This document discusses how small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) can achieve profitable collaboration both internally and externally with clients. It emphasizes that collaboration requires a holistic view focusing on people, processes, and technology. New cloud-based collaboration tools offer affordable options for SMBs and are available across many platforms. The document provides examples of how different SMBs have used collaboration tools to their advantage.
This document discusses management by walking around (MBWA) and its application in virtual environments. It begins with a brief history of MBWA, noting that it was originally used at HP to boost morale but evolved into a technique where managers visit employees to discover and address problems early. While effective, MBWA has limitations in virtual environments where managers cannot physically visit employees. Some workarounds used today include collaborative documents but they lack the spontaneity of real-time face-to-face interactions that make MBWA most impactful. The document explores what a "virtual world MBWA" might entail to continue providing its benefits of visibility, control and optimization in distributed teams.
This document discusses balancing top-down and bottom-up approaches to program management. It provides an example of a manager, Max, who established a program management group to address immediate needs from the bottom-up while still aligning with larger strategic visions. This helped boost morale by quickly implementing small beneficial changes. The document advocates regularly engaging stakeholders at all levels to gain support for both small and large-scale programs and changes.
This document proposes an online collaboration tool for government employees. It would combine features of Quora, Wikipedia, Twitter and LinkedIn to allow employees to share knowledge, ask questions, and recognize each other's contributions. The goal is to reduce waste from duplicated work and make it easier to find expertise within the organization. Success would be measured by increased information sharing and innovation leading to a leaner, more effective government. The tool is intended to foster employee autonomy, mastery and purpose without undermining management structures.
Communication is omnipresent in every business. While a lot is said and done about Communication Skills improvement, the area of improving Communication Process or the Communication Systems within an organization remains vastly ignored. There are sustainable benefits that can be achieved by improving the business communication system. Some organizations have already realized impressive benefits such as 100%+ improvement in operational efficiency and 50%+ improvement in sales. We cover the latest happenings, how a company can achieve these benefits and the common mistakes that need to be avoided.
According to Gartner, 70% of social implementations fail because they lack a business purpose. When it comes to harnessing the power of social software, a focus on business value is required. This whitepaper defines a strategic framework for gaining business value from social software. It outlines six successful rollout strategies. Each of the six approaches delivers different business results, and has a different level of risk. And most importantly, each has different requirements to succeed. To be successful with social software, you need to choose the rollout strategy that is best for your organization, and understand its requirements for success.
Social software lets employees connect and share in new ways, and can dramatically improve the effectiveness of your organization. But social technologies like microblogging, social networking, automated activity feeds, social spreadsheets, wikis, etc. are new to most organizations, and most IT departments don’t have experience with how to successfully implement them.
Success with social software involves a lot more than simply finding the product that best fits your needs. It involves framing the problem appropriately in the first place, defining your business goals, and choosing a rollout methodology designed to meet those goals. It involves selling your CFO, changing behavior across your organization, and more.
This paper is designed to help you learn from the mistakes of others before you, so you can avoid the common pitfalls of social software, and get fast business value.
Social technologies like microblogging and social networking are being used internally by companies to dramatically speed the flow of work. But you need large-scale adoption to get business results that make a difference. This paper provides a blueprint to drive the large-scale adoption of a social software solution, so you get results that are noticed.
What 2014 holds for Internal CommunicationsTrefor Smith
This is the follow up to last years guide to Internal Communication trends. This years guide outlines 4 main areas that we think are going to be key in 2014, along with sub themes and a wealth of hints and tips. We hope it is of benefit, and brings you success with your 2014 internal communications!
This document discusses management by walking around (MBWA) and its application in virtual environments. It begins with a brief history of MBWA, noting that it was originally used at HP to boost morale but evolved into a technique where managers visit employees to discover and address problems early. While effective, MBWA has limitations in virtual environments where managers cannot physically visit employees. Some workarounds used today include collaborative documents but they lack the spontaneity of real-time face-to-face interactions that make MBWA most impactful. The document explores what a "virtual world MBWA" might entail to continue providing its benefits of visibility, control and optimization in distributed teams.
This document discusses balancing top-down and bottom-up approaches to program management. It provides an example of a manager, Max, who established a program management group to address immediate needs from the bottom-up while still aligning with larger strategic visions. This helped boost morale by quickly implementing small beneficial changes. The document advocates regularly engaging stakeholders at all levels to gain support for both small and large-scale programs and changes.
This document proposes an online collaboration tool for government employees. It would combine features of Quora, Wikipedia, Twitter and LinkedIn to allow employees to share knowledge, ask questions, and recognize each other's contributions. The goal is to reduce waste from duplicated work and make it easier to find expertise within the organization. Success would be measured by increased information sharing and innovation leading to a leaner, more effective government. The tool is intended to foster employee autonomy, mastery and purpose without undermining management structures.
Communication is omnipresent in every business. While a lot is said and done about Communication Skills improvement, the area of improving Communication Process or the Communication Systems within an organization remains vastly ignored. There are sustainable benefits that can be achieved by improving the business communication system. Some organizations have already realized impressive benefits such as 100%+ improvement in operational efficiency and 50%+ improvement in sales. We cover the latest happenings, how a company can achieve these benefits and the common mistakes that need to be avoided.
According to Gartner, 70% of social implementations fail because they lack a business purpose. When it comes to harnessing the power of social software, a focus on business value is required. This whitepaper defines a strategic framework for gaining business value from social software. It outlines six successful rollout strategies. Each of the six approaches delivers different business results, and has a different level of risk. And most importantly, each has different requirements to succeed. To be successful with social software, you need to choose the rollout strategy that is best for your organization, and understand its requirements for success.
Social software lets employees connect and share in new ways, and can dramatically improve the effectiveness of your organization. But social technologies like microblogging, social networking, automated activity feeds, social spreadsheets, wikis, etc. are new to most organizations, and most IT departments don’t have experience with how to successfully implement them.
Success with social software involves a lot more than simply finding the product that best fits your needs. It involves framing the problem appropriately in the first place, defining your business goals, and choosing a rollout methodology designed to meet those goals. It involves selling your CFO, changing behavior across your organization, and more.
This paper is designed to help you learn from the mistakes of others before you, so you can avoid the common pitfalls of social software, and get fast business value.
Social technologies like microblogging and social networking are being used internally by companies to dramatically speed the flow of work. But you need large-scale adoption to get business results that make a difference. This paper provides a blueprint to drive the large-scale adoption of a social software solution, so you get results that are noticed.
