With just 12 days to go until Christmas (well almost), here are 12 days’ worth of tips to motivate your team to collaborate online.

1. Work Anywhere

People are increasingly fed-up with a long daily commute on dirty, crowded and slow public transport, sitting for hours in queues of traffic or wasting time hanging around at airports waiting for yet another delayed plane. Wouldn’t you rather work where you like e.g. at home, in the garden or on the beach (not this time of year obviously)?

Note for managers – people are much more productive when they aren’t tired.

2. Keep better track

Online collaboration makes it easy to keep track of projects without having to go into the office and check the plan on the wall. Which is probably out of date.

3. Docs are easy to find

Are your documents distributed all over the place e.g. Mike and Nick’s PCs, Jez’s phone, the paper on Liz’s desk, Deb’s filing cabinets etc.? Wouldn’t you rather have them all in one place, accessible just when you want them?

4. No more printing

Whether you like to think ‘green’ or just don’t like paying for print consumables like extortionate toner cartridges, less printing has to be a good thing. If you’ve ever had a mad rush to print your 50 page document for your Boss or Project Manager, you will appreciate needing to just ‘ping’ that you’ve updated the document. You can then keep printing for special occasions (or not).

5. Less meetings

We all hate meetings, but up to now they have been the only way to exchange opinions and make decisions. Now you can review documents without having to meet up in the same room, saving time (see 1). You will still need some meetings, but these will be more meaningful and only when really, really needed.

6. Writing together is easy

They say that a problem shared is a problem halved. This also applies to documents. But if you work with someone else, it’s also easy to forget who has made what changes when, and get into an angry or frustrating muddle. If your collaboration tools manage this via a check-in, check-out process, you won’t have this problem.

7. The latest version is the latest version

One of the problems with multiple copies of a document is that you never know which the latest is. This is especially true if you and others print copies. Some people will write on the print-out, and then preserve it in paper format. You may never see their changes until it is too late. With one automatically version controlled electronic copy, with electronic notes, this no longer happens.

8. Bigger talent pool

Talented people are often in short supply, so being able to access a bigger talent pool can hugely improve what you do e.g. your partners, customers or suppliers. They can now be anywhere, as they no longer have to be sitting in your office.

9. Use Expert input whenever you need it

For organisations needing to draw on expert help at key points in their work or project, it can be expensive to ‘fly’ in an expert for just a small part. Being able to access an expensive expert just when you need them is more cost effective.

10. No more email attachments

Most email systems impose a limit on the size of attachment you are allowed, which varies according to the email system. Documents can get pretty large once you include fancy formatting, tables and informative pictures. We’ve all had the frustration of being told that your document has exceeded the attachment limits. Or finding that it was created in a software system you don’t have e.g. on a Mac, and can’t open it. Or you’ve been sent an attachment and are not sure if it’s spam or not. Online collaboration eliminates all these frustrations by giving you safe access to a document without having to download it to your system.

11. No more jacking PCs

Have you had the experience where, just at the crucial time, Joe Bloggs has gone AWOL and he’s the only person who has the latest updated plan or document? With all documents managed centrally, you won’t have to guess his password and jack his pc to get them.

12. Archiving is a easy

At the end of a project, we all heave a sigh of relief before we move onto the next project. That is before we remember that we need to pull all the project documentation together somewhere. With an online collaboration, this is all done for you. Voila! The documents etc. are already there ready to be archived

If more than two of these appeal to you, then you should be looking to collaborate online.

Glasscubes is a UK based collaboration tool solutions provider that supports a full range of cloud based options. Find out more about how they can help you manage your day-to-day working environment safely and effectively by contacting us on +44 (0)20 3274 2310 or at enquiries@glasscubes.com.