Enterprise Collaboration: Why You Need It & How to Improve It
Enterprise collaboration at its most basic level comes down to how a large organization communicates. It includes the various technologies and platforms that individual members of the organization rely on to discuss work, deliver feedback, and cross-pollinate their ideas. The use of enterprise collaboration software can also reveal a lot about a company's culture and how they assist or impede the exchange of ideas and information. Enterprise collaboration software is becoming more popular each day, as companies look for efficient ways to connect increasingly dispersed and remote teams. In fact, one survey noted that 60% of respondents planned to purchase some sort of collaboration software for their business. Here we talk about what enterprise collaboration is, why it’s important, and how directors and project managers can strategically use it to increase productivity. We’ll also go over frequently asked questions about implementation and introduce a new tool to help you get started. What is enterprise collaboration? Enterprise collaboration is the process of helping diverse teams work together — which sounds simple, at first. But, in a world where thought leadership and personal branding are still on the rise, many individuals are now being hired as specialists who function independently rather than generalists who are used to working as part of a team. Even if this isn’t your company’s hiring strategy, you may have noticed a recent uptick in contractor and support roles throughout various aspects of the organization. Either way, it’s up to enterprise directors and project managers to help these individuals function through one cohesive system even though they all may be miles apart, a one-time contributor, or have competing goals. In addition to providing support systems for day to day tasks, teams will also need help understanding what the big picture is, how each project supports that vision, and what contributions every team member is expected to make. Why is enterprise collaboration important? In an Inc.com article, Wrike CEO Andrew Filev points out two undeniable benefits of collaboration: By collaborating internally via social tools, wikis, videoconferencing, and more, you increase productivity. By collaborating externally with customers, partners, and vendors via user forums, blog comments, social media, live webinars, conferences, and meetups, you gather feedback that increases innovation. It makes sense that cross-functional team collaboration as well as external collaboration with stakeholders improves efficiency and effectiveness. When communication channels are open, it's easier to find the information you need or turn to colleagues and customers for feedback and assistance. In addition to this, collaboration helps organizations meet top business priorities such as improving business processes and reducing enterprise costs. The Aberdeen Group surveyed 299 organizations and discovered significant benefits of enterprise-wide collaboration: 53% improvement in customer service metrics 49% improvement in workforce productivity This data proves that enterprise collaboration helps teams and customers alike. When processes are improved and communication becomes more efficient, team members can focus on delivering value to customers. How does enterprise collaboration boost project productivity? Enterprise collaboration boosts project productivity through a holistic approach. First, you begin by taking stock of where your team is today. What tools, workflows, and systems are already in place? How do those help or hurt progress in the short and long term? After you have a good idea of which areas need improvement, you move on to strategy. Connect the dots between your business goals, project goals, and team goals by discussing them with your collaborators all at the same time. Before you can even begin to establish a new way of doing things, you have to get everyone on the same page. This is exactly what the first phase of enterprise collaboration does. Then it’s time to try new strategies, examine your results, and adjust as needed. These steps are often long and involved, but they’re key to figuring out how to maximize your team’s potential. As you go along, actively listen to what people say about their project productivity and be prepared to apply feedback on what is or isn’t working. When you approach project management through this lens, you’re able to boost productivity by bringing everyone in the loop through strong communication practices such as centralized document sharing and @ mentions that directly bring collaborators into the conversation without missing a beat. Laying all the components of your workflow out also helps anticipate breakdowns before they even happen. It also makes it easier to try new things. This is an essential part of increasing productivity because, as we all know, if you always do what you’ve always done you’ll just get the same results. What are the challenges of enterprise collaboration? The number one challenge of enterprise collaboration is complexity. With competing voices and priorities in the mix, it can be tough to sort out even the simplest workflows. For example, let’s say a marketing agency is collaborating with a freelance designer for a client’s website. If the client prefers to be extremely hands-on, you’ll need to have a strong enterprise collaboration system in place in order to prevent their feedback from derailing forward movement. Then there’s decision-making. Choices like task management, meeting arrangement, and workflow designation can benefit from the input of everyone involved. But if a project manager or director doesn’t create rules and systems, it’s really easy to miscommunicate, promise deliverables without consulting team members, and create other issues that leave a bad taste in the client and the collaborators’ mouths. Even if your team already has its own internal way of getting things done, it may be hard to bring new people into the fold as one-time contributors. Enterprise collaboration is meant to be agile so if your team needs to adjust their process at any stage, you’ll need to quickly accommodate, reforecast, and keep everything moving without missing a beat. At the end of the day, using enterprise collaboration in your business saves everyone a lot of time and unnecessary headaches even if it takes a little set up or getting used to. Enterprise collaboration starts with culture, not tools In the past decade, the number of enterprise collaboration tools has exploded. Although they're beneficial tools, they're not an out-of-the-box solution for an organization hoping for immediately efficient teamwork. After all, any technology that promises collaboration