It’s taxing when you spend thirty precious minutes looking for last week’s memo. You’re sure you wrote a number on it, and you’re also sure you’re going to have to cut your lunch break short to make up for lost time.Tom and Hilde are coming tomorrow and if they don’t see progress the regional manager will be calling you to his office up in Birmingham. You’re very sure you don’t want to spend a day in Birmingham.Now where is that memo? ‘Deb, do you remember what I did with that memo?’ ‘I’m sure I wrote Tom’s number on it!’‘Don’t you remember we switched over to an online platform?’ ‘All the documents are on there – and Tom and Hilde cancelled the meeting, it’s no longer needed now that they can see what’s going on in real time.’‘Result!’ ‘Nice one Deb.’Now of course that sounded like a bit of an infomercial, but businesses who switch over to team collaboration software benefit in the long term while immediately experiencing a significant increase in productivity.
Here’s how it works. With team project software, memos are now instant messages. Progress meetings are now annotations on a public virtual white board. Meetings with clients are now a login key designed to let clients see how a project is developing in real time. Because your project lives in the cloud, any document edits can be seen and discussed by the team.Collaboration software also reduces office costs. No more printer room. No more overstuffed file drawers. Without paper there’s probably enough space to create a second conference room. No stock room filled to the brim with reams of paper, and your office intern can now learn more useful skills like building effective customer relations.No paper means fewer trees get cut down, less waste, and a lower electric bill. Using collaboration software also means fewer costly hotel business centre meetings, and a bigger picture overview of the project as a whole, accessible by team and client.When it’s all said in done you might even be able to make up for that 30-minute lunch you missed. But wait.‘Your boss just called and says he wants to see you at his office in Birmingham tomorrow.’
