The corporate social network, a high-performance collaborative space

By Grégory Coste.

Published: October 30, 2024

What exactly is a collaborative workspace ? What is a corporate social network? What are the benefits? The terms collaborative platform and digital workplace have become such buzzwords that some pragmatic decision-makers see the enterprise social network as a gadget. Certain clichés still hold sway: chatting with colleagues, exchanging for the sake of exchanging, reassuring the ego, and so on. It's easy to see the tip of the iceberg: the conversational aspects and the uninterrupted flow of information.

If the user-friendliness of the tools is often emphasized, it's because there are deeper reasons for everyone in your organization to adopt a collaborative work platform. It's thanks to collaborative organization that a company becomes more agile, faster and more productive.

So it's vital to define the purpose of collaborative work tools, to define their boundaries, and to see collaboration as a new, more efficient way of working. In a nutshell.

See all software Enterprise Social Network (ESN)

Definition of a collaborative workspace

What is a collaborative workspace?

A collaborative workspace takes the form of an online virtual space:

Communication tools are centralized on a platform to facilitate communication.
Company teams can work together online and, ultimately, collaboration extends to all players involved in the organization's activity, such as multi-site teams, customers or partners.
The aim of this digital ecosystem is to encourage group work through information sharing, skills transfer, document sharing, messaging and more.

Why adopt an online collaborative tool?

First and foremost, a company chooses to adopt such a platform to change and improve the internal workings of its organization: competitiveness and collaborative uses are leading it to embark on an in-depth digital transformation, the transformation towards the digital enterprise.

When we talk about corporate social networks, we sometimes forget that such an information system should not be installed or used for the sake of fashion, but rather with a view to structuring a culture of collective work, so that the whole company benefits in the long term. This is where the term digital transformation comes into its own.

©️ Nostromo

Teamwork as a competitive advantage

Circulation of information and fluidity of exchanges

Some companies, still operating on a horizontal basis, find it extremely difficult to identify and mobilize the right person(s) to answer a specific question. As for intervening at the right moment... the expert, finally identified, often arrives too late, or only provides part of the answer expected by the customer. Competitors are quick to react.

There are several reasons for this outdated and counter-productive habit:

The question posed sometimes requires the consultation of several complementary experts, particularly in the case of changes initiated by an innovation and digital manager, where all points of view are essential for a project to run smoothly.
The way work is organized, in compartmentalized business silos, isolates teams that should logically be complementary, and therefore in constant contact.
As a result, communication within the company is not fluid. One employee may have been asking a question for months, while another knows the answer at a glance.
Information is not centralized or shared transparently, which would boost collective intelligence and accelerate productivity.

What about collective intelligence?

This is the secret of an effective workgroup. Rapid, easy access to information, sharing it and exchanging it with others (like knowledge), is essential: without it, employees can only partially perceive the context of a subject, and cannot envisage tackling a complex problem on their own, because they are isolated, with only their own skills to fall back on.

What can we expect from a corporate social network?

Collaboration is the raison d'être of an enterprise social network: its transformation leads it to evolve into a true Digital Workplace that makes organizations competitive. Let's take this opportunity to translate the term Digital Workplace into the language of Molière, and provide the most meaningful definition possible.

A Digital Workplace embraces all the components of a digital enterprise, making them work together:

an attractive organization for employees,
agile employees,
interoperable tools and user-centric technology,
collaborative work culture and governance.

A Digital Workplace is not a coffee-machine corner. User-centric and intuitively adopted by users, it represents the essential tool for day-to-day productivity, capitalizing on collective intelligence. The aim: to stay alert and maintain a competitive edge.

The ultimate goal of this kind of corporate social network is the adoption of new, more agile and productive working methods. By leveraging the digital transformation it represents, the tool creates value and serves the development of the company as a whole.
In this context, does Facebook Workplace, modelled on the consumer version of the famous social network, appear to be a platform that flatters the ego? While communication and marketing specialists may be more inclined to differentiate between a personal networking tool and a truly collaborative, productivity-oriented tool, other decision-makers need guidance in their choices.

Why do your employees need a collaboration tool focused on smooth communication? What will it bring to your team and your company? Before adopting a collaborative workspace, your company needs to define what this collective workspace will bring to its employees, and how communication will be accelerated and made more fluid.

