The number of people who are working from a virtual office has proliferated by almost 80% between 2005 and 2012. Collaboration tools have become indispensable in this scenario, getting people together from all parts of the world, increasing productivity, encouraging teamwork and creating synergies and efficiency.

Listed below are some major pros and cons of collaboration software.

Pros

• Enabling remote working: Collaboration software allows companies to bunch the best-suited people for a project regardless of their physical location using just the internet. Members can become efficient and increase productivity by not being chained to desks. For example, the versatile Slack runs on mobile apps and web browsers.
• Ease of reporting: Collaboration software can quickly generate detailed and updated project reports by assimilating data quickly. This helps team members in not losing track of activities and helps them during reporting time, saving energy, money and time. Asana, Liquid Planner, Basecamp and Teamwork enables viewing of regular progress report using tracking tools and to-do lists.
• Document collaboration: The e-mails being sent back and forth can stop once collaboration software comes into the picture. For instance, Cloud-based collaboration tools allow documents to be easily edited and uploaded, immediately alerting other team members of the same. This ensures that the latest version is available without confusion, allowing changes to be reflected instantly and work flow to be organized and rendering external storage unnecessary.
• Time saving: Collaboration software allows for real-time conversation to take place without wasting time searching for e-mails, etc.

Cons

• No project management tools: Popular collaboration software such as Google, Asana, Sococo and Slack do not offer tools for project management, which will go a long way in maximizing the team’s productivity.
• Steep costs: When one collaboration software doesn’t cater to all nitty-gritty needs, costs spike. Moreover, training costs are incurred to train members to use the tool.
• No communication tools: Some collaboration software lack a comprehensive cluster of basic communication tools. For example, Slack doesn’t have an ‘away’ or ‘idle’ option for an inactive member, Sococo doesn’t feature spellcheck or file sharing and Basecamp.
• Privacy policies: Not all collaboration software rank high on privacy. One of the popular features for strengthening security online is the two-step authentication. The ones such as Teamwork and Asana, which otherwise have great collaboration features, lack a two-step authentication during sign-in.