The modern workplace is changing rapidly with advances in technology and the growth of remote and flexible working practices. However, teamwork is still one of the most important aspects of the modern workplace. You can now find a range of online tools designed to improve team work and collaboration in the changing work environment.

Increased high-speed Internet availability means that members of a team don't have to be located in the same place or work at the same time. Teams can now function effectively, and communicate and collaborate locally, national or internationally. To make this possible, organisations need to adopt modern work practices and technologies to help remote co-workers, wherever they are, share their work and collaborate in simple and efficient ways. This is where an effective online collaboration tool comes in.

Online collaboration tools can provide the following benefits:

• Easily keep track of changes
  Online collaboration tools have a variety of features to keep track of work. From tracking who made the latest changes to a document, to how the document looked before the changes, to tagging a colleague to review the document. Google led this space for some time with Google Docs, which allows multiple team members to work on a document, presentation or spreadsheet collaboratively. Microsoft 365 now lets you edit and collaborate online in a similar way.

• Less dependence on email
  Online collaboration tools also remove the need to use e-mail as the primary means of communicating with team members. And let's face it, we all could do with less emails clogging up our inbox.
  

• Increased flexibility
  Employees can work and connect to other team members from a location of their choice (so long as they have Internet access). This is also a great draw-card for attracting and retaining employees.

• Improved workflow
  With a good online collaboration tool, there is no longer a need for arranging a meeting or phone call in order to review documents. Documents can be uploaded into the tool, and reviewers can be automatically notified via email that documents have been uploaded. Reviewers can then annotate the document and make any necessary changes and notify all team members that the document has been reviewed. This makes it much easier to keep a steady and organized work flow on a project, with team members promptly contributing when necessary. 

More than documents

Online collaboration is not limited to working on documents:

• Make video and conference calls with services like Microsoft Teams (which has replaced Skype for Business), Google Hangouts, and Zoom. Team members can stay in touch and join team meetings, find out more in this article about video calling.  
• Chat apps like HipChat and Slack allow text based messages and feedback to be shared across a team.  
• Project management software like Trello and Basecamp allow you to keep track of tasks and projects, assign jobs, and monitor workflows. Find out more in this article about cloud-based project management software.

Want to know more?

If you have any questions or need advice, you can get in touch with the Digital Journey team at hello@digitaljourney.org.

Digital Journey works with individuals, businesses and organisations of all types across New Zealand. We provide FREE online digital assessments and resources, as well as training, coaching and project management services.

Our vision is to help everyone get the most out of the Internet, online tools and digital technology. Find out more at www.digitaljourney.org.