Remote work has been a massive part of our day-to-day lives in 2020. With it came many challenges in adjusting to this new style of work; one of which is how we collaborate.

Collaboration within the office came in many different forms: whether it be wheeling your chair over to work through a task with a colleague, or lining up a meeting with the team to go through content on the big screen; these sorts of real-time collaboration tended to occur in-person.

There are, however, many methods to achieve this tight level of collaboration online.

While the worst of the pandemic is behind us in Australia and many of us are back at the office, the benefits of online real-time collaboration can still be enjoyed by teams that are once again in the same room.

Here are our Top 3 picks of collaboration tools to keep your team working together:

Microsoft 365 Suite

The vast majority of us are using Microsoft 365 products on a daily basis. We’re writing emails in Outlook, letters in Word, and building spreadsheets in Excel.

Of the many features Microsoft 365 offers that make it stand above the rest, collaboration has become a strong component of many of the major products in the suite.

To access this functionality, you simply need to upload your Word document, Excel spreadsheet, or PowerPoint presentation to OneDrive or SharePoint. Once it is stored here, you can share access to the document with team members and they will be able to open and work on it together in real time. This includes live updates, comments, and mentions.

More information on this functionality and details on how you can start enjoying the practical benefits of this collaboration can be found on Microsoft Support.

Google Workspace (formerly G Suite)

Google has always kept collaboration at the core of its office product offering. Google Docs and Google Sheets have long been the go-to for real time collaboration and they make this functionality very accessible.

Once a Document or Sheet has been created and saved, it can be shared with anyone; regardless of whether the invitee has a Google account or not. This allows for much more open sharing when compared to Microsoft 365, but can also be locked down to those just within the organisation as well. A complete guide on the different sharing options can be found in Google’s setup checklist.

Microsoft Teams

While also part of the Microsoft 365 Suite, Microsoft Teams brings with it a slew of other collaboration methods beyond editing documents in real-time. Being driven off the back of Microsoft 365 makes it very accessible within your organisation both in and out of the office.

Along with the ability to collaborate on documents as with Word, Excel, and PowerPoint; Teams also facilitates online meetings with screen sharing and remote control. These can very easily be setup and shared with those both inside and outside the organisation.

An overview of the collaboration features in Teams can be found on the Teams product page.

To ensure that your collaboration tools are set up as efficiently and securely as possible within your organisation, or to get a hand with switching to one of the above offerings, contact the Altitude Innovations team today.