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Collaboration technologies have altered the workplace for employees nationwide. Here are the top 16 reasons your business needs to invest in them.

Team having a meeting in a modern workspace, blurredThe American workplace is transforming. As digital technologies make our world smaller by connecting people at the touch of a button, workplace boundaries are coming down, and the concept of what the workplace is and can be is changing. Collaboration tools are giving a competitive advantage to the businesses willing to invest in them and building a happier, more productive workforce.

Distance is one of the most significant roadblocks to collaboration and is responsible for productivity inhibiting communication silos. Fortunately, innovations in collaboration technologies and unified communications mean it’s no longer necessary to spend precious time and money on expensive work-related travel to bring busy workers or customers together in the same place. It is now possible to work—either face-to-face via video or in real-time via messaging or voice—regardless of physical location or time. We can collaborate at the moment in the way we choose across all boundaries and enjoy a range of features like whiteboarding and document sharing on any device—from your phone to your desktop, to the conference room. And that’s only a start to the vast range of benefits offered to businesses that choose collaboration tools.

Travel Costs Savings
One of the most significant benefits of investing in collaboration tools is the savings businesses can realize by eliminating unnecessary travel costs. The days of travelling to every client meeting or paying to bring team members together under the same roof are over.

Lively team meeting at conference table with several devicesSpeedy Access to Knowledge
Your employees want to learn, and you want to learn alongside them. Collaboration tools make it easy to connect with the entire knowledge base of your company quickly and efficiently. No more emails getting lost in over-crowded inboxes or desperately trying to squeeze in another 15-minute meeting on a stuffed calendar. Collaboration tech gives real-time access to every employee, with documented backups to make sure nothing gets lost.

Increased Employee Satisfaction
Employee satisfaction is key to running a successful company and avoiding costly expenses associated with high turnover and training. Employees are seeking more freedom in their work environments as the traditional 9 to 5 becomes a thing of the past. Collaboration technology makes it efficient and easy to give your employees this freedom and the options they seek. The ability to choose where and how they work results in higher engagement, a better sense of work-life balance and happier workers who want to see the company succeed and grow. Leading directly to our next point….

Increased Productivity
Happy workers are productive workers. And productive workers produce positive outcomes for your company—both cultural and financial. Employers who invest in collaboration technology report having employees utilize their abilities to their full potential, work more extended hours, log fewer sick days and ultimately work more deliberately and effectively.

Unlimited Data Archiving, Backup and Recovery
Forget server crashes and IT disasters setting your work efforts back weeks, if not months. Collaboration tools have options to integrate unlimited data archiving, backup and recovery technology through the cloud. Rest easy knowing your company’s data is securely backed up and available to your teams whenever and wherever they need it.

Remote Work Enablement
Collaboration software not only makes working remote easy, in many cases it makes remote work more efficient. Required travel, sick leave and bad weather no longer mean your team loses valuable time together. Collaboration tech makes it possible to have your full team together, in real-time, talking through video conference, chatting on messenger, sharing files, whiteboarding ideas and more from thousands of miles apart, meaning regardless of unforeseen circumstances, your team doesn’t skip a beat.

Team meeting at a table outsideQuickly Onboard New Employees
Onboarding new hires can often seem like a daunting and time-consuming task. Gathering the right files, setting up the appropriate meetings, training on specific platforms or devices and even just getting everyone introduced. Collaboration technology can remove all the headaches associated with growing your team by allowing instant communication to the full employee base, access to essential documents and hires to utilize any device with which he or she is most familiar and comfortable.

Efficient Project Management
Collaboration technology isn’t only about communication and working remotely. It can also create a smooth manner in which to manage your projects.  Sharing schedules, tasks, deadlines and essential documents with both clients and coworkers are all made more manageable. Speed is integral in the modern workplace. Missed emails and trying to get everyone in one place for 5-minutes are administrative roadblocks that slow projects down and extend timelines. With the proper cloud-based collaboration technology, these roadblocks become open highways.

In the not too distant past, access to servers and the files and documents they held required employees to be within a physical office and on a specific network. Collaboration technology allows your teams to have access to essential data regardless of location with centralized document storage. Multiple versions of files on different USB drives or saved on individual desktops complicate and slow down workflows. With centralized document storage, your team can view the latest versions of files from a single location, make edits as necessary and have access to them when and where they need it without unnecessary, and unorganized, duplication.

Breakdown of Organizational Silos
Organizational silos can make it feel like you have impenetrable walls between your departments and employees, making it difficult to share and effectively communicate with your teams. Whether they form from offices being separated by location or departments not cooperating, collaboration tech can make all the difference. Now your sales team on the east coast can be in constant communication with your accounting team out west. Collaboration tech encourages frequent contact by giving your employees choices on how they can connect, share ideas and deliver information.

Efficient Team Decision Making
With real-time interaction between full teams, including leadership, collaboration technology can help decision-making move more rapidly throughout the hierarchy of your company. By eliminating lengthy email chains and repetitive feedback, teams can work together in live environments, reviewing critiques as they happen, to efficiently provide not only approvals but suggestions and problem-solving ideas to get tasks done faster.

Work colleagues chatting and smilingReduced Operational Costs
Collaboration technology has the potential to drastically reduce your organization’s operational costs through multiple avenues. Travel costs and expenses are cut since teams can interact through voice, video, message or whiteboard interfaces. IT expenses drop with employees utilizing their personal devices more, which also increases productivity due to familiarity with their tools. Other costs such as office space rent, printing, building upkeep, hardware purchase and maintenance are also immediately reduced by adopting collaboration tech for your company, meaning you have more money to invest back into your products and employees.

Competitive Agility Leads To Competitive Advantages
Companies that can be flexible, quick and cohesive are at a huge advantage in today’s fast-paced, tech-driven economy. Being able to collaborate in real-time with your employees from any device, in any location and under any circumstance means you can make decisions quickly and confidently, knowing your team has full access to all the variables surrounding your business.

Speedier, More Transparent and Trustworthy Communication
Allowing more flexibility among your employees through the implementation of collaboration technology instills trust in your company culture. It shows you trust your hires to do the job they are supposed to do, regardless of location, which also builds confidence and pride in the work being done. Direct and fast access to leadership and coworkers encourages frequent and honest communication, which in turns reinforces this trust throughout. It’s a positive cycle that cultivates a healthy and productive work environment.

Facilitates BYOD
As we’ve mentioned already, collaboration software can be implemented across virtually any device and operating system. This lets your teams utilize their own devices, which can pay-off by not only reducing IT expenses but by allowing your employees to use products they are comfortable with, resulting in a faster, happier and more productive workforce.

Access Your Calling Platform and Contacts in the Cloud
The final item on our list of reasons to invest in collaboration technology is entirely utilitarian. Forget having to download conference software or remember a specific laptop when you need to access your contacts. With collaboration technology, everything is stored in the cloud. So whether you’re on your phone, desktop or tablet you’ll have direct lines to all your contacts, no matter if you need video conferencing, voice or messaging.

The right cloud-based collaboration technologies could be the difference that sets your company apart. Industry-leading platforms like Webex Teams, formally Cisco Spark, give your employees the ability to meet securely, message, voice or video call, whiteboard, share and access documents from anywhere with a wifi connection. The workplace is rapidly changing. Agility, flexibility and responsiveness are trends that are becoming more important than ever for viable companies to embrace. Collaboration technology was explicitly developed to adapt, improve and progress these behaviors. Are you benefiting from it?

Is it time for your business to invest in collaboration technology? We think it is. Contact Us for a no obligation consulting session with a collaboration technology expert at iConvergence and watch your business thrive.