Collaboration has always been a key to a successful business.  Whether working on a project or sharing documents as part of standard business operations, numerous people need to see and act on information quickly.

While ad-hoc communication uses tools like Teams, Zoom, and Slack, most people collaborate through documents.

As organizations settle into new business norms, working remotely is very common for a lot of people.  A recent analysis by leading research firm Gartner predicts that by the end of 2023, 48% of knowledge workers will work hybrid and fully remotely. 

Hybrid workplaces require new methods of collaboration since employees and contractors may work a few days in the office and a few days remotely.  They need to collaborate securely with colleagues, partners, and customers regardless of location to stay productive and meet deadlines and goals.  While video chat and instant messaging let you communicate, most of us work together to complete a project or develop ideas using documents.  You need to easily share documents, make sure everyone is working on the most recent version, and guarantee that only authorized users can see the information inside.

Deploying a collaboration platform on the fly is not something you can do overnight, since it costs both time and money.  The fastest way to hit the ground running and share files without losing valuable time is to use a cloud-based system with a web interface.  This keeps projects on track with minimal disruption.

A key ingredient to secure collaboration is not burdening your employees or third parties with making security decisions.  Wrapsody eCo is a secure and reliable collaboration platform that encrypts all shared files and makes it easy to collaborate securely. By configuring workgroups with built-in policies and permission management, your employees continue to work without worrying if decisions don’t follow policy.  You can set an expiration date for your projects or revoke access to documents immediately, which simplifies security for users.  They have a job to do and don’t need to worry about setting security policies.

Users can easily create a workgroup for a project and define security parameters, like permissions on downloaded files or view access to a document in a browser.  Project managers can invite employees, partners, and customers to the workgroup with a few clicks.  As project members upload documents, they are automatically shared with the workgroup.  Authorized users get real-time and email notifications of document changes so interested parties are informed immediately of updates.  Each workgroup has a centralized policy making it easier to enforce security on all documents.

Sometimes members of a project team need to interactively review a document.  Creating a quick video chat with all authorized users of the document is usually faster than typing into a chat or instant messaging window.  Wrapsody eCo lets you connect your Zoom account so you can quickly schedule a meeting from within the portal and get your business done.

As people work from home, they may fall into bad habits like downloading documents from protected cloud applications to work on locally.  This is especially true if they do it out of frustration because the internet is slow or they are having problems with their VPNs.  That could lead to emailing files, only exacerbating unsafe data handling practices.   Secure in the Wrapsody eCo environment, downloading documents locally is a non-issue.  When a user downloads a file, they can only open it if they have access permissions.  If someone accidentally sends the file to an unauthorized user, the unauthorized user cannot view the contents.  Of course, if you send it to someone who should access it, they can easily request access.

Remote workers could be anywhere, not only working from home.  With our current hybrid and mobile working environments, people time shift schedules and work almost anywhere and anytime.  When collaborating it’s critical that project members work on the latest document.  Finding and using the latest documents is always a problem since most of us use numerous devices and can’t always be sure what’s current. 

If you update a financial spreadsheet, for example, you can’t work on an old version.  With Wrapsody eCo, you always work on the current version.  As soon as you update the file and close it, it automatically syncs to a central location.  This works whether you are accessing the document on your work laptop, a home PC, or opening it from a cloud location.  The next time you open it, you get the latest version, secure in the knowledge that your data is protected and only available to authorized users.

This even works on your mobile device.  If you are running to a meeting or trying to catch up in an Uber, you can review the latest document on your phone or tablet.  If you want to see a previous version, that’s as easy as a few taps.

Another problem with collaborating is making sure you get input from everyone.  Rather than sending emails to everyone bugging them about reading the document and providing questions or updates, you can comment on the document and have it appear in real-time on people’s devices.  You can also send a view alert to quickly bring it to everyone’s attention.

You can also review logs of user activity on the document.  It tells you who viewed and edited the document and when.  If someone edits a document locally or in a browser, the document updates to a new version upon saving it.  If you need to retrieve an earlier version, it’s a click or tap away.

Working remotely has become standard for a lot of people.  Collaborating securely and effectively can ease the burden and ensure your data security controls protect your most sensitive information.  And that should give you peace of mind.

Learn more about how Wrapsody eCo makes it easy for your remote workforce to securely collaborate.