Benefits Of Investing In Collaborative Tools
One of the biggest roadblocks to close collaboration is of distance. With the increasing availability and popularity of web-enabled collaborative tools, it is no longer necessary to make extensive plans for bringing busy colleagues at the same location. With new-age web conferencing tools, it is possible to have audio-video interactions with a range of features like desktop sharing, whiteboards, polls, webinars – to name just a few.
For smaller organizations, it is a boon that can enable them to find a global reach and makes their business international. For bigger enterprises, it increases inter-organizational communication and builds knowledge within its structure. It is also a great learning platform and the benefits are manifold. In a recent study clearly indicates the benefits reaped by organizations which are adopting enterprise-wide web-enabled conferencing and other collaboration tools.
- Travel Cost savings.
The greatest tangible benefit is that of savings and travel costs account for a large chunk of the training budget. Arranging for employees to travel as well as arranging for training session is also a tedious and complicated process – especially when employees today have extremely busy schedules and deliverables within tight timelines. With conferring and other web-enabled collaborative tools, employees do not have to travel for training sessions. With recording and saving functions built within, training sessions can also be saved for future utilization or for learners who cannot attend the session live. - Communication cost savings.
Another big component in savings is that of communication costs incurred in phone calls, snail mail and other modes of one-to-one communication which, in the absence of collaboration tools, have to be made time and time again to reach out to a large or geographically spread out audience. With conferencing or collaboration tools, a lot of learners can log in to a single platform and attend sessions together. With facilities like two-way chat and direct calls, collaboration is real time – benefitting the learners by addressing their needs there and then. - Faster access to Knowledge.
The new-age corporate learner does not need to be coaxed into learning – they are well aware of the many benefits of learning. Collaboration and conferencing tools also make a lot of trainings more available for the learners. Brainstorming sessions with peers encourage even the most shy and introvert learners to come out contribute to social learning. The online platform gives them more comfort than a room full of unknown faces would. - Faster access to experts.
Experts within the organization as well as top performers from the industry can be connected with learners with the help of collaboration tools. This provides an opportunity for learners to interact with industry experts and gain from the experience. The learners can share their doubts or queries over the online platform to get answers immediately. They can also join in to listen to a knowledge-sharing talk that helps them to do their work better and boosts their confidence as well. - Overall increase in employee satisfaction.
All the above benefits together provide the most important benefit of improving employee satisfaction. Cost savings from reduced travel and communications costs benefit the organization. Most prudent organizations utilize the budgets into creating better training and learning for their employees. With better access to knowledge and industry experts, learners have develop better faith in the organization – enabling them to achieve excellence in the quality of work.
Conferencing and web-enabled collaboration tools thus increase problem-solving skills, enrich employees and boost confidence as well. Training and recruiting costs are also slashed leading to employment of better staff. The quality of training improves as well, and this leads to better retention of the team. Thus in today’s competitive market, these tools promise to give all organizations a strong competitive advantage.
