Improve your productivity with a collaborative portal
What is a collaborative portal? What are its benefits, and what can it do for your business? Optimised project management, easier communication internally and with customers, centralisation of data on the web... these are just some of the positive effects you can expect to see once you've set up a collaborative platform.
We'll answer your questions and guide you in your choice of cloud solution, showing you how using a corporate social network (CSN) can boost your company's business.
What is a collaborative portal?
Definition
A collaborative portal is an online portal that provides a secure, personalised workspace for exchanging information within an organisation. It centralises information, and even tools, shared by employees.
You may also have come across the term CSR: corporate social network.
What is the purpose of a collaborative portal?
In short, a collaborative portal facilitates communication within and between teams, increasing their efficiency.
It also makes it possible to segment the sharing of information: you ensure that a message is transmitted to the right people, in a more targeted way and more quickly. You maximise the chances that the information will be received and taken into account by the desired recipient.
It is also a space for sharing content: documents, photos, videos, links, messages, etc. All types of content can be shared and accessed according to defined access rights.
Such an online platform also provides visibility of the company's stakeholders: what are their roles? What are their tasks?
Finally, a mobile application allows access on smartphones and tablets wherever you are, thanks to the cloud. This is the case, for example, with the TalkSpirit solution (see screenshot below). Access to your data and files is guaranteed when you're on the move.
Why set up a collaborative portal?
The benefits of a collaborative portal
The list of advantages of an online collaborative solution is long, but we can mention the main ones. A collaborative portal :
- facilitates communication
- makes it easier to share information within the company,
- makes it easier to exchange information externally (with customers, partners, subcontractors, etc.),
- centralises information,
- segments information by audience: by department, project group, for management only, etc,
- manages access rights to guarantee the confidentiality of certain information,
- unites employees around a single tool for collaboration and communication,
- prevents data loss,
- keeps track of data,
- simplifies information searches,
- helps with electronic document management (EDM),
- streamlines processes.
All in all, it means a significant gain in productivity for your employees.
Infographic: the benefits of a collaborative portal in figures
Source : U Pro
The features of an enterprise collaboration portal
What features should you expect from a collaborative portal? Not all companies have the same needs or the same prerequisites, depending on their size, their processes, the tools they already have in place, and so on.
We have grouped the main functionalities of a collaborative platform into five categories.
Collaboration
- internal communication system, such as instant messaging or private conversations,
- shared diaries,
- news feeds,
- extranet,
- publications and comments,
- opinion gathering (quizzes, surveys, voting).
Lively Software is a very good example of a CSR in this sense: the tool features a collaborative platform that is a real asset for circulating information within the company.
Administration
- Dashboard,
- access rights management
- traceability of exchanges,
- management indicators.
Sharing
- file sharing and availability (EDM),
- all types of files (articles, photos, videos, documents),
- screen sharing,
- folder sharing.
Are you a responsible player ? Interstis makes it easier to share information by providing an intelligent alternative to traditional e-mail. Employees can work as a team thanks to easier exchanges, all on a high-quality collaborative platform. Need a video conference to discuss a document? Start a meeting from your collaborative diary and share your screen live!
Electronic document management (EDM)
- Document editing in real time by several people,
- document library,
- document templates available to employees,
- full-text search,
- document viewer.
Jalios Workplace is a very good example of a high-performance Electronic Document Management tool. Your teams can easily access all the documents, the different versions and even leave comments, which makes teleworking much easier. This platform can even be described as a true Digital Workplace, where communication and collaboration are totally facilitated.
Integration
Centralise all your tools on a single portal: your calendar, your mailbox, your to-do list, etc. Take Jamespot Digital Workplace, for example: more than 100 applications, such as Sindup, Trustelem or Zapier, are available in one to best suit your business.
How do you choose your collaborative portal?
Tip 1: your needs
First and foremost, you need to take stock of your expectations and define your needs.
- How many users will be using the tool?
- Which features are compulsory, which are a bonus?
- How are access rights managed?
Tip 2: Audit your company
Carry out an audit of your company to find the best software for you: what tools do you use and how compatible are they with a collaborative portal? How can the portal be integrated into your operating system?
Tip 3: Reviews
Rely on user testimonials to find out what they have to say.
Tip 4: Mobility
Is having a mobile application a decisive factor in your choice? If your employees need to be mobile or work remotely, a mobile application is a very wise choice.
Acollab, for example, is ahighly secure French collaborative platform with an intuitive Android and IOS mobile applicationthat gives your employees constant access from anywhere. It's a truly all-in-one solution, with advanced, customised features (file sharing, shared diary, chat, time and expense tracking, surveys, etc. ).
Tip 5: The trial version
Take advantage of the trial versions almost always offered by publishers to test out a tool and make sure that the solution you've chosen meets your needs.
Collaborate to work better
The benefits of collaborative working in figures
86% of companies believe that collaborative working makes it easier to integrate new employees.
Source: Archimag survey conducted for Jalios
Better communication, a better understanding of your company's business culture and business processes: these are key assets when it comes to integrating new employees.
At 51%, email is still the preferred tool for communicating and exchanging information within the company, despite access to instant messaging or a corporate social network.
Source: Bureaux à partager and Fabernovel Institute study on Myhappyjob.com, 2018
This shows the benefits of having all the collaborative tools at your disposal on a single online portal, including your mailbox.
15%: this is the increase in employee engagement with internal collaborative portals.
Source : Lecko
The figures speak for themselves: employees are looking for a collaborative solution to help them work better.
Improve your business by working better together
How can you stop losing valuable information exchanged informally between employees? That's what a collaborative portal is for: to centralise all information, even seemingly unimportant, informal information, on a single platform that everyone can access. Record them in an online solution, and you'll avoid wasting hours trying to remember a conversation you had several weeks earlier!
Your staff will also benefit from a shared view of your business. More simplicity, more fluid exchanges and better processes: in short, better conditions for effective teamwork.
Before choosing your collaborative portal...
For 51% of employees, collaboration in the workplace is first and foremost about shared values and methods (source: study La culture de la collaboration en progrès dans les entreprises, Ipsos, 2018). Collaborative tools come next, and are merely the means of giving concrete form to a collaborative corporate culture.
So, before choosing and setting up a collaborative portal in your company, survey your teams to gather their opinions and needs. This will give you the best chance of making the right choice of tool.
Article translated from French