How to increase productivity with online

collaboration tools

By Mural Consulting for TELUS

Increasing productivity is a major goal for any business – and over the past 10 years, many affordable productivity-enhancing innovations have become available to help you get more value out of every working hour. Email, for example, has dramatically increased the speed of communications between employees and with clients and suppliers.

Powerful improvements to office productivity are also offered by a wide variety of other new tools. However, their value is often hidden behind unapproachable jargon. But if some of the terms relating to these online collaboration and productivity tools and their underlying technology can be demystified, your organization may discover a number of new ways to leverage the business value they offer.

Taking the mystery out of online collaboration

and productivity tools

Quite simply, these tools allow people in geographically diverse places to work together as seamlessly and productively as if they were all in the same place. Multiple users can work on the same project-specific and general corporate files at the same time, share contacts, track project milestones, propose and set meetings and much more, all with just an Internet connection.

It all means these tools deliver:

• Efficiency – by improving organization of data and expanding access to it, and reducing person-to-person requests for information.
• Availability – by making information always available to employees, clients and suppliers, regardless of whether an office is open or a contact is available.
• Remote Accessibility – by allowing users to access all relevant files from anywhere, for example at the office, a client site or on the road.
• Satisfaction – by enabling employees to quickly serve themselves and obtain the desired data or files, rather than having to request information and wait for it to be delivered.

Three of the most commonly discussed collaboration and productivity tools are intranets, extranets, and VPNs. All three are accessed via the Internet but allow only designated people to work together and share data, securely. Frequently, they are used together for maximum benefit.

Learn more about intranets, extranets and VPNs
Choosing the right online collaboration tools for your business

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