BLOGs
Online Collaboration Software
Published July 20th, 2016 by

Why You Should Use Collaboration Software in Place of Emails

Why You Should Use Collaboration Software in Place of EmailsWhen it comes to communication, emails are slowly being replaced with the many messaging applications available in the market. There are social media applications that are being used for casual conversation. Then there is the social collaborative software that is being used for more formal settings or workplace. These new softwares are easier to use and are more real time than emails. If you do not want to totally let go of your email then at least supplement it with other applications and softwares. Here are some reasons why you should shift to collaboration software in place of emails.

Save Time

Huffington Post reported a survey that US workers spend at least six hours a day checking their emails. That is almost most the work day, wasted on reading emails that might or might not be related to work. With all the spams and promotional emails being sent every day, workers spend at least a part of their time checking or deleting these emails. With online collaboration tools, messages can be arranged by priority. You can check the most important and most urgent messages first. And you won’t be receiving spams with this software, saving you time from opening useless messages. When you log into the collaboration platform, you will be able to see all the updates and projects you have. It will allow you to prioritize what needs to be done first. You are also able to respond to messages which need your immediate attention.

Another way that it can save you time, is with the scheduling of meetings and appointments. With the software, you wouldn’t have to locate and schedule the people you have to meet. The software will inform you of their availability and presence. This would save all the time required to locate missing executives or employees just to set up a meeting. When you log onto your software, it can help you make scheduling and monitoring a lot easier.

Increase Productivity

The amount of time spent emails is staggering, as mentioned above. If workers can reduce this time and put more of their effort into other things then productivity will increase. The use of collaboration tools is easier and faster, raising the productivity levels of employees. The software can also be used to motivate and encourage your workers, further improving their work efficiency. As a leader or a manager, it is easier to connect with your employees on what you want them to do. It is also easier to talk and motivate them.

Use of the collaboration software will lessen the use of emails, especially on topics that have already been discussed. With the software you can easily locate topics of discussions about things that you want to know about. Rather than going through thousands of your emails to find the thread of conversation about what you need. It is also easier to connect with an expert using the software as you can see if they are available to answer your questions. The use of the collaboration software has really made connections between workmates easier and more accessible.

Less CCs and BCs

When you use an email and you have to copy furnish it to someone or many other people, it can get confusing. You might reply to the message but don’t want to have the others read it, but it’s not possible because the others can see everything on that email thread. You can accidentally send the wrong email to the wrong person because of all the CCs and BCCs. With the best online collaboration tools, this confusion can be removed. The right recipients will be added to the dashboard and the confusing CCs and BCCs will no longer be needed. This software is an effective tool of communication without the confusion and hassle that emails sometimes bring. With collaboration tools, the documents that are attached to an email can be easily found since they are in their own special tab. You wouldn’t have to search your emails one by one for an attachment that you need. This way can also increase productivity since fewer errors will be committed because using a collaboration software is more straightforward.

More Collaboration

Emails are like regular mails. They are made more for a conversation between two people. They wouldn’t work when a group of people are conversing, the mail would get lost. This is why the use online collaboration software should replace the use of emails. You can’t discuss issues on email, your argument wouldn’t get through nicely. But with collaboration tools, working with others is a real possibility. With this software, team members can easily and effectively join discussions. This also allows tagging of files, like in that popular social media but for a more professional capacity. This software also enables you to limit access of some files and documents to other members. This would be less confusing than the CCs and BCCs mentioned above. There would be more collaboration with the use of this software because it allows freedom and flexibility to its members. They can talk and join discussion threads and chat with each other, all without the hassle of opening up the email inbox. Transparency is also apparent in this setup. There would be more accountability and more trust which will work best for collaboration between team members.

Searchable Information

When working, you probably receive and send a lot of attachments using your email. It is easy to find if you just received it and it is sitting on the top of your email inbox. But what happens when you receive more emails and that attachment gets buried with all your other emails. Looking for it won’t be very easy. But with online collaboration tools, locating files will be really easy. All the needed information and data will be available in one place. No need to go through every email to search for that one elusive attachment. The uploads will be in one area and you can find what you need quickly and with not much effort. Searching for a specific email can be a daunting and time consuming task, so this is another reason why you should switch to team collaboration tools. With this, no information and document will ever get lost again.

Effective Communication

People communicate all the time. It’s just the way of the world, it’s a necessity with whatever you do. You have to talk to get things done. Emails can do this, but the best online collaboration tools can do it better. It has private messaging, so you can message a specific person privately. There is also group messaging for team meetings or discussions. With the collaboration tools, communication is more efficient and effective. The collaboration software works like a social networking site, which makes it easier to maneuver since we all use these social sites. It also offers audio and video conference which will make communication even better. It allows for a real like face to face experience, unlike emails which are so impersonal. You can also see social cues and contexts when you do video conferences. You can decipher what they are feeling and thinking when you can see them, rather than just reading what they wrote. This is especially good if you have customers you have to talk to.

Transparency

When you use team collaboration tools, everyone can see the flow of the conversation threads. There is transparency on what is going on in the software. This increases trust and rapport between the team members. You can see the updates on the company and any projects that are ongoing. You can reply to messages that you see fit. There are messages and information that can be off limits, but mostly everyone can see everything which makes for greater communication and trust between employees and employers. Different softwares offer different functionalities depending on the needs of the business so be sure to read on the softwares to know what you need. You can read online collaboration tools reviews to know what you need. The reviews are in addition to doing research about your chosen software.

Change is inevitable and although email has been a long standing part of business transactions, it is time to make changes. And change can be started by upgrading the communication system in the workplace. There are amazing collaboration tools available out there and you can avail of them very easily. Just do your research, look for comparisons, read some collaboration software reviews and choose the best one.

Don’t be left behind when the world moves on, get on with the changes. Using collaborative software makes for a more efficient communication. And even if there are added expenses, it can be easily gained back because of the increased productivity of the employees. When you look at all the expenses and the benefits that you can gain. The benefits outweigh the risks, so it is a good investment and it will make everything easier for you and your employees or your team.

Want to know which collaborative tool to replace your emails with? Head on to CrowdReviews and check out some of the reviews on collaboration software.

John Tovar

John specializes in the creation and planning of business-centric mobile applications and mobile website design and development.

Our rankings are completely independent, transparent, and community driven; they are based on user reviews and client sentiment. These online collaboration software companies had to earn their way up and didn't just pay their way up.

View Rankings of Best Online Collaboration Software Companies