If your organisation already has a method that is working well, it makes sense to find a collaboration tool that will accommodate that method. Why invent the wheel if you have happy, motivated teams that are performing well?

Rather, what you need is a means to enhance their already solid work, further simplify their daily experience so that they can work even better, and streamline business operations as you seek to improve efficiency even more.

So how can you do this without rocking the boat? As we know, people are creatures of habit, and even the most committed member of your team may be resistant to a change to the routine they are familiar with.

But collaboration is more than just communication. And Glasscubes online collaboration software provides a 360° range of collaboration tools that will go far beyond improving – and, yes, changing – how your teams communicate.

The problem remains, though, that people are busy. There isn’t a lot of available time for your teams to invest in familiarising themselves sufficiently with a brand-new tool so that it becomes habitual and second nature to them. And, frankly, even if they do have the time, they may not have the inclination to adopt a new way of working that at first glance appears too much like hard work.

This is why it is so important that your new collaboration system be truly intuitive to use. If a tool is too complex, too involved, and too hard to learn, your team simply won’t use it – this is true irrespective of all the functionality that said tool may or may not offer.

Take, for example, Microsoft’s SharePoint. An amazing tool in terms of functionality – it’s got all the bells and whistles that you would expect from a Microsoft product – but the sheer complexity of it inhibits adoption, necessitates third party installations, and requires user training. So, in the end, it becomes a costly investment in a tool that goes unused. Glasscubes online collaboration software, meanwhile, prides itself on its intuitiveness – it doesn’t require any training whatsoever, and all you need to get started is a browser and an internet connection.

If your new tool feels familiar and natural, if it’s easy to learn, and if it fits easily into your team’s existing methodology, you’ll be offering your teams a frictionless, attractive alternative to how they work.

So what does such a frictionless way of working look like? Would you recognise one if you saw it? The first thing to consider is the user interface. How user-friendly is it? How simple is the navigation? Do the menus make sense? How customisable is it? Teams, businesses and people all work in different ways – and if they can customise the tool to fit their own style, they will be more able to take full advantage of all the tool’s features. If it is unduly complicated or inflexible, however, they’re more likely to return to their older, more inefficient ways of working.

While the interface is important – it’s the aspect of the collaboration tool that the workers see – the work behind the scenes is at least as important, and should be next on your list of elements to consider. If you’re looking to engage with and use a new collaboration tool, you’ll naturally need to look at how the tool actually handlescollaboration.

For example, is there a limit to the number of collaborators that can use the tool at the same time? Whether your team has just a couple of members, or is a huge organisation, you need to know if the software provides for everyone. Today’s collaboration methodologies aren’t restricted to just one company’s employees any longer. Projects now often include employees, contractors and freelancers, vendors and clients. These different types of contributors require different levels of access and security – you certainly don’t want your clients and vendors to be able to see everything your employees can, but they need to be able to securely access whatever part of the workspace they need for their particular role in the project. Additionally, they need to be able to access the tool from wherever they happen to be working. Whatever collaboration tool you choose, it needs to be able to work for all of your users at every location – and management need to be able to create and assign permissions to control who has access to what files and folders.

In our next piece on recognising the tools you need, we’ll discuss version control, project management and security.

For more information on Glasscubes collaboration software, contact our friendly team today!

Glasscubes is a user-friendly collaboration software for teams. Connect everyone that you work with in an online workspace that improves the way you share files, manage projects and communicate with each other.

For more information, contact us by calling +44 (0)20 3274 2310 or email us at enquiries@glasscubes.com

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