What 2014 holds for Internal CommunicationsTrefor Smith
This is the follow up to last years guide to Internal Communication trends. This years guide outlines 4 main areas that we think are going to be key in 2014, along with sub themes and a wealth of hints and tips. We hope it is of benefit, and brings you success with your 2014 internal communications!
This report proposes implementing a collaboration solution to improve information sharing, communication, and productivity within the company. It identifies key needs like increased workforce productivity, faster product development timelines, and streamlined communication. The current system of information storage in directories and informal knowledge sharing is inefficient. A collaboration environment could capture knowledge, facilitate project management and processes, and integrate with existing applications. This would help onboard new employees more quickly, reduce time spent searching for information, and empower employees and teams to work more effectively together.
This document discusses project management in the collaborative age. It argues that future project management will be collaborative, utilizing tools that provide real-time data and analytics on mobile devices. A case study is presented of a gaming company that implemented a collaborative project management tool to overcome challenges like a lack of standardization and data-driven decision making. The tool provided benefits like centralized data storage, automated reporting, task management, and better communication between distributed project teams.
This document discusses how social networking can be used to promote ethical leadership. It recommends that organizations provide training to employees on ethical codes and proper use of social media. This helps ensure confidential information is not shared and prevents reputational damage. Social media can also be used for knowledge sharing, recruitment, and brand promotion in a transparent way. Maintaining strong ethics is important as it makes organizations more attractive to potential employees and saves costs of legal issues down the road.
This document summarizes the key findings from a survey on nonprofit collaboration conducted with a random selection of people who attended a 2016 annual meeting. The survey found:
1) There was strong alignment around collaborating on advocacy, services, and events. However, there was misalignment around sharing staff and facilities/equipment.
2) Participants agreed that collaboration is attractive to funders and results in greater impact, but there was disagreement around whether the effort of collaboration outweighs the benefits.
3) Further discussion is needed regarding collaboration models that require more resources versus those with more alignment like advocacy, events, and information sharing. The survey provided insights into collaboration opportunities and challenges among nonprofits.
Businesses are implementing social software, but not all companies do it right. Find out the right approach for a successful roll out by downloading this PDF.
For more information, please visit http://www.tibbr.com/
Building interactive online space to connect with new clients. For professional services firms, it has proven challenging to engage with new clients (prospects) in an online setting. By co-creating a new online environment, using state-of-the-art tools and Apps, real interaction and continuity can be obtained.
The document discusses social employee engagement and how organizations can shift their focus from technology to people. It argues that simply providing employees with new collaboration tools is not enough and that organizations need to consider how to inspire and engage employees. The document provides a roadmap for organizations to implement social employee engagement successfully, including getting senior leadership buy-in, putting the right frameworks in place, and encouraging ongoing adoption and engagement.
Tackling complex problems, fostering creativity, and nurturing collaborative solutions is universal in business today.
The terms cooperation, coordination, and collaboration are often used interchangeably. However, collaboration refers to a higher level of joint working and the glue that binds collaborative teams together is communication.
Here we look in detail at how to facilitate effective team collaboration and the communication channels that will support it.
Social collaboration tools are becoming increasingly important for internal employee collaboration. While some managers are skeptical of social tools, they can improve knowledge sharing and boost team productivity by facilitating employee-built networks rather than restricting collaboration through organizational hierarchies. A holistic collaboration strategy pairs both traditional collaboration tools with newer social tools to maximize their combined benefits for enabling effective employee interactions.
This document discusses effective strategies for communicating organizational changes to drive behavior change. It begins by noting that 80% of communication efforts are ineffective at driving behavior change. It then advocates for "behavioral communications" that clearly define measures, consequences, tools and rewards to promote specific actions. The document provides templates and checklists for segmenting audiences, defining goals and metrics, and developing multi-channel communication plans to support change initiatives. It emphasizes the need to address how employees will be measured, consequences, tools/support, and incentives to truly change behaviors.
This document discusses how social media and mobility are changing the way people work. Some key points:
- 66% of information workers already work remotely, with half being highly mobile
- 49% of information workers have smartphones and 25% use them for work
- 18% of organizations have implemented content/collaboration in the cloud
- 53% consider increased collaboration technologies a high priority
Mobile devices and social media are enabling people to work anytime, anywhere in richer and more interactive ways. This represents a major shift for how organizations need to approach work and technology.
COVID-19: The future of organisations and the future of technical communicationEllis Pratt
The COVID-19 coronavirus is having a huge impact on people and organisations. With so many things that could be about to change, how should technical communicators respond? What’s your plan for the future?
In this presentation, we looked at:
How organisations might change during and after the COVID-19 lockdown
What that means for technical communication, and how you can come back stronger than ever
What technical communicators can do to help, and how you can deal with this crisis
How other technical communicators responded when we asked them for their views
The Intranet Global Forum is North America’s leading dedicated conference on intranets with a specialized focus on the design, governance and management of enterprise intranets and social intranets. Take a look at some of the best intranets from the NY 2014 global forum.
IMPROVING RELATIONSHIPS THROUGH WEB CONFERENCINGVideoguy
The document discusses how web conferencing can help improve relationships by enabling frequent, meaningful interactions between businesses and their customers, employees, and partners. It notes that web conferencing reduces costs compared to travel while providing many of the same collaboration benefits as in-person meetings. Research shows that organizational investment in web conferencing solutions is growing significantly as businesses recognize its value in nurturing relationships.
The document discusses several key trends in HR technology in 2014.
1. The relationship between clients and vendors is becoming more important as cloud-based solutions require more frequent updates and support. Close collaboration allows clients to better utilize their software investments.
2. Devices are diversifying but the specific device does not matter as much as the ability to access information anywhere at any time. HR systems need to be accessible across all devices and screen sizes through mobile optimization and cloud access.
3. Effective management of relationships with technology vendors and outsourcing partners is important for HR to fully leverage new technologies and get maximum value from investments. Regular communication and clear expectations are essential.
The document contains 5 sections that discuss various topics:
1. Victoria's Secret is displaying wings worn in fashion shows and letting people pose for photos to share on Facebook.
2. The FOKI shoe is designed to clean floors as the wearer walks and has a battery and LED display.
3. The Cortex browser extension lets users easily share content on social media without moving the mouse.
4. Google Body Browser offers 3D exploration of human anatomy online.
5. YouTube's year in review highlights popular videos of 2010 like Justin Bieber's "Baby" song.
The document contains a series of statements in an unknown language with English translations. It states that no x are m, no y are m', no x are y, all cats understand French, and some chickens are cats. It then restates that some chickens are cats and all cats understand French.
Presented at Web 3.0 Asia at Hong Kong Cyberport. Insights on the evolution of Internet communications, why video is crucial and the qualities of effective internet marketing.
