When workers are able to share their thoughts and insights seamlessly across an organization, the benefits are powerful. At businesses where workplace collaboration works well, products come to market faster and problems are solved more quickly, making organizations more competitive. Projects that get everyone's input from the beginning are less likely to get stalled later, when delays can prove particularly expensive. And bouncing ideas off other people generates a creative spark that can take programs to a whole new level.
A forward-thinking workplace needs to connect employees both to information and to one another, and they need to have that access “anywhere, anytime, and on any device," says Jacob Morgan, the futurist and author of The Future of Work. That means they need a strong collaborative platform.
Today's productivity and content management tools let workers share not just documents, but photos, PDFs, and other files — from any device and any location. They can also add notes and make changes without losing control of the iterations.