Improve your productivity with a collaborative portal
What is a collaborative portal? What are its benefits, and what can it do for your company? Optimized project management, easier communication both internally and with customers, data centralization on the web... these are just some of the positive effects to be expected from the implementation of a collaborative platform.
We'll answer your questions and guide you in your choice of cloud solution, showing you how using an enterprise social network (ESN ) can boost your company's business.
What is a collaborative portal?
Definition
A collaborative portal is an online portal that provides a secure, personalized workspace for exchanges within an organization. It centralizes 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 a nutshell, a collaborative portal facilitates communication within and between teams, boosting their efficiency.
It also enables information sharing to be segmented: you can ensure that a message reaches the right people, in a more targeted way and more quickly. You maximize the chances that the information will be received and taken into account by the desired recipient.
It's also a space for sharing content: documents, photos, videos, links, messages... All types of content can be shared and accessed according to defined access rights.
Such an online platform also provides visibility on the company's stakeholders: what are their roles? What are their tasks?
Finally, a mobile application enables 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,
- facilitates information sharing within the company,
- facilitates external exchanges (with customers, partners, subcontractors, etc.),
- centralizes 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,
- historizes data,
- simplifies information retrieval,
- supports electronic document management (EDM),
- streamlines processes.
All in all, your employees benefit from significant productivity gains.
Infographic: the benefits of a collaborative portal in figures
Source : U Pro
The functionalities of an enterprise collaborative portal
What functionalities should you expect from a collaborative portal? Not all companies have the same needs or 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 systems, such as instant messaging or private conversations,
- shared calendars,
- news feed,
- 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),
- handles all types of files (articles, photos, videos, documents),
- screen sharing,
- folder sharing.
Are you a responsible company ? Interstis facilitates information sharing 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 videoconference to discuss a document? Launch a meeting from your collaborative agenda and share your screen live!
Electronic document management (EDM)
- document editing in real time by several people,
- document library,
- document templates available to collaborators,
- full-text search,
- document viewer.
Jalios Workplace is an excellent example of a high-performance Electronic Document Management tool. Your teams can easily access all 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
Centralize all your tools on a single portal: your calendar, your mailbox, your to-do list, and so on. 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 mandatory, 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 for feedback.
Tip 4: Mobility
Is having a mobile application a decisive factor in your choice? If your employees have to be mobile or work remotely, the mobile application becomes a more than judicious choice criterion.
Acollab, for example, is ahighly secure French collaborative platform featuring an intuitive Android and IOS mobile applicationthat gives your collaborators constant access from anywhere. A true all-in-one solution, it offers advanced, customized functionalities (file sharing, shared calendar, chat, time and expense tracking, surveys... ).
Tip 5: The trial version
Take advantage of the trial versions almost always offered by software publishers to test a tool and make sure the chosen solution meets your needs.
Collaborate to work better
The benefits of collaborative working in figures
86% of companies consider 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 processes: these are key assets for integrating new employees.
At 51%, email remains the preferred tool for communicating and exchanging information within the company, despite access to instant messaging and corporate social networks.
Source: Bureaux à partager and Fabernovel Institute study on Myhappyjob.com, 2018
So we understand the appeal of having all collaborative tools at your disposal on a single online portal, including your mailbox.
15%: the increase in employee engagement on 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 through better collaboration
How can you avoid losing valuable information exchanged informally between employees? That's exactly what a collaborative portal is for: to centralize all information, even seemingly unimportant, on a single, universally accessible platform. Record them in an online solution, and you'll avoid wasting hours trying to remember a conversation held several weeks earlier!
Your staff will also benefit from a shared view of your business. More simplicity, more fluidity in exchanges, and better processes: in short, better conditions for effective teamwork.
Before choosing your collaborative portal...
For 51% of employees, collaboration in the workplace depends first and foremost on shared values and methods (source: La culture de la collaboration en progrès dans les entreprises study, Ipsos, 2018). Collaborative tools come next, and are just the means to make a collaborative corporate culture a reality.
So, before choosing and implementing 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