Organisations embracing online collaboration tools

Over two thirds of firms are actively using some sort of collaboration software, Computing research finds

Employees in over two thirds of organisations actively use at least some form of collaboration software, taking advantage of the benefits it offers for productivity and efficiency.

That's according to research by Computing, which surveyed over 100 senior IT professionals on the extent to which collaboration tools are used within their company.

It found that the software is, for the most part, being enthusiastically embraced. In total, 68 per cent of IT professionals indicated that their organisation is using at least some form of collaboration solution.

Of those surveyed, 39 per cent revealed that their business uses Microsoft SharePoint, Lotus Notes, Office365 or Google Apps "and little else" for collaboration purposes.

A handful of organisations - 12 per cent - told Computing that they have invested in an enterprise-grade collaboration suite in order to give employees as many collaboration options as possible.

At the other end of the scale, 17 per cent of respondents allow - or turn a blind eye to - staff use of consumer-grade collaboration tools such as Dropbox or Evernote, and do not have any official company collaboration systems in place.

So it seems that organisations that are not embracing some sort of collaboration technology are in the minority. Just 29 per cent of those questioned said they do not use any specific enterprise-grade collaboration tools, preferring to stick with standard office apps, instant messaging and email to collaborate.

Over half of those surveyed expect to use more cloud-based collaboration tools in the next five years, while 35 per cent believe that collaboration solutions will become more heterogeneous, resulting in further blending between in-house software and cloud-based platforms.

Some expect to move all their collaboration tools to the cloud. Around 23 per cent predict that their in-house software will disappear entirely to be replaced by pure cloud-based platforms, possibly from multiple vendors.

Meanwhile, just nine per cent revealed that they thought the use of cloud technology in collaboration would decrease.

With so few subscribing to this view, it looks like collaboration technology is here to stay and will only get more pervasive as more enterprises embrace the cloud.

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