When and why realtime document collaboration makes sense
Today's post comes to us from Hillary Cage of Treaty Collaborative Document Editing. Treaty allows you and your colleagues to create and edit documents, collaboratively and without leaving Salesforce.
When you think of your organization’s Salesforce implementation, collaboration probably isn’t the first word that comes to mind. However, take a step back and you’ll realize that Salesforce’s overarching purpose in your organization is to help everyone be on the same page and to make information accessible when needed. This is the first building block of collaboration, and as Salesforce becomes more integrated into your organization you will see real benefits to this increased flow of information. You’ll notice that there are more and more opportunities for collaboration, but it can be difficult to identify meaningful ways to collaborate and to find technological solutions for doing so.
One of the most obvious uses for collaboration in the workplace is document creation. This is also one of the biggest headaches in many organizations, whether due to the fact that documents are dispersed across many employees’ computers, different versions conflict, or the fact that incorporating many people’s ideas into a single document often involves emailing back and forth innumerable times. Realtime collaboration can cut down on creation and editing time, as well as frustration. If you’re thinking “What we do works fine. When would I ever use document collaboration?” read on for a few ideas.
To enhance conference calls or web conferencing
When you can't get the whole team together in one location, conference calls and web conferencing are today's go-to solutions. Working on a document via web conferencing is slow and cumbersome; one person has to take all the others' input and get it into a document while everyone else watches. Adding realtime document collaboration during conference calls allows everyone to participate and contribute whenever they are inspired.
To make quick edits
Realtime document collaboration technology makes it easy to add a quick edit like changing a few words or adding a new sentence. Instead of searching through your email to find a recent version, or waiting for the document to become unlocked in your organization’s document management system, documents can be changed instantly. Everyone will have the same version right away, no attachments necessary!
To outline a new document
In the early stages of a document’s life, sometimes you need a place to record ideas and share them with other team members. The document will continue to evolve, but an easily accessible space to jot ideas is crucial to making sure that brilliant but fleeting thought is recorded. Realtime collaboration excels at this, since everyone on the team can contribute and see how colleagues envision the document. This allows for more organic growth of the document, and can also help keep a consistent tone throughout the document.
Realtime Document Collaboration in Salesforce
Since the most effective tool is ultimately the one that people actually use, realtime collaboration within Salesforce just makes sense. Organizations do have a few options here, and perhaps the first that comes to mind is Salesforce’s Google Apps integration. This is a popular solution with a relatively long history, but it has a few drawbacks. First, your organization must have a Google Apps domain, and you must sign in to your account at that domain before creating or editing a document. Secondly, after selecting “Add Google Doc” from the Libraries page, you are sent to Google in a new browser window to work on your document. Finally, the content you create using the Google Docs integration is stored outside of Salesforce, on Google servers.
Treaty is an additional new option for realtime document collaboration in Salesforce. Treaty allows Salesforce users to quickly and easily create, share, and edit documents without leaving the Salesforce interface. Treaty is installed from the AppExchange directly into your Salesforce organization, and is accessible from the App Menu. After uploading a document to Salesforce Documents, Salesforce users can import it into Treaty and immediately being sharing and editing without leaving Salesforce. With a custom button, you can add the ability to create a new Treaty document to almost any page. Treaty documents are stored in Salesforce and only accessible by users within the Salesforce organization, so there’s little risk to document security.
Regardless of the method your organization uses for realtime collaboration, it is a tool that can significantly reduce the time spent perfecting new documents. Ensuring that documents are accessible in Salesforce also works toward the goal of keeping everyone in your organization on the same page and better able to move forward in your mission.