cannot bring about change on its own. There has to be a simultaneous shift in internal culture — from individual silos to transparent and generous sharing of ideas and resources. That shift doesn't happen overnight. It has to be something that your organization works at every day in the processes it puts into motion and in the policies it enforces. Good enterprise collaboration habits to instill into your organization You can begin to infuse enterprise collaboration habits into your organization on a macro and micro level. The three most important habits for both include: Consolidating all project updates to one single source so everyone can refer to the latest information with ease. Being conscious of realistic timelines for projects, phases, and even individual tasks. Taking care to work within realistic limitations on budget, resources, and personnel. Why you should invest in enterprise collaboration software One way to move toward enterprise-wide collaboration is to get teams accustomed to sharing information within a collaborative platform. Choose a platform that enables file sharing and open conversation outside of long email threads. You'll have to take baby steps to get individuals to voluntarily share their workloads, upload the files they're working on, comment on best practices, and even draw in other people into their projects for cross-team collaboration. But once something as simple as a habit of sharing information becomes ingrained in the company's culture, it becomes easier to build processes for wider collaboration between teams in the enterprise. Introducing Wrike as the enterprise collaboration platform for your company The best way to communicate company-wide project systems is through Wrike’s highly visual system that makes it easy to adjust as you go and add input from outside collaborators without sacrificing productivity. Chances are if you’ve been using the same old system even though your team and the world at large has radically changed, your usual workflow needs to be examined. Note what works, remove what doesn’t, and use customized dashboards to streamline the rest. Here’s a sample of Wrike’s standout enterprise project management features: Collaborator calendar management so that you always know how to balance the workload amongst your team even if they’re working on more than one project at a time. Visual timelines that allow you to drag and drop tasks to both plan projects before they begin and quickly adjust as you go. Internal messaging so that details like deadlines and meeting links aren’t buried in anyone’s email inbox. Review and approval cycles that plainly show other team members what’s going on at all times. Collaborator dashboard views you control so they can follow progress without getting too wrapped up in the backend process. In a nutshell, Wrike is a highly effective, full-scale solution for enterprise collaboration on projects of all sizes. With it, teams are empowered to work together with and not against each other. Take it step by step Your organization doesn't have to jump head-first into doing everything collaboratively. Start by creating space for individuals to connect within the organization and grow ideas with shared resources. It's about building an enterprise-wide framework for productivity, innovation, and velocity. Wrike can help your enterprise organization improve cross-team collaboration at every level. Start a free trial today and try it out with your team.
New Enterprise Features: Visualize, Customize Your Product Development Workflow
Workflows are unique to every organization. Each company creates and releases products in its own idiosyncratic fashion. That's why it's important to use tools that mold to your specific way of working, instead of struggling to do it the other way around. The latest features in Wrike Enterprise let users customize their experience so they can set up Wrike to fit the unique way they work. But what is workflow automation and how exactly can Wrike help? Finding the Right System Consider ACMEsoft, a (fictional) software development startup only two weeks away from launching their initial product — a game-changing wearable device that's platform-agnostic and powered by customizable open source code. Everyone is feeling the pressure to deliver, and cross-departmental teams are collaborating around the clock. But their product management vs product development team is encountering several huge problems: urgent tasks are falling through the cracks, and with people getting burned out and sick from all the sleepless nights they have fewer resources to accomplish the same amount of work. Plus, they're discovering that project management by email is a beast that is only hurting their efforts. So the ACMEsoft team is evaluating several enterprise project management solutions. They're finding it challenging to decide on a software that can adapt to their unique combination of Agile and Kanban. After a brief but intense review of the best product management software, the company decides on Wrike. How Wrike's Enterprise Features Adapt to Your Workflow With Wrike as their centralized work system, the product development team has streamlined their process. They no longer have to jump between their different tools (email, IM, bug tracker, cloud file storage) to find the latest information. And because of the flexibility of Wrike's folder system, they can create a workflow that matches their hybrid PM methodology. As users of the Enterprise plan, ACMEsoft uses the Critical Path feature to see the longest chain of dependent tasks for their project. The development team is then able to focus on the vital string of events that must be accomplished to meet their deadline. Once they review the critical path, they can reassign people to get those key tasks done on time, setting aside less important work to be completed only if there is time. They are also now able to customize their analytics reports and attach them to the dashboard — picking and choosing which charts (baseline, work progress, performance, tasks by users) greet them at every login. And with the new Wrike Enterprise, they're using multiple, Shareable Dashboards to create an overview that the whole team will see. Project managers can share project-specific dashboards with the team with their special Agile+Kanban-type widgets, and align everyone on overdue items, the project baseline, and progress charts. They can also share department-specific dashboards with executives to give a high-level snapshot of what's getting done. All this visibility into what's going on lets the entire company know which features are close to completion, and which deadlines are need more attention. Discover how Wrike's new Enterprise features can bring order to your chaos.
