75 percent of employees rate collaboration and teamwork as very important and 86 percent of them believe that lack of collaboration is the reason behind most workplace failures. Organizations that collaborate and communicate effectively are 4.5 times more likely to retain their best talent

There is no doubt that collaboration is important to organizations, but achieving effective collaboration starts with picking out the right tool. For any organization, the ideal team collaboration tool can transform communication and boost the bottom line.

But if you are just starting to evaluate team collaboration tools, it can be overwhelming to navigate through the sea of options available.

Here are the most important features that an ideal team collaboration tool should have:

1. Cloud Storage

To collaborate effectively, you need a central cloud storage space which is accessible by the whole team so they can share work-related data and documents. It will serve as the go-to location for employees to reliably access updated versions of any file and collaborate with their team members effectively.

Cloud-based storage also makes it easier for remote teams to share documents, coordinate with the rest of the team members, and ensure everyone is on the same page.

A good collaboration tool can track multiple versions of the file and allow you to check and retrieve past versions in the case of any eventuality.

2. Support For Both Synchronous and Asynchronous Communication

When employees collaborate in real-time through phone calls, video calls, or instant messages, it is called synchronous communication.

Asynchronous communication happens when employees send a message without expecting an immediate response from their coworkers.

Both synchronous and asynchronous communication is important for teams to collaborate effectively. While asynchronous communication is preferred for day to day work conversations, synchronous communication is mainly used for routine team meetings or urgent discussions with team members.

The ideal collaboration tool should support both synchronous and asynchronous communication in order to streamline team conversions. It should have instant messaging, dedicated communication channels, and even video calling features so you don’t need an extra tool just to talk to your colleagues.

3. Cross-Functional

Cross-functional team collaboration happens when employees from different teams, departments, and verticals of a company come together to collaborate on a common goal or project. It creates a culture of continuous improvement, teamwork, and communication across the organization.

The collaboration tool you pick shouldn’t create silos where teams or departments within the company don’t have any knowledge about what their counterparts are working on.

Instead, it should help employees from different teams and departments communicate effectively in order to boost cross-functional team collaboration.

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