There's no better way to win everyone's approval when it comes to internal deployment...

Communication, the key to a collaborative platform

New, agile methods of teamwork, supported by collaborative platforms, make it possible to meet the new challenges of the digital enterprise with intelligence:

To become agile, all employees need a common space, hence the notion of collaborative spaces. This is where the corporate social network comes in, offering your teams shared access to information and the possibility of intervening in real time on this dedicated and shared space, in a logic of efficient collaboration.
Teamwork is an ever-present concern for HR managers, and its effectiveness is enhanced when business processes are more cross-functional. When businesses are decompartmentalized, interactions between teams accelerate. They are more responsive, more productive.
A true collaborative tool centralizes and retrieves all the information that drives the company's day-to-day activity.
As everyone has the same level of information, communication becomes more fluid.
It's a Cartesian truth that greater responsiveness leads to higher productivity.
The feeling of collective productivity is the source of motivation. The circle is complete.

And all of this, of course, while lightening the load on your e-mail inboxes.

How do you choose a collaborative tool?

Tips for choosing a collaborative platform

If you're in any doubt about which collaborative space to adopt, build a list of your requirements by drawing inspiration from the following:

ergonomics must make the interface intuitive and easy to use (user-friendliness, remember),
the platform must be able to centralize all your tools and connect them together (connectors enable you to use third-party applications such as Google Drive, Dropbox and even your CRM tool, retain the shared diary function, etc.),
the collaborative tool is thus a workspace that facilitates file exchange, where everyone can access shared documents, with exchanges materialized by hypertext links, for example,
access is controlled by an administrator and secured (some prefer hosting in France rather than the U.S. because of the Patriot Act),
all information is grouped together and accessible to all within the same space,
everyone can personalize their news feed, by subscribing in advance to the business groups that concern them,
each member of your team must be able to react in the discussion thread, which facilitates real-time exchanges,
the community spirit must be based on professions, not personalities, and break down barriers,
instant messaging and chat should be available at all times, especially on the move,
A mobile version of the collaborative workspace is therefore inevitable for remote teams,
videoconferencing is an undeniable advantage for exchanging and communicating in real time,
the tool's initiator must act as a manager, encouraging specialists to intervene spontaneously, rather than wasting time identifying them and requesting their intervention,
Ultimately, the collaborative tool should clarify decision-making and prioritization processes,
It should facilitate monitoring within the same space, for example, by providing access to mentions on social networks, etc.

A corporate social network to strengthen collaboration within the company

Your company can't rely on a simple project management tool to foster communication and information exchange between employees. This is all the more true if you have teams working remotely across several sites. This is where the corporate social network comes in.

Productivity-minded managers are quick to see the benefits: the cross-functional, interactive and participative way of working motivates and empowers employees. And let's not forget that it enables companies to maintain their competitive edge over the long term.

Which CSR to choose?

👉 Jamespot

A fully customizable , secure web-based collaborative platform: that's Jamespot in a nutshell. This French solution not only facilitates the circulation of information within companies, but also enables information to be captured, ordered and not lost.

Jamespot in a few key points:

easy identification of the people to contact,
a digital workplace: a unique working environment where applications can be connected to multiply functionalities (project management, surveys, meeting organization, electronic document management, etc.),
a responsive team, always ready to meet customer needs.

👉 Netframe

Designed as a collaborative space, Netframe organizes and federates employees around company resources. This comprehensive platform, which doubles as a CSR, fosters synergy between teams, reinforces employee commitment and accelerates work processes thanks to effective communication. Visibility, efficiency and creativity: Netframe offers you the winning recipe for productivity.

Netframe

Netframe in a few key points:

workgroup organization, including discussions, activity feeds, document spaces and shared calendars, for direct access to information,
management of access rights and distribution of roles within the network,
communication and information sharing at the heart of the various modules: task management, project management and document management,
an incremental approach to adapt to all types of organization: flexibility, modularity and ease of use.

👉 TalkSpirit

If you're looking for a user-oriented solution that makes it easier to process information in a complex environment, talkSpirit is the obvious choice: your teams have access to a collaborative space that enables them to translate their exchanges into action.
After all, this is where the digital acceleration pedal for your business lies. A true collaborative tool enables :

faster feedback,
prioritization of actions to be taken,
identification of players,
task management.