Must-Have Features for Your Collaboration Tools

• Author: Dennis Kennedy - Tom Mighell
• Pages: 199-207

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Must-Have Features for

Your Collaboration Tools

In this chapter, you will learn how to make good choices when

identifying and implementing collaboration tools in your prac-

tice or company. We’ll highlight those features of collaboration

technologies we consider to be must-haves, and provide a sim-

ple “feature calculator” table to help you compare the different

tools you are considering.

Although everyone’s collaboration needs are different,

there are some general features we believe are essential, no

matter which tools you choose. We have touched on many of

these features in previous chapters, but in this chapter we’ll

be more explicit. Consider this chapter as the starting point to

begin developing your collaboration strategy, and a good way

to organize your thinking. In some cases, the tools already used

by your collaborators will drive your decisions. However, the

collaboration tool (or tools) that brings you the best results

will be the one that embodies most of the features we discuss

in this chapter.

No—or Very Small—Barriers to Entry

Barriers to entry include costs, new software or hardware

implementation, training requirements, cultural changes, time

delays, and a variety of other factors. Collaboration is about

working together, and any tool that makes it easier to work

together is always better than one that makes it more difficult.

It is surprising how that point is often lost when people evalu-

ate and discuss collaboration tools.

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