach where all essential collaboration tools are integrated in a single solution and seamlessly share information. Every piece of information created in the company - a document, a message, a contact, a project - is centrally available to everyone else in the company to use and benefit from.

Impress Customers and Partners

Today, companies need to work closely with customers and partners long after the deal has been clinched.

 

Social collaboration allows you to create dedicated workspaces for clients & partners where you can share information, coordinate effort or build customer communities. Not only do you bring clients and partners into your collaboration workflow, you can customize and brand these workspaces to impress and build stronger relationships.

 

"We found that successful companies.....also create a “networked company,” linking themselves with customers and suppliers through the use of Web 2.0 tools."

Free Organizational Knowledge

As mentioned above, managing information through email means that no one beyond a limited circle has access to it, and even there it quickly gets buried. This is incredibly wasteful as every bit of information created can potentially contribute value to someone else in the organization months or even years down the line - a presentation, an inside contact, an RFI.

 

Social collaboration ensures that every bit of information created is on the organizational "grid" and easily accessible to anyone else who might be interested. Information once created contributes value for all times to come, and helps the organization learn and grow. Social collaboration goes further, and offers a simple, informal environment where employees can connect and communicate. This allows organizations to unlock knowledge which is of the most value - the knowledge in the minds of employees.

Convinced?

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© 2013