Collaboration tools: working together better – everywhere

The whole team working remotely? Not so long ago, that was hard for management teams to imagine. Then COVID-19 spread around the globe and suddenly many employees found themselves working from home. A colossal task for IT. It is high time to take a look at what collaboration software is genuinely attractive and, above all, secure.  

Decentralised and networked digital collaboration requires a good IT infrastructure. Cloud software such as Workplace Go from Konica Minolta helps remote teams to interact, work together on projects and connect socially quickly and easily. Konica Minolta’s holistic approach to digitalisation brings many benefits for the user and for IT management.

Benefits of collaboration tools

• Direct communication without silos and separation increases productivity
• Clear and transparent project management
• Less stress and a faster flow of information
• Increased employee satisfaction
• Independent work within the team is encouraged
• Lively interaction between departments promotes ideas and innovation

Good collaboration requires good communication

Calling someone and only reaching their voicemail uses up time and energy. Collaboration software like Slack, Teams or Yammer opens up far better opportunities for internal exchange. Employees can use these collaborative tools to connect, collect information on a company wiki, exchange messages and collaborate on documents. That is the creation of a digital workplace.

Workplace Go, the Software as a Service (SaaS) from Konica Minolta, is based on Microsoft 365. It combines a wide variety of Microsoft and proprietary tools in one intuitive user interface. Individual apps are immediately available on the individually customised dashboard. Communication is browser-based and can thus be initiated on PC, tablet or smartphone. Alongside collaboration features and a personal organisation page, Workplace Go also offers a comprehensive intranet feature. Monthly user support to iron out any early problems and answer other technical questions is included in the service.

Flexible collaboration in a digital team

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, in many companies employees have been able to decide for themselves when they want to work from home and when they come to the office. Meetings take place online, meaning anyone can be involved, no matter where they are located. Customers and partners can also be invited to join video calls and take part in the digital project space. Even negotiations, job interviews and pitches now take place online. That saves the effort of making a journey, as well as travel costs, and is now an everyday part of communication.

Transparent project management with collaboration tools

Tools such as Redbooth, LibrePlan and Trello support project management within a team. With Trello, you organise tasks in a similar way to a pinboard. On the Trello board, all tasks and the associated responsible parties are clearly arranged. People can assign, comment on and schedule tasks for each other. Thanks to the flexible tiles, it is easy to rearrange and keep track of tasks.

Redbooth lists current to-dos and makes project-related time recording possible. This is another tool that allows the progress of a project to be easily recorded.

LibrePlan primarily supports resource planning. The depiction of workload and capacity allows you to better distribute tasks and more easily coordinate projects. In addition, budget and costs can be calculated in LibrePlan.

Security takes priority: with collaboration software, too

Every tool used in a company puts network security to the test. The more different tools team members want to use, the more areas in the network hackers find to attack. With Workplace Go, Konica Minolta pursues a security concept above all. The thinking behind this approach is that digital collaboration strategies should make the network stronger. In this context, Workplace Go makes use of Microsoft’s comprehensive security standards.

Three tips for choosing a collaboration tool:

1. Free applications must make clear to what extent providers have access to sensitive customer data.
2. In cloud-based applications, data senders are usually not anonymised. If data is intercepted, this can lead to problems.
3. Before you select a collaboration tool, you should identify its potential. This ensures the costs are proportional to the actual effect it will have.

Investment in the future: collaboration tools

The employees of today and tomorrow expect and want a high degree of flexibility in their work. It improves their work–life balance and thus increases their willingness to do a good job. The major advantage of the Workplace Go collaboration solution over many other applications is that it is scalable, affordable and easy to use for small and medium-sized enterprises.

You don’t need your own IT department or SharePoint expert for Workplace Go. Because it is designed to be a solution, not a new problem. This solution awareness is a recurrent distinguishing feature of Konica Minolta. Konica Minolta offers companies the opportunity to test Workplace Go for up to six months free of charge.

Further information can be found here with the workplace go trail version:

Collaboration is developing digitally. This brings transparency and clarity to many processes, making knowledge management visible and usable for all. Because it is no longer hidden in emails. The project status and all project steps are available to the entire team every day.

Workplace Go also includes an intranet that can be used for modern employee communication. Any team member who chooses to can meet in the virtual tearoom for a chat about their next holiday. Collaborating is fun, so collaboration tools should be, too.