Over the last few years, virtual collaboration (how people work together to get business done in an online environment) has become an increasingly popular way of working in the digital age. Now, in a post-Covid19 world where more people in the UK work remotely than ever before, it’s vital to ensure effective virtual collaboration across your business or organisation.
Even before the Covid19 pandemic, businesses and organisations worldwide had already begun to understand and utilise the benefits of virtual collaboration. The time workers have previously spent travelling to and from various meeting locations can be put to better use. Over and above, the cost of travelling to such meetings can be reinvested in other areas.
In short, virtual collaboration can boost productivity and increase profits. But as a business or organisation leader, how can you ensure effective digital collaboration? And what can you do to make it easier for your stakeholders to collaborate virtually?
These 5 useful tips will help you understand how you can achieve effective virtual collaboration with Kahootz and more.
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1. Centralise your content
2. Emigrate from email
3. Keep track of time and monitor deadlines
4. Share files and work on documents in real-time
5. Manage data privacy and document security
1. Centralise your content
Centralising your documents, communications, and tasks into one central location while also minimising digital clutter is a big first step towards effective virtual collaboration.
According to one article by Forbes, many workers switch between apps ten times each hour. That means 32 days of the year are spent switching between apps, many of which are designed to streamline productivity but end up doing quite the opposite – making it all too easy to lose track of projects, deadlines, and the latest version of documents.
By using one central platform, your workers, clients, or partners can store and share documents, manage tasks, and communicate and collaborate easily without needing to switch between apps.
Kahootz collaboration software delivers that central platform for content, communication, and collaboration. You and your stakeholders can work across multiple departments, organisations, and time zones using secure and easily managed digital workspaces.
Just because your stakeholders are dispersed doesn’t mean your data has to be.
2. Emigrate from email
Email has been a mainstay of the office environment for the best part of two decades; however, when your stakeholders have to read and send emails 36 times per hour on average, occupying 23% of the average workday, productivity is drastically reduced. Additionally, since many stakeholders will continue to check their email in their evenings, weekends, and during their holidays, that work-life balance craved by so many is all but impossible.
Switching communication to one private portal means stakeholders can interact, share and review documents in real-time and quickly search conversation history for the knowledge they need to procure at any given time. Information can be quickly shared with all relevant parties, and there’s no more confusion over lost attachments when forwarding, CCing and BCCing.
Kahootz can increase your stakeholders’ work speed, productivity, and morale, with customisable dashboards that can become the hub of your organisational activity. Streamlined communication, advanced file sharing, and clear task management are just some of the virtual collaboration benefits that Kahootz offers when switching over from email.
3. Keep track of time and monitor deadlines
When your stakeholders work across different geographies and time zones, managing project deadlines and specific tasks can be challenging. It’s easy to lose track of where individuals are up to, and reminders and follow-ups can be time-consuming and confusing.
Task management is much easier, more effective, and more rewarding when everybody can see who is working on what.
Kahootz’s digital workspaces provide tools that support and enhance task management across any project scale or size. Task lists can give you and your stakeholders an overall view of tasks and deadlines and be assigned to individuals or entire groups. Personal task lists empower stakeholders to manage their workload, and automatic reminders can take over when an impending or overdue deadline needs to be chased up.
4. Share files and work on documents in real-time
Sharing, editing, and giving feedback on documents can be a tiresome and time-consuming process. Working out which version of a document is the most up-to-date can be as challenging as working on the document itself.
Virtual collaboration allows stakeholders to consult and co-author documents in real-time. There’s no need for long email chains with seemingly endless attachments and updates. Any alterations made to a document can be instantly recognised and commented on by anyone with the relevant permissions to view that file, boosting team productivity and collaboration.
Kahootz allows you to view, analyse, and organise document comments at the click of a button. With full audits of any changes made, you can view changes made while you’re away and quickly highlight suggestions for improvements. With full Microsoft Office 365 integration, you and your stakeholders can view, edit, and co-author your Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files, before saving and version-controlling them in Kahootz’s online workspaces.
5. Manage data privacy and document security
Securing your stakeholders’ privacy and keeping the documents they share secure is a crucial aspect of virtual collaboration. Data leaks and harmful file attachments can compromise the safety and security of yourself, your stakeholders, and your organisation, and collaboration across multiple platforms only increases these risks.
Kahootz allows you and your stakeholders to store and manage sensitive documents and information safely. Independently audited, and certified to the highest standard of international security, Kahootz’s secure servers are trusted by the UK’s Ministry of Defence and the Department of Health and Social Care, among many other organisations across various industries.
With Kahootz’s encrypted secure data servers, you can have peace of mind that your data and privacy, and that of your stakeholders, is safe from being compromised.
Conclusion
As we’ve seen, virtual collaboration is here to stay. As businesses and organisations around the world are choosing to update their engagement strategy for stakeholders, Kahootz can provide the central platform needed to do so effectively, efficiently, and securely.
