Collaborative tools are varied and difficult to define. What is important is that you choose a tool that fits your needs and your company culture. How do you choose a collaborative tool? Here are some criteria.
A collaborative tool can meet several types of objectives. They can enable your employees to communicate across the board, to work better together, etc. What collaborative tools have in common is that they break down silos in one way or another.
A collaborative tool: for what purpose(s) and use(s)?
Certains sites définissent les grands objectifs des outils collaboratifs. En voici une sélection :
Increase transparency within your organisation
You can't expect your employees to collaborate cross-functionally if they don't have visibility into that collaboration. Everyone involved needs to have a good understanding of the overall collaborative process, and to see the big picture.
A collaborative tool allows for just that. Whatever the use, it gives employees an overview:
- A collaborative work tool will allow everyone toedit documents together to co-construct.
- Task management software allows each member of a team to know who is doing what.
- A collaborative communication tool could allow each employee to express themselves and to share their projects and successes.
- A collective intelligence platformcollaborative innovation offers each employee the possibility to propose his or her ideas for the benefit of collective performance.
Some collaborative tools even meet several of these objectives at the same time!
But the common point remains transversality, transparency and the possibility of giving a voice directly to employees.
Helping teams to become more agile
Thanks to the transversality provided by a collaborative tool, teams will naturally be more agile.
Indeed, teams that are geographically or by their activities distant from each other will be able to exchange, enrich each other's ideas, etc. in real time.
This agility is valuable in a context where the organisation is in constant transformation.
Enable all employees to participate
Every employee counts. The strength of a team is that it is more than the sum of its parts. Provided that everyone has the opportunity to participate. If an employee cannot participate in the collaboration, this will quickly limit and frustrate them.
The interest of a collaborative tool is therefore to give each employee the opportunity to participate in the collective synergy. Everyone must be able to contribute, give meaning and put their skills at the service of the group.
Criteria for choosing a collaborative tool
Ease of use: the first criterion for a collaborative tool
Your collaborative tool must be intuitive and easy to use. This criterion is important, regardless of your culture, and regardless of the level of digitalisation of your employees. Because their participation is the key to the success of your collaborative tool. However, be careful: ease of use should not mean functional poverty! In fact, your tool must have a wide variety of functionalities, which may or may not be activated in administration.
The variety and diversity of features
If you have found a tool that meets your needs to date, it is still important to think about the future. Will this tool meet your future needs? Is it capable of evolving quickly to meet your potential needs?
The business model
The SaaS model has many advantages for companies. You don't have to install anything. The only thing you need to connect to your collaborative tool is an internet connection. Such a model limits the installation costs to the mere commissioning of your tool.
Support and customer service
When choosing an editor for your collaborative tool, you must take into account the quality of the support offered. For the adoption of your collaborative tool to be successful, it is essential that a support team is able to help you adapt the tool and its use to your corporate culture.
Quality support should include a resource centre, a support area, and on-demand training.
Additional services and support
Beyond the technical support offered, your supplier must be able to accompany you in your global approach. Indeed, if you are looking for a collaborative tool, it is to serve a strategy and objectives. Your supplier must be able to understand this and support you in integrating the tool into this strategy.