The New Wrike Enterprise: Customized to Fit the Way You Work
Picture a world where the systems and tools you depend on seamlessly blend into your work style without a hitch, from logging into all your critical systems with the same user credentials to quickly building and sharing custom views of everything that’s going on from the 10,000 foot level down to the most acute details. All at your fingertips in real time, anytime. Imagine no longer, as Wrike Enterprise now offers a suite of new usability, reporting, and integration capabilities that enable teams to customize Wrike to fit the way they already work. How, you might ask? Let’s dig into the new bells and whistles: Shareable Dashboards Visibility into team and project performance is core to long-term success, but few teams actually have this level of insight. With Wrike’s new Shareable Dashboards, users can customize and share Dashboards for specific projects with real-time activity streams and analytics graphs to quickly access the information users need most often. Custom Reports In order to truly understand what’s working and what’s not, you need to have complete control over your reporting tools. Wrike gives you that power by enabling you to build and save custom reports. This enhanced Enterprise feature helps you surface specific insights into projects, team, and personal productivity to ensure teams are running optimally. Critical Path Efficiency is the name of the game when it comes to managing complex projects with many moving parts. One of the best way to ensure your projects are completed on time is to leverage Critical Path Analysis. Wrike’s Critical Path feature in the Timeline View automatically visualizes the time it will take to complete a project to easily see if the team is at risk of missing a deadline. Okta and SAML Integration Nobody enjoys having to memorize numerous usernames and passwords. Wrike understands that pain and now offers compliance with SAML, allowing Wrike to employ single sign-on (SSO) login capabilities over the cloud so you can use the same logins with Wrike that you use for your other cloud services like SFDC and Google Apps. And with Okta integration, you can also leverage your corporate credentials via Active Directory to log into Wrike. Branded Workspace Teams can make Wrike feel like home by creating a Branded Workspace to replace Wrike’s logo with their own. This might seem like a small enhancement, but aligning your digital workspace with your corporate look and feel can make Wrike instantly recognizable to your users and increase overall adoption. Intrigued? Excited? Ready to give Wrike Enterprise a spin? These are just a few of the latest features in Wrike Enterprise. There’s so much more to Wrike Enterprise, you really need to delve in deeper to capture all the benefits for you and your team. To get started, go to the Wrike Enterprise project management page to access your free trial and start working better and smarter today! Want to see the new features in action? Join us for a free demo webinar on September 10th at 10AM PDT. Register now: http://go.wrike.com/wrike-enterprise-features-2014-09-10.html
Is Your Enterprise Struggling to Be Agile? 4 Tips to Get You There
Enterprises are struggling due to increased competition and greater customer expectations. Agile methodology can help enterprises succeed against more nimble competitors — but many are struggling to make the shift. Read on for 4 tips for a successful Agile transition, based on skills you learned playing Monopoly.
Fast, Easy, and Secure Logins for Enterprise Users: SAML + Okta integration!
