Experienced project managers know that effective collaboration is at the heart of every successful project.
This is especially true when working on larger projects that involve dozens of team members, many of them probably working remotely.
Coordinating all of these resources, as well as communicating effectively with clients and key external stakeholders, is a big part of PM life.
The good news?
You’ve got some seriously capable collaboration software options to choose from.
The hard part is actually deciding which one works best for you and your team. This is why Monday.com is a great choice.
Before we start: what is collaboration software?
Collaboration software is any kind of software or app designed to help teams communicate and work together more effectively to get work done more efficiently.
How does collaboration software work?
The way in which a given collaboration software platform ultimately depends on the tool itself.
That said, there are a few common features you’ll find (and need) in an online collaboration tool:
1. Instant messaging
Being able to instantly message anyone on your team has become an expectation in modern-day teams. Even email communications are considered dated.
Collaboration tools generally give you group and one-on-one messaging, as well as specific channel or tag-based messaging.
For instance, Monday.com alongside messaging, offers in-context notifications to cut down on emails and intranet reliance:
2. Video conferencing
Whether you’re scheduling a virtual meeting, or need to quickly chat with a team member on the fly, video conferencing is a must-have.
3. Document sharing
Some platforms allow document uploads, and many give you the ability to add links to cloud-based files such as Google Docs.
4. Project planning and tracking tools
Some platforms focus entirely on communication, others focus on planning. You’ll probably want some form of both, with project planning and tracking tools such as different views including:
· Kanban boards
· Gantt charts
· Timelines
· Calendars
· Tables
(monday.com has all of these and also three more).
5. Reporting and dashboards
You’ll want to be able to quickly check in on project progress, and create weekly or monthly reports for senior management teams, so look for a collaboration tool that can make these processes simple.
6. Sharing permissions
Great team collaboration tools allow you to individually adjust sharing and access permissions, enabling you to loop in stakeholders and employees without sacrificing sensitive data.
What are the benefits of collaboration software?
Though collaboration comes in all shapes and sizes, the overall benefits that each platform aims to achieve tend to be fairly similar.
Typically, collaboration software tools offer project managers these benefits:
· Better communication with their team, clients, stakeholders, and managers
· A single source of truth will all documents and relevant notes
· The ability to share information with external stakeholders without putting sensitive data at risk
· Projects that wrap up on time and on budget
· A high-level view of whether or not your team is on track
· Consistency of work production
Get started with collaboration software now
There is no escaping the fact that effective team collaboration is difficult, requiring the focus of the entire team, and a strong project manager who has the ability to pull a team together and get everyone working together nicely.
The biggest and quickest win, though, is implementing a collaboration app to improve team communication, speed up workflows, and provide one source of truth.
Ready to get started with the best team collaboration software out there?
Take a FREE trial of monday.com’s team task management template, and get going.
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