Choose any digital tool that you currently use and invariably somewhere in its description will be the statement that it can be used for “collaboration”. This is not a misrepresentation, as by definition, collaboration is simply two or more people working together toward a common goal. The plethora of digital tool options can actually make the task of collaboration more complex than it needs to be.

We are looking to provide some guidance as to how you might select a starting point for collaboration based on the collaborative task you are looking to undertake. The focus is on collaboration inside the enterprise. Given the scope, viz., the plethora of technology choices, the fact that many of them are integrated with each other, and the breadth of collaborative tasks being undertaken; this is a starting point, rather than the finish line.

Overview of Digital Collaboration Platforms

We have broadly classified the collaborative tools into the following:

·        General Teaming platforms: e.g. Microsoft Teams, Slack, Google Workspace

General teaming platforms aim to be a one-size-fits-all collaboration option. In the absence of a specific need, most organisations will have made available a general teaming platform for employee use.

·        Project centred collaboration: e.g. Asana, Trello, Monday.com

This class of collaboration platform is project task centred. They are designed to help project teams organise their work, assign tasks, track progress and facilitate communication between project team members.

·        Synchronous (meeting/chat) e.g. Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Webex, Google Meet

These platforms are designed to facilitate virtual meetings. They also commonly provide chat services which can be used before, during and after a meeting event. AI technology is now providing the ability to record and summarise meeting conversations for not only the attendees but also for other interested parties.

·        Content/Intranet platforms e.g. SharePoint, Unily, LumApps, Simpplr

Intranets are regularly seen as the repository for authoritative enterprise information. However, they can also be a source for “content-led” collaboration. For example, intranets can facilitate joint authorship of documents using document management functions. By sharing information like an employee directory or a company news feed, intranets are providing source content to collaborate around. Some commentators are suggesting the intranet can be the “front door” for an organisation’s digital workplace.

·        Social Networking platforms e.g. Viva Engage, Workplace by Meta

Social networking platforms have become the home of cross-enterprise communities of practice. These digital spaces are where “birds of a feather flock together”. Discipline specialists, and those looking to learn from them, will congregate and collaborate here to develop and share better work practices. These platforms are also used for cross enterprise information sharing, question and answer forums and enterprise announcements; making it easy for employees to discuss and share content online.

·        Specialist Learning and Development Platforms e.g. Moodle, Docebo, TalentLMS

L&D platforms are built for the delivery of training and education courseware. Beyond course delivery, these platforms usually provide facilities for collaboration between instructors and students, and also student-to-student collaboration around courseware content.

·        Email e.g. Outlook, Gmail

First there was email. And even today our benchmarking studies tell us that employees still spend by far the majority of their time in email. Email used to be the only way to collaborate online. Today its internal use may be diminishing in the face of better alternatives, but external communications (and collaborations) still largely rely on email. Email systems today are vastly different to the early systems. Invariably calendar systems are incorporated, along with many other integrations which enable employees to still “live in email” if they so choose. Online meetings are regularly instigated through email/calendar functions.

Typical collaborative tasks

We have compiled the following list of typical collaboration tasks. It is not intended to be exhaustive, but largely representative:

1.  Brainstorming: Employees often collaborate to generate new ideas and solutions to problems.

2.  Meetings: Meetings are a common way for employees to collaborate and discuss work-related topics.

3.  Project management: Employees often work together to manage projects, assign tasks, and monitor deadlines.

4.  Document sharing: Employees collaborate by sharing documents and files with each other. Sometimes documents are jointly authored.

5.  Task delegation / allocation: Employees collaborate by delegating/allocating tasks to each other and working together to complete them.

6.  Training and Development: Employees collaborate by sharing knowledge and skills with each other.

7.  Conflict resolution: Employees collaborate to resolve conflicts and disagreements that arise in the workplace.

8.  Problem-solving: Employees collaborate to identify and solve problems that arise in the workplace.

9.  Team building: Employees collaborate to build strong relationships and foster a positive work

10. Customer Collaboration: Customer facing staff understand the value of being able to partner/collaborate with their customers to create new value from the relationship

Collaborative tasks require participants to need to agree on which tools they will use for their collaborative tasks. We all have our favourite digital places. What digital space do you go to when you turn to your digital device to start your day? Our digital working benchmarking studies would suggest it is likely email! While each of the above tasks could be conducted using email, I think we could agree that it would be far from optimal.

In the next section we look to map collaborative tasks to Collaborative Platforms.

Mapping collaborative tasks to digital collaboration platforms

The following table provides our suggested mappings. We identify the preferred digital platform, but offer alternatives for different contexts.

Choosing the right Digital Collaboration Platform

A majority of organisations today will be looking to their “office platform” e.g. Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, to facilitate their collaborative task needs. Privacy and security will play an important part in the decision. The larger providers like Microsoft and Google have an advantage here due to their global footprint and ability to cater for the differing security requirements around the world.

Ease of use is a growing challenge, where the plethora of tool choice is resulting in added complexity. Habits can be hard to change. Our benchmarking identifies traditional email, meetings and chat are still the most used. For collaborative tasks, ease of use is more than a well-designed user interface. It requires the collaborators be confident about how they are using the tools in concert.

Beyond general office suites, some organisations can justify a “fit for purpose” collaboration platform. An organisation whose core business is projects could justify investment in a digital project management platform that can facilitate the required collaboration between project staff. Educational institutions regularly invest in learning platforms that can host their courseware while facilitating interactions between students and staff around the learning content. These “fit for purpose” platforms cannot cater for all collaboration needs though. Even project staff or educational instructors will need to collaborate with their colleagues outside of the fit for purpose platform. This is generally the resident office platform. It is therefore important to agree on which collaborative tasks should not be conducted on the fit for purpose platform.

Conclusion

As an individual we are faced with a plethora of digital tools to conduct our work. If this isn’t complex enough, the complexity multiplies when needing to gain agreement on what tools to use when with your collaboration partners. In this article we have looked to provide guidance on how collaborators within enterprises can make the right choices based on the collaborative tasks they are looking to undertake.

We noted that some intranet commentators have suggested using the intranet as the “front door” to the digital workplace of tools considered here. Intranet specialist Step Two has been operating a global intranet awards program for 17 years. In 2020, Norwegian firm DNV GL won its gold award by creating a collaboration wizard to guide end users in provisioning their Microsoft 365 tools to collaborate. In essence, the intranet is not so much a “a place to go” to collaborate; but a place to go to for “getting help on collaboration”.

The following heat map provides a digital platform choice at a glance:

If you like this article, feel free to link to it from your intranet.