Not only are the virtual teams a great convenience for employers but they are increasing as an alternative method of working for employees as well. Many more people are finding the convenience of working from home today than ever before. They are saving money when it comes to sitters, commuting costs, and many other aspects that a typical job can entail.

While virtual teams may be in different parts of the country, team collaboration tools will allow communication no matter the distance between the members of the team. If team members need to have an online conference, communication, or the exchange of business data of a secure nature, the collaboration software can make this happen.

When you are in doubt as to whether your time is being spent wisely by your employees, the collaboration software can keep track of this, which is management’s way of knowing what their employees are doing. Virtual teams need to be able to use this software to stay in touch with each other so the clients are taken care of professionally. If they need to contact a client the software will allow this as well.

In order for these virtual teams to work they need to have the real time communication that allows them to communicate with each other, their superiors, and their clients. The access they need to up to date information is extremely important when dealing with clients and is an absolute must when speaking with them about the business that is being taken care of for them. The use of outdated data is one thing you definitely do not want to happen. When they need to share files, audio and video the means are available when using this software.

Collaboration tools are one of the most effective ways of allowing virtual teams to do their job in the easiest way possible. The savings this resource instigates when it comes to the relocation or travel of employees to remote areas of the world has been well worth the wait. The sharing of information across time zones and the ability to collaborate with others to arrive at the solutions needed is one of the most effective methods ever created.

The needs that allow the collaboration of these teams are very simple. The ability to communicate in real time, the ability to share audio and video, files and photos, manage project objectives, assets, and jobs. The most significant need is the team members have to be able to do their job so their work completes the team’s objective.

Team collaboration tools are so much safer than the older way of communicating via email and IM. The use of these methods left them wide open for hacking by those who might gain from the information they could get from companies. The security of collaboration software is much more effective than the previous methods. Resources can be shared without the fear of it falling in the wrong hands and the use of collaboration software is a much easier way to communicate no matter what part of the world the workers are located.

When team members use the collaboration tools of which there are many, the ease with which they can rearrange the items in the pages they are working on is as easy as the work one does in office or word documents. The process is not hard and it is catching on very quickly. The customization of these tools can be made to fit your company’s needs in no time.

The insertion of tables and images and any other work is put in as easily as adding them to your office documents. It just could not be much simpler to use the collaboration tools to fit the needs of your company and capture any information that you specify. Rest assured the web-based team collaboration tools are safe. They are password protected so the business data is secure. 

Just a few of the more popular team collaboration tools are:

Basecamp

Backpack

Central Desktop

Zoho Office

HyperOffice

Smartsheet

Google Docs

Office Live

SharePoint

For affordable, on-demand user training for SharePoint – check out our video course on the E-Learning Center. I also provide real-time one-on-one training, support, and customization for users of SharePoint Services.

Andrea

Andrea Kalli Virtual Trainer and Assistant, LLC

www.virtualassist.net

Article by Andrea Kalli

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I only wish moving or copying SharePoint items from lists were as easy, but alas …

The instructions I’ve provided below are based on a hosted SharePoint environment, but you would use the same process for a non-hosted environment. There are a few different ways to accomplish this, but today I’m showing you how to use the Explorer View within SharePoint.

A few simple steps – that’s all there is to it.

1) Open the document libraries in both the source location and the destination location at the same time. You could use two different tabs in your browser, or open two different instances of your browser, it doesn’t matter which. Just so long as you can see each of the document libraries open.

2)  Change the view to Explorer View. There’s a dropdown near the upper right to change views. If asked for your password, enter it once. If asked again, simply hit the cancel button. You’ll eventually get to the Explorer View after about 3 times of doing this. It’s strange. