We can all list a small but consistent issue at work that throws off our groove.

This includes everything from misplacing notes, waiting on email responses for minor inquiries, or forgetting which tasks are dependent on others.

While none of these is a massive problem individually, these obstacles can add up over time. And when you apply those issues to a team, everyone feels the slowdown.

Team collaboration tools aim to smooth out challenges that hinder workflow at every level by facilitating rapid communication and creating clear roadmaps for a project’s progress. It’s easy to find one-off software solutions to organize your team’s goals and promote rapid communication.

A team collaboration tool aims to keep employees on the same page, ensure no siloed team communication, and complete objectives. A good example of a team collaboration tool is Microsoft Sharepoint, included in Microsoft 365. This software allows users to share and handle content, knowledge, and apps to boost teamwork, find information quickly, and collaborate seamlessly.

The collaboration space is bustling, and making sense of the noise can get in the way of finding solutions that guide your team to a more organized and communicative future. A great place to start is reframing the way you think about collaboration tools, including their functions and intended uses.

Who uses team collaboration tools?

Collaboration tools are useful to organizations and agile teams of all sizes. Collaboration software helps people within a company work toward a common goal. Collaboration tools are usually cloud-based solutions that users can access anytime, anywhere, with a computer, tablet, or smartphone with Internet connectivity. 

If you need real-time document editing, secure file sharing, or seamless project collaboration, check out the top cloud content collaboration tools.

Importance of using team collaboration tools

Analysts predict the value of the collaboration software market to reach $13.58 billion by 2024. With newer improvements in technology and an increase in remote workers due to COVID-19, there's a rising need for collaboration software.

Improved productivity

Shared data and organized conversations help colleagues achieve goals with focus. With applications like Microsoft Teams for workplaces included in Microsoft 365, teams communicate, set up meetings, make calls, determine availability, and find old conversations.

Improved information sharing 

Employees can look up the information themselves through a team collaboration platform instead of relying on specific colleagues. Microsoft Sharepoint from Microsoft 365 helps companies maintain a singular database for employees so everyone can find essential information quickly. 

Better alignment

Employees can be so glued to work that they lose sight of their company's overall goals and values. Collaboration software provides regular notifications about internal changes and updates so that employees can apply them during their work every day.

Better output

Office suites such as Microsoft Office help employees create, share, edit, and critique documents across multiple formats such as word documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. Using solutions like this prevents employees from having to switch between multiple software applications constantly.

Features of team collaboration tools

Team collaboration tools are highly prevalent in the market, and there are lots of options for you to choose from. From suites such as Microsoft 365 to standalone products, it can be confusing to pick the right collaboration tool for your organization. Here are some features you need to consider: 

• Messaging. Team collaboration tools feature an instant messaging solution, such as Microsoft Teams, included with Microsoft 365. The messaging tool helps provide real-time communication and spaces or groups to improve cross-functional collaboration within organizations. 
• File sharing. Solutions such as OneDrive with Microsoft 365 help co-workers share files quickly,  a key component of a team collaboration suite. Teams can either do this through the instant messaging application or a standalone solution to store large amounts of important files. 
• Search. Team collaboration tools come with advanced search features to help users quickly find the content they need. 
• Document collaboration. Team collaboration tools come with document collaboration, such as the key feature in Microsoft Word. It allows users to view and edit other documents in real-time. 
• Video conferencing. Some team collaboration software solutions offer video conferencing so users can join a meeting and collaborate wherever they are. 
• Task management. Microsoft To-Do is a primary example of a powerful task management solution. It allows users to create and manage projects, as well as track them in real-time.
• Calendar. Many team collaboration solutions offer the ability to view and manage individual and team calendars. These calendars can also integrate with email solutions and project management and task management software.

Four types of collaboration software

Collaboration tools are incredibly varied in their functions. The functionality of these tools ranges from rapid communication to task tracking to business mission statement planning. With the variety of products on the market, it can be difficult to understand the breadth of options available.

However, the collaboration space becomes more approachable when organized by structure and fixed functionality. Tools that offer more freeform spaces for time management, collaboration, and communication are less structured and more flexible in their features.

Other products that offer stricter functionality, such as task assignment or project planning, can be described as more structured and fixed in their intended use cases.

Communication tools

No one enjoys combing through long email chains to find a single sentence confirmation. Communication tools help facilitate instant peer-to-peer interactions to avoid the usage of more formal and long-form tools.  

Tools used for rapid communication like Teams, included with Microsoft 365 for Business, are among the least structured collaboration products, allowing companies to use them to solve myriad problems and shape their role in their software ecosystem.

Some common types of communication tools are:

• Internal communication tools: You would be hard-pressed to find a company that doesn’t use some form of internal communication app. Internal communication software provides employees with a tool to quickly communicate with one another or their team, akin to a text or an instant message.
• Video conferencing tools: Face-to-face communication is undoubtedly the best way to hash out ideas or communicate with coworkers quickly. Video conferencing software helps make those conversations possible when distance would otherwise pose a barrier.
• VoIP providers: Similar to video conferencing, VoIP software offers the convenience of real-time communication to address immediate questions and concerns quickly. Many VoIP offerings work over an internet connection, so users can connect via audio conferencing from across the globe without using a phone.

Organized collaboration tools

Tracking down finalized decisions or discussing ideas from meetings can be an inconvenience. This selection of products helps collect and manage otherwise unorganized ideation and brainstorming. However, they are still more freeform in their usage compared to more broadly focused products.

Types of organized collaboration apps include:

• Meeting management platforms: Everyone has dealt with disorganized meetings that go nowhere. Meeting management software aims to provide structure to the freeform processes of project planning, brainstorming, and decision-making.
• Idea management tools: Brainstorming sessions within a team can be an effective method for pooling information and coming up with the best solution to a problem. Idea management software formalizes this process and helps create a mind map, providing a space to capture and store ideas for review and implementation down the line.
• Board management products: Board members and other company leaders use board management software to provide the tools to collaborate during meetings and make informed decisions about long-term goals. This software is unique in that they blend some collaborative aspects with the decision-making focus of roadmap tools.
• Note-taking apps: It’s always helpful to jot down notes from meetings as soon as they come up. Note-taking management software allows users to store all notes in one formalized app, ensuring they are organized and searchable. Some note-taking apps even allow for collaboration so multiple people can access notes for reference later.

Time management tools

Remembering all the tasks you have to complete is already a challenge on its own, but when you add contingencies and overlapping deadlines, it can all become overwhelming very quickly. Time management products are focused on providing structure to day-to-day responsibilities by breaking them down into digestible tasks and offering reminders for deadlines.

These tools are more structured compared to the ones previously discussed. However, they are more focused on the daily activities of teams, and their short-term scope still gives them more flexibility than their more long-term-focused cousins.

Types of time management tools include:

• Task management tools: Staying on top of daily tasks and remembering deadlines can become daunting when work keeps piling up. Task management software offers a clean checklist of tasks that can be ticked off as tasks are finished. The user either creates tasks themselves or is assigned tasks by a supervisor. Others can be notified when a task has been completed.
• Calendar software: Integrated calendars are an excellent check-in system for busy teams. Many calendar software provides a team calendar where members can post when they expect to finish projects or when they plan to be out of the office.

Roadmap tools

The concept of planning and executing an entire project or product release is anxiety-inducing. Thankfully, there are plenty of specialized tools aimed at providing structure to the lifecycle of a product or project or for planning a company’s long-term goals.

This selection of tools is the most rigid of the offerings discussed. They bring very straightforward organization with little wiggle room for freeform usage. However, this isn’t negative; teams want to have their long-term plans well thought out and broken down.

Common types of roadmap tools are:

• Project management software: These tools break down large projects into smaller tasks that can be assigned to individual people with contingencies and deadlines in mind. Many project management software either double as a task management tool or integrate with one, giving individual team members a pipeline of tasks to complete, which contribute to a larger project. There are also many free project management software tools available for individuals or teams on a budget.

• Strategic planning products: Deciding on a company vision or business mission statement is already a massive undertaking. Actually, planning and tracking progress toward those company goals only adds to a seemingly impossible task. Strategic planning software seeks to organize the process of building a mission statement, creating a plan for its execution, and then following the overall progress toward that goal.

Benefits of collaboration tools

The essential software solution in a company is a team collaboration tool, and selecting the right set can make a huge difference. 

The right of collaboration tools, such as those included with Microsoft 365, can highly benefit a company and create a huge impact. 

Here are the benefits of implementing a team collaboration tool in your company: 

• The right work culture. A centralized team collaboration software helps employees think again before sharing negative comments on a forum since the entire organization can view it. It allows employees to work better and focus on team goals instead of having unproductive conversations. 
• One place for everything. Switching between multiple applications can cause unproductiveness in the office, yet many people still do it. Team collaboration tools help prevent this and improve productivity. 
• Transparency. Teams without siloed communication can quickly perform tasks and fix issues. Team collaboration tools improve the visibility of calendars, reports, and other important documents to help employees stay accountable.
• Improved teamwork. Since team collaboration tools bridge siloed communication, it helps them reach out for quicker support and resolutions to queries. It also helps them work faster together.

Challenges of team collaboration tools

Even with team collaboration tools, too many people involved in a project can cause misunderstanding and confusion.

Some other challenges of collaboration tools include: 

• Inability to define key performance indicators (KPIs) and set clear objectives
• Increased competition among employees can cause roadblocks to knowledge sharing and genuine collaboration 
• Purposeful lack of transparency within a team negatively impacts team members 
• Underperforming members cause negative effects on the entire team, leading to ineffectiveness and conflict 
• Reduced engagement causes the inability to identify and tackle problems instead of working together to find solutions 
• Indecisiveness and disagreements among leaders create unclear expectations and delayed deadlines. 
• The clash between different departments that use different collaboration tools and methods 

Your entire collaboration ecosystem

No single type of product is inherently better than another. A project management tool isn’t necessarily going to help facilitate peer-to-peer communication, and an internal communication app won’t offer the same broad, long-term view of team goals to keep people on track.

These aren’t hard-and-fast delineations either. Many collaboration tools appear in multiple categories across the spectrum, depending on the functionality they provide. Collaboration tools also tend to integrate with one another to create a cohesive, seamless software ecosystem that supports your team wherever it’s collaborating at the time.

Businesses should aim to pick an array of products from the different structure levels to ensure employees have the option of working with multiple solutions. Focus on identifying your company’s shortcomings and finding software solutions to fill in the gaps. This can mean choosing one blanket product that covers all the bases or using a few products to create comprehensive coverage.

Choosing the best collaboration software for your team can be hard. Thankfully, there are many options. Learn more about how productivity software helps you improve your work and enhance team communication.