This report proposes implementing a collaboration solution to improve information sharing, communication, and productivity within the company. It identifies key needs like increased workforce productivity, faster product development timelines, and streamlined communication. The current system of information storage in directories and informal knowledge sharing is inefficient. A collaboration environment could capture knowledge, facilitate project management and processes, and integrate with existing applications. This would help onboard new employees more quickly, reduce time spent searching for information, and empower employees and teams to work more effectively together.
This document discusses project management in the collaborative age. It argues that future project management will be collaborative, utilizing tools that provide real-time data and analytics on mobile devices. A case study is presented of a gaming company that implemented a collaborative project management tool to overcome challenges like a lack of standardization and data-driven decision making. The tool provided benefits like centralized data storage, automated reporting, task management, and better communication between distributed project teams.
This document discusses how social networking can be used to promote ethical leadership. It recommends that organizations provide training to employees on ethical codes and proper use of social media. This helps ensure confidential information is not shared and prevents reputational damage. Social media can also be used for knowledge sharing, recruitment, and brand promotion in a transparent way. Maintaining strong ethics is important as it makes organizations more attractive to potential employees and saves costs of legal issues down the road.
This document summarizes the key findings from a survey on nonprofit collaboration conducted with a random selection of people who attended a 2016 annual meeting. The survey found:
1) There was strong alignment around collaborating on advocacy, services, and events. However, there was misalignment around sharing staff and facilities/equipment.
2) Participants agreed that collaboration is attractive to funders and results in greater impact, but there was disagreement around whether the effort of collaboration outweighs the benefits.
3) Further discussion is needed regarding collaboration models that require more resources versus those with more alignment like advocacy, events, and information sharing. The survey provided insights into collaboration opportunities and challenges among nonprofits.
Businesses are implementing social software, but not all companies do it right. Find out the right approach for a successful roll out by downloading this PDF.
For more information, please visit http://www.tibbr.com/
Building interactive online space to connect with new clients. For professional services firms, it has proven challenging to engage with new clients (prospects) in an online setting. By co-creating a new online environment, using state-of-the-art tools and Apps, real interaction and continuity can be obtained.
The document discusses social employee engagement and how organizations can shift their focus from technology to people. It argues that simply providing employees with new collaboration tools is not enough and that organizations need to consider how to inspire and engage employees. The document provides a roadmap for organizations to implement social employee engagement successfully, including getting senior leadership buy-in, putting the right frameworks in place, and encouraging ongoing adoption and engagement.
Tackling complex problems, fostering creativity, and nurturing collaborative solutions is universal in business today.
The terms cooperation, coordination, and collaboration are often used interchangeably. However, collaboration refers to a higher level of joint working and the glue that binds collaborative teams together is communication.
Here we look in detail at how to facilitate effective team collaboration and the communication channels that will support it.
Social collaboration tools are becoming increasingly important for internal employee collaboration. While some managers are skeptical of social tools, they can improve knowledge sharing and boost team productivity by facilitating employee-built networks rather than restricting collaboration through organizational hierarchies. A holistic collaboration strategy pairs both traditional collaboration tools with newer social tools to maximize their combined benefits for enabling effective employee interactions.
This document discusses effective strategies for communicating organizational changes to drive behavior change. It begins by noting that 80% of communication efforts are ineffective at driving behavior change. It then advocates for "behavioral communications" that clearly define measures, consequences, tools and rewards to promote specific actions. The document provides templates and checklists for segmenting audiences, defining goals and metrics, and developing multi-channel communication plans to support change initiatives. It emphasizes the need to address how employees will be measured, consequences, tools/support, and incentives to truly change behaviors.
This document discusses how social media and mobility are changing the way people work. Some key points:
- 66% of information workers already work remotely, with half being highly mobile
- 49% of information workers have smartphones and 25% use them for work
- 18% of organizations have implemented content/collaboration in the cloud
- 53% consider increased collaboration technologies a high priority
Mobile devices and social media are enabling people to work anytime, anywhere in richer and more interactive ways. This represents a major shift for how organizations need to approach work and technology.
COVID-19: The future of organisations and the future of technical communicationEllis Pratt
The COVID-19 coronavirus is having a huge impact on people and organisations. With so many things that could be about to change, how should technical communicators respond? What’s your plan for the future?
In this presentation, we looked at:
How organisations might change during and after the COVID-19 lockdown
What that means for technical communication, and how you can come back stronger than ever
What technical communicators can do to help, and how you can deal with this crisis
How other technical communicators responded when we asked them for their views
The Intranet Global Forum is North America’s leading dedicated conference on intranets with a specialized focus on the design, governance and management of enterprise intranets and social intranets. Take a look at some of the best intranets from the NY 2014 global forum.
IMPROVING RELATIONSHIPS THROUGH WEB CONFERENCINGVideoguy
The document discusses how web conferencing can help improve relationships by enabling frequent, meaningful interactions between businesses and their customers, employees, and partners. It notes that web conferencing reduces costs compared to travel while providing many of the same collaboration benefits as in-person meetings. Research shows that organizational investment in web conferencing solutions is growing significantly as businesses recognize its value in nurturing relationships.
The document discusses several key trends in HR technology in 2014.
1. The relationship between clients and vendors is becoming more important as cloud-based solutions require more frequent updates and support. Close collaboration allows clients to better utilize their software investments.
2. Devices are diversifying but the specific device does not matter as much as the ability to access information anywhere at any time. HR systems need to be accessible across all devices and screen sizes through mobile optimization and cloud access.
3. Effective management of relationships with technology vendors and outsourcing partners is important for HR to fully leverage new technologies and get maximum value from investments. Regular communication and clear expectations are essential.
The document contains 5 sections that discuss various topics:
1. Victoria's Secret is displaying wings worn in fashion shows and letting people pose for photos to share on Facebook.
2. The FOKI shoe is designed to clean floors as the wearer walks and has a battery and LED display.
3. The Cortex browser extension lets users easily share content on social media without moving the mouse.
4. Google Body Browser offers 3D exploration of human anatomy online.
5. YouTube's year in review highlights popular videos of 2010 like Justin Bieber's "Baby" song.
The document contains a series of statements in an unknown language with English translations. It states that no x are m, no y are m', no x are y, all cats understand French, and some chickens are cats. It then restates that some chickens are cats and all cats understand French.
Presented at Web 3.0 Asia at Hong Kong Cyberport. Insights on the evolution of Internet communications, why video is crucial and the qualities of effective internet marketing.
Evan introduces himself and his work on open source microblogging software projects. He created Laconica, an open source PHP/MySQL microblogging platform that implements the Twitter API. He also developed the OpenMicroblogging protocol for distributed microblogging across servers and the StatusNet software-as-a-service platform. His goal is for open microblogging software to allow enterprises, brands, and communities to have decentralized alternatives to centralized platforms like Twitter.
The document discusses asset management solutions and their benefits. It provides examples of how Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) implemented a Maximo asset management system to improve maintenance management, work processes, and decision making. Key benefits for CDHB included more consistent processes, automated job tracking, reduced paperwork, cleansed asset data, ability to measure performance and justify budgets, and efficiency gains through reporting. The document also lists general tangible benefits that asset management solutions can provide such as cost savings, increased asset and labour utilization, improved inventory management, and regulatory compliance.
Telecom Italia FY 2009 Preliminary ResultsGruppo TIM
Telecom Italia Group reported preliminary full year 2009 results. Organic domestic EBITDA was €10.1 billion, down 2% year-over-year, while the organic EBITDA margin improved to 46.5%. Cash cost efficiencies of €0.9 billion were achieved in Italy. TIM Brasil EBITDA grew 9.6% to €1.29 billion with a margin of 25.7%, up 2.3 percentage points. Adjusted net financial position was approximately €34 billion at year-end 2009. Final results may differ materially depending on legal proceedings involving a subsidiary.
Organizations need strategies to deal with hybrid work environments where employees work both in-person and remotely. Most companies have been dealing with the challenges of the pandemic for months and need intelligent workplace technologies to improve collaboration. Surveys show employees need technology that allows multiple content streams to be shared simultaneously in meetings to avoid bottlenecks. Oblong Mezzanine offers a visual collaboration solution with flexibility for remote and in-office staff that can improve teamwork and decision making with its multi-content sharing capabilities.
Why do enterprises care about collaborationOrangescrum
The document discusses why enterprise collaboration is important. It notes that companies want to be close to customers, which requires remote teams and collaboration. Collaboration allows for great customer service through enabling customer success. It further discusses how enterprises can enable collaboration through digital transformation and technology tools. It emphasizes adopting the right strategy such as explaining benefits to teams, choosing the right tools to meet needs, and gaining support from management and sponsors. When done correctly, collaboration provides benefits like aligning teams, autonomy, transparency, and maintaining competitiveness.
Self Hosted Project Management Software for Hassle.pdfOrangescrum
You need to keep your team connected on a single platform to ensure improved collaboration and team management. It is important to evaluate some of the good project collaboration tools in terms of features, cost, and usability.
Why Organizations Need Enterprise Project Management SoftwareOrangescrum
An enterprise project management software increases the trust factor between the organization and keeps everyone engaged right from the CXOs to the interns.
Doing Collaboration Badly Is Worse Than Not Doing It At All - SideraWorksXVA Labs
Lessons learned along the way regarding the ties between collaboration, innovation, and social business. Throughout our workshops and client engagements, what common issues come up in collaboration initiatives? How do you find a common language in regards to how an organization defines collaboration and innovation? How does social business provide a platform for success in these types of initiatives? What are the barriers typically encountered and how do you articulate the value?
SideraWorks has had to learn some of these lessons the hard way, perhaps this document will aid you in avoiding some of the same issues.
Leveraging social technologies and particularly social workflow is a core part of how organizations today can manage the transition to a new way of working or usher in a more holistic cultural change.
Collaboration is key for professional services firms to drive growth and succeed in today's competitive landscape. Modern collaboration tools and integrated ERP systems can raise efficiencies within a firm by 20-25% by reducing search time and enhancing knowledge sharing. These technologies also allow firms to deliver full-service offerings by enabling partnerships and joint ventures. To take advantage of new opportunities and market conditions, firms need real-time data access across locations to make informed decisions and quickly adapt. As firms expand globally, collaboration becomes even more important to secure value in new markets and ensure everyone has access to the same accurate information.
Enterprise social networking is a garden. Discover how to harvest all the benefits of enterprise social with tibbr!
For more information, please visit http://www.tibbr.com/
A successful collaboration strategy includes technology, process alignment, and the user experiences. However, organizations tend to focus the most on technology, and the least on people -- when the opposite should be true. As this presentation explains, culture is the key to any successful collaboration strategy.
Driving Repeatable Business Innovation: The Vision to Action LifecycleMindjet
The current generation of Social Business tools has missed
a huge opportunity to impact business innovation and
results. By focusing on functionality that emphasizes
communications, they’ve omitted the required structure
and process needed to meaningfully affect the business.
In this presentation, we take you through the Vision to Action Lifecycle, and explain why a holistic approach to innovation can create repeatable, tangible results for your business.
The Nuts and Bolts of Teams, Groups and Conversation as-a-ServiceChristian Buckley
Within Office 365, we have multiple methods for social collaboration. Organizations around the world are struggling to understand which tool to use when -- but this is the wrong premise. In this session, we'll discuss the broader concept of 'conversation as a service' and how Microsoft Teams, Outlook Groups, Yammer, and SharePoint all fit together -- and show you how to get the most out of all of them.
How structural collaboration leads to value propositions in the financial sectorTom De Ruyck
Structural collaboration involves integrating customer input and feedback into every phase of a company's decision-making process on an ongoing basis. This allows customers to provide insights, help develop new ideas and concepts, and ensure proper implementation by verifying company interpretations are correct. Only 3% of companies currently develop new products and services through this level of customer involvement. The key benefits are creating better products and service, increased agility to adapt quickly, adding "consumer feeling" to strategic decisions, and improving marketing and public relations. Successful structural collaboration requires establishing the right objectives, processes, and cultural mindset.
1) Sustainable value creation requires establishing well-defined cross-functional processes and high-quality information source control.
2) Capturing relevant information at the source and maintaining it in a standardized database helps avoid duplicity of data and reworking while allowing efficient use of information across teams.
3) Implementing seamless integration of information workflows and technology tools is essential for successful companies to establish source control and disseminate information across organizations.
The white paper by Marty Parker, Principal, UniComm Consulting and Co-Founder, UC Strategies, emphasizes the ways in which improved collaboration maturity pays off for organizations. You will see how improved collaboration capabilities can provide great ROI by enabling your organization to go faster or to use less resources or be different from or better than your competition. Each of these types of returns are grounded in the actual case studies of real life customer successes.
This document discusses optimizing video conferencing solutions for meetings with onsite and remote participants. It argues that while video conferencing is useful for connecting remote workers, it is not well-suited for collaboration in meetings. Specifically, using video conferencing for in-room meetings is inefficient and limits collaboration compared to technologies designed for sharing content and collaborating. It recommends that organizations invest more in collaboration technologies and integrate them with video conferencing to better serve all meeting participants.