Wrike continues to build on its Enterprise functionality, keeping the product secure and scalable for large organizations. Many of you asked us about SAML-based Single Sign-On and Okta integration, and now we're rolling it out to create a fast, easy, and secure user login experience. Simplified Logins with SAML As a leading industry standard, SAML lets Enterprise users log in to Wrike (or any other cloud app) using their existing corporate credentials. New users will save time creating and activating their accounts, and have fewer passwords to remember. (Hooray for fewer post-it note reminders and "Please reset your password" emails!) With SAML, setting up an Enterprise account is a breeze no matter how big your team is, since it cuts the time you’d normally spend creating huge groups of new users. In addition, SAML further improves the security of your login credentials, since IT administrators can manage all employee info in a central corporate directory that can’t be accessed by any of the cloud services the company uses. Single Sign-On with Okta Integration In addition to rolling out this long-awaited Enterprise standard, Wrike also integrates with a popular SSO provider Okta. If your company uses Active Directory or LDAP to authenticate corporate users, add Okta integration to the mix, and benefit from Single Sign-On to Wrike and across all other web applications. Okta is an identity management service that integrates with corporate directories, as well as on-site, cloud-based and mobile apps. With Okta, you only have to enter your login information once and you’re signed on to all your work applications and tools, including Wrike. If you don't have a corporate system, you can still benefit from the new smart Single Sign-On with the help of Okta. Just enter your credentials once to gain access to all your favorite cloud services without being prompted to log in at each of them. Ask our Support team to turn on the SAML Single Sign-On for your team, or add Wrike to your account in Okta.
What Is the Best Way to Enterprise 2.0 Implementation?
The Enterprise 2.0 conference wrapped up in Boston a week ago. Now, it’s pretty interesting to read the conference impressions here and there. Bloggers and journalists made various conclusions about what the major goals, messages and results of the event were. Here are a few picks: “Broadly speaking, the conference is a vehicle designed to make sense out of the social networking landscape made up of blogs, wikis, customer e-mails, web sites and forums, as well as cloud computing, that is increasingly critical to how business is conducted.” -- W. David Gardner, InformationWeek “Enterprise 2.0 is not just an event, but one with actual content - and plenty of networking. Oh, if you want to hang around with the rock stars of the social web, they hang there, too.” -- Paul Greenberg, ZDNet “The key message coming out of this conference? It's not about the deployment of technology, it's about adoption.” --Barb Mosher, CMSWire “The number UNO issue on the minds of this year’s customer conference attendees was: HOW THE >>>> DO WE DO THIS???” --Susan Scrupski, ITSinsider. One of the best answers was given in IDEO’s presentation “How to build collaborative software that people will actually use,” or at least it was the answer that’s perfectly aligned with my thinking and doing. Ben Kepes liveblogged his impressions about this presentation at Cloud Ave, and I recommend you have a look at them. Susan helped to organize Enterprise2Open, where I initiated an interesting discussion on Project Management 2.0. Thanks to those who came and participated in the discussion. It was a valuable experience. I plan to expand my presentation during the upcoming UTD PMI Symposium. It would be great to meet you there and hear your feedback and comments. Going back to the “how” question, here’s my own summary: Use software tools that foster collaboration and are easy to adopt. Make sure that new tools integrate with your existing tools (integrate with e-mail) and that new processes build on the foundation of existing processes (evolution instead of revolution). Make sure that there’s a core group of adopters who regularly contribute data to the software and spread the best practices. Refocus IT efforts from installation of on-premise solutions to integration of on-demand solutions.
How’s Your Enterprise Doing on Digital Transformation?
Where is your organization in its journey of digital transformation? Just beginning or well into the process? It’s not a simple path, and there’s no one “right” way for every organization to follow. Whether you’re just starting or it seems your organization has transformed, Wrike’s recent webinar can offer some food for thought.
What IS Wrike Enterprise? Watch the webinar recording to find out!
The larger a company, the more difficult it becomes to keep track of every project. That's where Wrike Enterprise comes in, with features optimized for companies with thousands of workers, projects, and tasks. But what sets the Enterprise version apart from other Wrike plans? We recently hosted a webinar to show everyone exactly what Wrike Enterprise can do for your organization, and how to take advantage of all of its features. If you missed it, don't fret! We recorded it just for you, and we're giving it to you here along with a short summary. We know that sometimes reading help pages isn't enough. So if you're a visual learner, this webinar gives you an in-depth look at every Wrike Enterprise feature and shows how it works in the real world. By watching, you'll discover: — Analytics: how to gather actionable insights from your projects — Folder Permissions: how to restrict or open up access to information — Branded Email Notifications: how to reinforce your brand on notifications with your logo — User Groups: how to easily @mention multiple people and draw them into discussions — Custom Calendars: how to clear up scheduling confusion and make more accurate project plans Every unique Enterprise feature smooths your project management and gives you clear visibility into the team's actions. And we have created an Enterprise PDF document describing all of our Enterprise features. Save it in your Wrike account or bookmark it on your computer for reference when you want to jog your memory about specific Enterprise benefits. There are a lot of awesome features in Wrike Enterprise to take your projects and your company to the next level. Check out the video, PDF, or our help pages for more complete details!
New User Audit Reports for Wrike Enterprise
We have launched the User Audit Reports, which give you powerful insights into user behavior, security compliance, internal and external threats, and user/group operational activities so that you can take corrective action to protect your data and streamline operations.
Get More Out of the Enterprise 2.0 Conference
is a great opportunity for networking, sharing ideas and learning something new. It puts all those things into a nice package, where each item fits well with the other. Besides, it’s an excellent relief from the daily routine. A lot of innovative ideas get born when you mingle with your peers, customers and media folks. What I really like about the conference is that the organizers offer a great variety of networking opportunities. Besides the intriguing keynote speeches and workshops, you’ll be able to participate in special programs, including Evening in the Cloud and Enterprise2Open. Evening in the Cloud promises a lot for those who want to explore cloud computing and its benefits. You’ll find out how to leverage your existing IT investments best and take part in the “speed geeking” session, during which 6-minute demos pitches will be presented to win a virtual $1M from the audience. The Enterprise2.0Conf “unconference” will be transformed into Enterprise2Open, a relaxed discussion of topics offered by organizers Brian Magierski, Ross Mayfield and Susan Scrupski, as well as topics presented by the attendees. I’ve submitted a session proposal for this event, and I’m looking forward to the talk. If you’re already registered for the conference, feel free to connect with me via MyE2 network. If you haven’t yet joined the conference participants, register right now and save 30% by using this code: CNAPEB20. If your budget is really tight, the Enterprise 2.0 Conference still is a not-to-be-missed opportunity for you, as you can attend a number of events for FREE.
Free Enterprise 2.0 Conference Pass
! Those who will be at the conference will explore the newest trends and practical information, brought together in one place. The conference includes: case studies from surprising pioneers, which will let you learn from others’ successes and challenges tutorials and sessions led by top thinkers, showing you how to make your business more adaptive to the ever-changing environment . keynote and plenary program, where industry visionaries will give their ideas about the future of Enterprise 2.0 Demo Pavilion, where you'll be able to see the latest technologies from established leaders and hot start-ups This is just the tip of the iceberg, so check out the conference page for the full line up of speakers and workshops! Full access to all tutorials and conference sessions will cost you $2,195. You can go there for free! I have a free pass for the conference to give away. Leave a comment on this post, telling me why you need to attend the conference. The author of the best comment will go to the exiting Enterprise 2.0 Conference for FREE!
How to Ensure the Perfect Work-Life Balance in Enterprise Companies
When you have a busy schedule it can be hard to figure out how to find work-life balance. Neglecting proper work-life balance can leave employees feeling burned out and unfulfilled. Learn work-life balance tips for employees and their employers with Wrike.
Meet Us at Google Enterprise Global Partner Summit 2014
This week, Google hosts its second annual "Enterprise Global Partner Summit" in San Francisco, where its partners from around the globe gather to learn about the latest innovations and upcoming Google releases. Our CEO and champion, Andrew Filev, is excited to be attending once again, representing Wrike as one of the top Google partners in the productivity and project management space. We have a long-term relationship with Google, and we were recently one of the first independent software vendors to transition into their relaunched Apps Marketplace experience. "I look forward to seeing everyone at the Google Partner Summit, catching up with our friends across the world, and hearing Google's announcements," says Andrew. "It's cool to touch base with such a great group of companies that are changing the way the world does business." Wrike keeps you connected with sources such as Google, which we know so many of you rely on daily at work. Our Gmail widget helps you work in Wrike without leaving your inbox. With Google Drive integration, you can attach files to tasks right from your Drive. You also can minimize the chance of projects slipping through the cracks by synchronizing your Wrike and Google calendars. We are always eager to meet more of our friends and customers, so if you're going to the event, get in touch with us. We look forward to seeing you there!
“Email is Dead…” To Be Continued at Enterprise 2.0 Conference 2010
I recently submitted a presentation to be featured at the Enterprise 2.0 Conference 2010 in Boston. My session will be called “Popular to Ubiquitous: How to Skyrocket Adoption.” In this future session, I plan to develop the ideas that I previously mentioned in my “Email is Dead… Long Live Email!” slide deck. By the way, my “Email is Dead” presentation was marked as “Hot on Facebook” and placed on slideshare.net home page, since the slide deck was talked about on Facebook more than any other document on SlideShare at some point. I really hope that the talk about skyrocketing adoption will generate even more interest. You can find the description of my session proposal at the Enterprise 2.0 Conference site and leave a comment there. I would really appreciate your support and feedback!