Planning your Digital Workplace: A Systems-Based Planning ApproachChristian Buckley
When deploying a “Digital Workplace,” where do you begin? What is needed is an iterative, strategic, and systems-based approach of identifying core challenges at the team and company level, working with key stakeholders to identify appropriate strategies, building a solution using a scalable, repeatable, and sustainable change model. This approach drives stakeholder engagement, and ensures a more holistic solution that aligns with the needs of the business at every level. In this presentation, we walk through a systems-based planning approach for Enterprise Collaboration. Topics will include:
--Engaging leaders in a systems analysis, identifying high-priority needs and challenges
--Outlining a set of targeted and strategic actions based on common customer scenarios
--Developing an implementation plan to support successful operational and improvement strategies
The intent of this presentation is to help organizations incorporate systems-based planning into their Digital Workplace planning processes, using real-world customer examples, and to receive tips on how to fold these best practices into their own strategies.
How structural collaboration leads to value propositions in the financial sectorInSites Consulting
In the (post-)crisis era, challenging the status quo through innovation will be critical to restore profitability in the financial sector. The commoditisation of products within the industry is making it very difficult to compete on price. Moreover, a whole array of non-banking entities is entering the market to close the gap between the offerings of banks and the needs of customers. Suddenly, banks face competition from telcos, supermarkets, tech firms and innovative start-ups, all experienced in building online relationships and developing and marketing transparent products.
In this paper we explain how financial institutions can install structural collaboration trajectories with key stakeholders (consumers, employees, management) in order to develop true value propositions consumers are willing to pay for.
Collaboration involves two or more people working together towards a common goal. While social collaboration platforms provide tools to facilitate collaboration, true collaboration is a human activity that depends on interpersonal skills and behaviors. To maximize the benefits of collaboration platforms, organizations must take a holistic approach that addresses personal development, organizational development, and use of collaboration technologies. A collaboration framework provides a roadmap to identify business benefits, align development interventions with platform deployment, and address common challenges through established best practices.
The communication and training resource book is actually over 700 pages. I’d like to eventually make it all available online. The book preview is 106 pages and illustrates the use of web-based technology for engaging real-time measures, contribution, and delegated results. The book showcases EmployeeTalk Technology in the process, and examples dialogs and concepts in the application of methods, techniques, and tools. I focus on development in over forty core competencies that can help anyone wanting to grow with their organization. One of the main focuses is on follow-through actions, exercises, and other book readings to help performance growth.
Tips for Managing a Geographically Dispersed Team Cureo
Technology Has Enabled a New Way to Work
Coworkers collaborate from offices across the globe. “Going to work” is less about driving to an office than it is about getting things done. The following slides provide tips on using technology to in the increasingly dispersed workforce.
Similar to Profitable collaboration whitepaper (20)
Survey: The state of agency-client collaboration 2012Central Desktop
We surveyed more than 500 marketers and agency folks about their biggest challenges in working together. This in-depth report of our findings reveals that 40 percent of creative agencies lose business because they lack collaboration tools.
Product Innovations with Central Desktop - July 2012Central Desktop
Make sure you're taking advantage of the latest product enhancements. If you're a heavy database user, you'll definitely want to see what's new.
Jared Allen of our Customer Experience team demonstrates:
- Database improvements: learn how to notify users via email when database records change, prevent everyone from creating duplicate records and leverage runtime filters to quickly switch between different sets of records.
- User interface changes: we've simplified how you work with Central Desktop SocialBridge® via drag-and-drop file uploads, fewer buttons in Files & Discussions, improved calendar scheduling and more.
- Project overviews: a new summary view lets you add tasks, check recent activity, and identify both upcoming and overdue items. If you don't have any tasks or milestones in a new workspace, a new training message walks you through how to get started.
- Document sharing: you can now send guest links that expire on a particular date to people who are not part of your workspaces.
Get Connected with Central Desktop - July 2012Central Desktop
In this monthly customer webinar, we chat about collaboration, answer your questions and highlight some things you may not know about using Central Desktop SocialBridge®.
This month’s topic: task management – part 2
Last month, we focused on project-management best practices. This month, we’re rolling up our sleeves and showing you how to do it with SocialBridge®. This webinar is geared to users who are new to our project-management capabilities and covers the basics:
- How to create milestones, task lists and tasks
- How to specify that one task happens before another
- How to use our built-in reports.
You want more people to talk about you — but how do you create a word of mouth marketing campaign? In this popular webinar, you’ll learn how to energize your fans and generate positive word of mouth about your brand.
We’re going to get specific here: Where to start, what to do, and how to make it successful. Guess what? It’s common-sense stuff that you can use the next day without a big budget.
Isaac Garcia, collaboration expert and CEO of Central Desktop, will moderate a lively, interactive discussion with Andy Sernovitz, author of Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking.
Get Connected with Central Desktop - April 2012Central Desktop
Wondering where to go next with Central Desktop? Want to learn how others are innovating with Central Desktop? Great – because we have answers! Come to our next monthly webinar to interact with users like you.
In each session, we chat about collaboration, answer your questions and highlight some things you may not know about using Central Desktop. Most importantly, we give you the opportunity to discuss innovative usage with other customers.
Alan Bush, Central Desktop client services representative, and Susan Fujiki, implementation consultant, Central Desktop, discuss a timely topic and then take your questions.
During this webinar, Alan and Susan will cover some helpful hints for reorganizing your Central Desktop workspaces. This will also include topics such as archiving files, folders and workspaces; backing up old workspaces; using member groups; using Central Desktop product usage reports to determine what to keep and what to remove; and much more.
Collaboration Insights Webinar: The 9 Types of CollaboratorsCentral Desktop
When your organization adopts a collaboration platform, you quickly learn that some of your co-workers are uh ... well ... special. They just don't work the same way you do, and now these differences are both apparent and transparent.
Who ARE these people?
Meet the 9 Types of Collaborators, from the Stealth Ninja who lurks in the background to the Socialite who posts a new status update 15 times per day.
Isaac Garcia, collaboration expert and CEO of Central Desktop, moderates a lively, interactive discussion. Joining him are:
* Jenn DePauw, Senior Director of Operations at The1stMovement digital communications agency
* Alan Bush, Client Services Representative at Central Desktop
They provide:
* Brief overview of all 9 types of collaborators
* Interactive quiz to help you identify your own collaboration type
* Words of wisdom from leaders of collaboration deployments.
Webinar - Can your company survive without connectedness? w/ Oscar BergCentral Desktop
In a global and rapidly changing business landscape, collaboration is emerging as a competitive differentiator. The technology exists for companies of all sizes to break down geographic, departmental and hierarchical silos. So why is the social enterprise not the reality for most organizations?
Oscar Berg, collaboration expert and author of The Content Economy, explores:
* What keeps your company from embracing social business practices
* How to tell if your company is late to the collaboration party
* How to drive organizational connectedness – from the bottom up or the top down.
Central Desktop's Collaboration Insights Webinar: "Stop Pushing, Get Your Tea...Central Desktop
Most collaboration deployments rely on luck, or a hope that buying the best will make for collaboration success. You'd have better odds playing the lottery than expecting that kind of strategy to work out.
The unfortunate truth is that most collaboration implementations are not designed and pre-loaded to solve actual business problems or to expedite the daily work that real employees need to get done on a regular basis. As a result, most collaboration deployments are doomed to failure.
Dan Keldsen, collaboration expert and principal consultant at Information Architected, shows you how to stack the odds in your favor
Can you be successful without a plan for rolling out your collaboration initiative to users? Maybe. But it's going to cost you more and take you longer, and there's no guarantee your users will fully embrace it in the long run. Join collaboration expert Michael Sampson as he explains how applying the necessary time and resources upfront pays dividends.
Media Publisher Finds File and Content Management Tool Central Desktop
Growing media publisher Olympia Media Group chooses Central Desktop as it's primary content management and sharing tool, and successfully connects over 100 employees and 300 writers across the country.
Webinar Deck - Successful Strategies for Internal CollaborationCentral Desktop
Most people think only large, enterprise companies need to collaborate internally but SMBs can have some of the same collaboration issues, just on a smaller scale. This webinar will cover best practices for supporting remote teams and how to pick the right tools to support profitable collaboration.
Central Desktop has released a new Microsoft Office plugin called Central Desktop for Office. The plugin allows users to access and collaboratively edit Office files stored in Central Desktop directly from within Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. It offers features like real-time co-authoring, change tracking, and offline editing. The free version allows basic file access and saving, while additional premium features like co-editing require an annual $30 per user subscription. The presenter demonstrated the product and took questions from the audience.
User Adoption Strategies for Collaboration Software Central Desktop
This document discusses strategies for user adoption of new collaboration tools. It presents a four stage model: 1) Winning Attention, 2) Cultivating Basic Concepts, 3) Enlivening Applicability, and 4) Making It Real. Common strategies like training are not the most effective; more effective strategies include executive support, real-life scenarios, and eliminating other options. The document provides case studies and survey findings on user adoption, and recommends resources for further information.
The Agony and Ecstasy of Building & Scaling Inside Sales Central Desktop
The document discusses building and scaling an inside sales team. It defines inside sales as phone-based sales that can be effective for high-volume, lower priced products. It provides examples of inside sales structures and metrics to measure success. The key aspects are hiring the right sales leadership and reps, focusing on lead qualification, outbound prospecting, account management, and iterating based on metrics like customer acquisition cost and lifetime value.
Learn how to develop a six step strategic framework for thinking about, installing and driving business-oriented adoption of Central Desktop within organizations.
1. Profitable Collaboration for SMBs
Executive Summary
Collaboration has many different definitions, but whatever your definition, applying a few principles found in this paper can
make small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) achieve profitable collaboration both internally and externally with clients.
Collaboration is about relationships and interaction, and a holistic view of collaboration (People, Process and Technology) is
the most successful way to look at enabling better client relationships. New Collaboration 2.0 tools that are cloud-based offer
great options for SMBs with little or no up-front costs, and these browser-based applications are available on almost every
platform.
This paper looks at three rules for good collaboration tools, how to select the right tool for the right process, and examines case
studies of how different SMBs have used these tools to their advantage.
September 2010
2. What is Collaboration?
Collaboration is one of those terms that everyone seems to have a different idea
about what it is. Is it communication, coordination, virtual teams, distributed
project management, real time interactions, or maybe some of all these things?
What is Collaboration?
I created my definition of collaboration many years ago, and it still works well
today:
“Multiple coordinated interactions
“Multiple coordinated interactions occurring between two or more people that occurring between two or more
include the transfer of complex information for some common purpose or goal.”
people that include the transfer
It is important for SMBs to understand why collaboration is critical to
organizations of all sizes and that it can help you to not only get new clients, of complex information for some
but to keep the ones you have. It is also important to realize that business is all
about relationships and maintaining them. Often, to be able to get the most out common purpose or goal.”
of collaboration, it is not a matter of simply implementing new Collaboration 2.0
tools that make the difference. It can require a change in the way you think.
A Holistic View of Collaboration
Adopting a collaborative technology often requires a new mind set and a
different way of looking at things. Since all the tools we create are extensions of
our mindset and beliefs, collaborative tools are no different. Therefore we need
to shift to a holistic view of collaboration (not a tool-centric view). This new People Process
Virtual
view of collaboration is holistic, and puts a much higher value on the people and
Teams
process aspects of collaboration than the technology, which is only about 20% of
the solution.
Technology
Figure 1: A holistic view of collaboration
2
3. What is Profitable Collaboration?
Collaboration is already prevalent today. In Figure 2, from a study in March of
2010 on “The State of Collaboration,” we can see that more than half of business
people collaborate on a daily basis.
Frequency of Participation in Collaboration Projects or Efforts
Less than
monthly Monthly
3% 7%
Hourly
9%
Weekly
28%
Daily
53%
Figure 2: 53% of those surveyed collaborate on a daily basis
But is it profitable collaboration?
Profitable collaboration happens when the right collaborative technology is
applied to the right process, at the right time and creates a big win. Collaboration
is about relationships, and relationships are the way to keep long term clients,
and increase profitability. It is also the path to more effective and efficient
interactions, which also leads to profitability.
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4. How to Define Profitable Collaboration
There are four primary ways of defining profitable collaboration, some more
tangible than others:
1. Saving time or money – the most tangible benefit
2. Increasing quality
3. Innovating and/or providing decision support
4. Easing access to and interactions with subject-matter experts
Warning Signs that Collaboration is Not Profitable
There is also a downside to not implementing collaboration correctly, or not
having collaboration at all. The biggest indicator of this is that your client
relationships start going south. But how do you know they are going south?
Below is a list of some warning signs that your relationships are not working:
• People are angry with you
• The wrong supplies or people show up
• Your level of frustration is high
• Your partners are defecting
• New competitors are eating your lunch
• You can’t change quickly enough
• No one can see alternatives
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5. Collaboration Challenges Faced by SMBs
So why is it so difficult for SMBs in particular to take advantage of
collaboration? There are a variety of reasons for this, one being simply that
collaboration is difficult. A second reason is that until the last few years, most
collaboration tools were built for large enterprises with IT departments, but
SMBs either have small or no IT resources to apply. SMBs are also much
more price sensitive than the enterprise, so collaboration software has to be
inexpensive ($10-20 per person/per month) as well.
A third reason is that most collaboration tools are unnecessarily difficult. In
many of the companies I have worked with (large and small) I found that any
impediment to collaboration, even something as small as an additional sign-
on, will drop adoption by 50% or more. The reason for this is that users of
collaboration tools need to feel empowered the first time they use them. These
tools need to be familiar, easy to navigate and intelligent enough to help the
users have a good experience.
Cloud-based Collaboration is Critical for SMBs
The recent migration towards Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) or cloud-based
tools has been a boon to SMBs. They are easy to use and require little or no IT
support to implement. In most cases, SMBs can sign up for a free 30-day trial
before committing to pay month-to-month or on a yearly basis. Let the software
vendor worry about keeping the servers up, adding new features and supporting
the software if it is needed - you will always have the most recent release.
The other benefit of these SaaS applications is that most of them were designed
for the web, not migrated from the desktop to the web. These web native tools
gave vendors a chance to shed a lot of the complexity that came with desktop
tools. For example, I am writing this white paper in Microsoft Word. What
percentage of Word functionality do you know and use? About 90 percent of the
hundreds of features in Word go unused because users generally don’t have the
time to learn them. This is true for most SMBs. They don’t have time to learn
because the pace of their business is so fast. That is why the ease-of-use rule is
so important (being able to use any of the tool’s functions with only one or two
clicks).
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6. Selecting Collaborative Tools
Most enterprises go through five stages of evolution with collaboration
technologies, but this is usually more abbreviated in smaller organizations
like SMBs. That is why groups, teams and even departments within larger
organizations are quicker to adopt collaboration technologies than the whole
enterprise. Many of the tools for these organizations are focused on internal
collaboration (SharePoint, Chatter, Connect, etc.) However, because SMBs have
fewer employees and often less geographic distribution, internal collaboration
(within the organization) tends to be easier to achieve. However, it is external
collaboration (outside the organization) that helps with the relationships where
your clients are, and where they need to be supported.
The Right Tool for the Wrong Purpose
Although these collaborative tools may sound like a silver bullet, they do not
always meet all of your needs. Sometimes you may have the right collaborative
tool, but are using it for the wrong purpose. You can technically write a report in
Excel (I have seen people do it) but it is not the right tool for that job. Similarly,
email gets pressed into service for messaging and coordination when email is
good at only one-to-one or one-to-many interactions, but not many-to-many
interactions.
Here is a story of the right tool meeting the wrong need. There was a village
in Africa, and every day the women of the village would set out to get water,
walking with large jars on their heads. They walked 12 miles each way every The right collaborative tool for the right problem
day. One day, someone from the United Nations was in the village and saw the
women leave each day to get water. Without asking the women, he decided that
the village needed a well. So a wonderful well was built in the middle of the
village, but none of the women used it and they continued to keep walking 12
miles each way to get water. Finally the UN employee asked the women why
they were not using this perfectly good well.
The women replied “because walking to the river gives us time with each other
and away from our husbands.” This shows how easy it is to get the right tool for
the wrong use.
6
7. Finding and Understanding the Problem
Most SMBs don’t have the time to investigate the over 2,000 collaboration tools
on the market today. That is why SMBs need to first understand their problem in
order to help them find the right solution.
One of the best places to look for problems is in processes that have
collaborative leverage. There are seven critical processes we find in any business
(no matter what size) that have collaborative leverage:
1. Sales & marketing (proposal development)
2. Customer service/support (exception handling)
3. R&D (new product or service development)
4. Value network management/relationships with external organizations,
project management (exception handling)
5. Training (internal and external)
6. Decision support/crisis management
7. Corporate or project planning
For example, a company that is collaborating on a sales presentation would
ordinarily need to email copies back and forth to update it. This creates multiple
versions of the same file sitting on multiple computers. This is the type of
process that can cause relationship problems and is usually a fertile ground for
solutions with collaborative tools.
What to Look for in Collaborative Tools
Now that you’ve defined the problem, it is time to start looking for the
appropriate collaborative tool to solve it. Evaluating tools based on the
right criteria will aid in this process. Here are the four things to look for in
collaborative tools:
1. Applying the appropriate technology to the problem/challenge
2. Ease-of-use (1-2 clicks to do anything)
3. A tool that does not get in the way of the conversation, but rather
facilitates the interaction
4. A tool that ties into the user’s native, familiar environment (Outlook,
Office, email) to keep the learning curve small
7
8. Rhino Bill’s Search for the Right Collaborative Tool
(Case Study)
Rhino Bill, an Ohio-based provider of Medicare Charge Billing software, is a
good example of a company that defined its problem, and then sought a solution.
Approximately 18 months ago, Rhino Bill was searching for a collaborative
project management tool and began the process of evaluating various solutions.
Rhino Bill felt Basecamp, although simple and easy to use, did not have enough
power for what they needed to do in the agile software development process,
and Daptive and AtTask were overkill and expensive. The company found that
Central Desktop’s online collaboration platform provided the best mix of cost
and features. Rhino Bill began using Central Desktop and has been using it to
run the company for the last year and a half.
Rhino Bill was also building some new software called “Cloud 11.” According
to Jenni Robertson, Business Manager and Scrum Master at Rhino Bill, “We do
agile development of our software; that means we do new iterations about every
two weeks. We spent a lot of time looking for the right tool to support our four
full-time employees and six additional contractors on the development team.
Although we are based in Ohio, our team is very distributed and we needed
a central place for all of our documents. But it was Central Desktop’s task
management features that convinced us that it was the right tool.”
In this case, Rhino Bill was able to narrow down the type of collaborative tools
they wanted to evaluate to a general tool category (project management). Since
they are technologists, they had a good idea of their issues and the functions they
needed to solve them. With this in mind, they were able to test and select a tool
based on price and feature fit.
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9. Measuring Profitable Collaboration
One of the interesting problems about collaboration that affects everyone (no
matter what size organization) is determining if it is working and how well it
is working. This requires metrics… but since the value of most collaboration is
indirect and intangible, it can be very hard to measure directly.
Let’s take the example of an astronomer looking for a black hole. Black holes
have such a high gravity; they absorb light and so cannot be seen directly. So
how do astronomers know they are there and how big they are? Astronomers
look at the more visible astronomical objects around where the suspected black
hole is. Because of the high gravity of the black hole it affects other planets, the
moon, asteroids, and even the dust surrounding it. These things can be measured,
and through them the astronomer can calculate where the black hole is, and its
size and strength.
The same principle applies to collaboration. Since it is hard to see or even
characterize for most people, it is best to measure the things in an organization
it affects. Let’s examine a few scenarios that yielded measurable benefits as a
result of effective collaboration.
Using a Collaboration Tool to Save Time
Let’s say that you are working on a report for a client and you need the input
and expertise of a few people outside your organization. You can set up a virtual
workspace using a collaboration tool like Central Desktop and invite those
experts into the workspace.
In the meeting you may require some documents that are part of the report to aid
in the discussion with these experts. These documents can be uploaded one at a
time or loaded in a batch into Central Desktop where everyone can access them.
This way there is “one golden copy” of the document and not many versions
floating around in different people’s email inboxes. An online conversation
about the documents can be done through a discussion forum and the project’s
progress tracked through Central Desktop’s task management functions.
As a result, you are able to finish the report three days faster than if you did not
use a collaboration tool. This type of time savings is one of the most common
and easiest ways to measure the benefits of collaboration.
9
10. Lightner Property Group Gains a “Virtual Staff
Member” (Case Study)
In this next example, a property management and development firm, Lightner
Property Group (LPG), was also able to experience a measurable benefit of
using a collaboration tool. The company needed a solution that would help
them streamline many of their manual and tedious processes. After being
in operation for 25 years, Lightner Property Group had accumulated a vast
amount of information and data that was all stored in dispersed filing cabinets,
laptops, and hard drives. The company had protocols for key resident and tenant
communications; however, staff members had to manually perform all steps,
which expended a lot of company time for a fairly standard process.
Using Central Desktop, LPG was able to upload all their data online, where
clients could easily access their own information from their respective
workspaces. Central Desktop’s workflow solutions also allowed LPG to
automate its resident and tenant protocols. For example, whenever a tenant filed
a work order request, Central Desktop would automatically send an email to a
vendor to let them know they’ve been assigned the work order.
As a result of using Central Desktop, LPG saved valuable time and resources,
which is essential for a small business. The time that LPG employees previously
spent on many of the company’s manual processes was eliminated. In fact,
LPG says that Central Desktop alleviates so much work that it has become like
“another staff member.”
10
11. Fuzebox Saves $1M on One Project (Case Study)
For those of you who prefer to measure benefits in terms of cost savings, we’ll
examine how Fuzebox, a global consulting and technology firm, was able to
save money through its use of Central Desktop. Fuzebox’s larger client projects
were very complex and could last several years, so they needed a collaboration
tool that would keep them organized. Specifically, the functions that they needed
include: the ability to check in/check-out documents, manage workflows and
host web meetings, as well as allowing both internal and external members to
share communications in real-time, and effectively help monitor projects on an
ongoing basis.
Like other SMBs, Fuzebox looked at everything from Basecamp to SharePoint.
After choosing Central Desktop for its feature set, they initially began with five
users, but today there are over 150 people using Central Desktop on a daily
basis. Fuzebox was able to realize the most tangible benefit of collaboration
– cost savings. Central Desktop was used to manage one of Fuzebox’s largest
international projects, and has already saved $1 million dollars in travel,
organization, management and overhead costs for this project alone.
11
12. Measuring Collaboration ROI
What other metrics can be used to show the value of collaboration? Assigning
value based on an outcome is another popular way. For example, getting a
project for a client done early, as mentioned in a previous example, can result in
earning you a new project with a $100K contract. Would you assign all of the
$100K value to collaboration? Of course not, but perhaps you would assign 10%
or even 25%.
So working collaboratively has now earned you $25K. At what cost? A typical
cloud-based collaboration tool ranges from $100-$200/per month (for a 10-20
person company) so let’s estimate an annual cost of $2K. If the value received
(on this one client) was $25K, that is a 12:1 return (ROI). Even if the annual cost
for the tool was $10K, you have a good return, which more than justifies (and
pays for) the collaborative tools you are using.
However, I don’t believe ROI is the right question to be asking. Collaboration
on its own has little value, but when applied within the context of a process, it
gains value that can be (to some degree) measured. While measuring ROI may
make your accountant happy, a better question to ask yourself is “how is this
moving my company forward?” Is collaboration helping you get (and keep) new
business, retain old business, be more productive and make new partnerships
and alliances?
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13. Conclusion
If you want to be more productive with the few resources you have, and retain
and grow your client base while making little or no IT expenditure, then I invite
you to look at cloud-based collaboration tools like Central Desktop. These
vendors are focused on SMBs, as opposed to larger vendors that have hamstrung
their enterprise offerings and labeled it as an SMB version. Often these tools
don’t take into account the special collaboration needs of the SMB, and can be
expensive even in the SMB version. Instead, look at tools for SMBs that were
built in the cloud and are native to the cloud as they have better performance,
are at a better price point, and often require little or no initial investment. Using
these tools can help your business share information, work more efficiently and
improve the quality of your client relationships. All of these factors will help
you and your business become more profitable.
About the Author:
David Coleman is the founder and Managing Director of Collaborative Strategies and is the author
of four books on collaboration, the two most recent being Collaboration 2.0 and 42 Rules for Suc-
cessful Collaboration. He is a frequent blogger at a number of sites like collaborate.com, and writes
a regular column for eLearning Magazine called “Collaborative Thinking.” When not doing research
and writing industry reports on collaboration, David works with large and small organizations to
help determine their collaboration strategy. He also works with collaboration vendors on: demand
generation, partnering, and product roadmaps. David can be contacted for speaking engagements,
workshops, or consulting at: 650-342-9197 or davidc@collaborate.com, or dcoleman100 on Gmail
or Twitter.
13
14. Central Desktop
About Central Desktop Main Headquarters
129 N. Hill Ave, Ste. 202
Pasadena, CA 91106
Central Desktop delivers a complete, pure Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) collaboration platform that
allows business teams to communicate and collaborate more efficiently. As a top SharePoint alternative, Orange County
130 Chaparral Court, Ste. 100
Central Desktop’s collaboration software solution allows business teams to interact, share and manage
Anaheim Hills, CA 92808
their daily work activities from anywhere at any time. Key Central Desktop customers include the
Humane Society of the United States, CBS, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Netflix, (866) 900-7646 Toll Free
(626) 689-4458 Sales
Gymboree, Workday and Harvard University. Founded in 2005, CentralDesktop is a privately-held
(626) 628-3283 Fax
company with headquarters in Pasadena, California. For more information about the company, visit
http://www.centraldesktop.com. www.centraldesktop.com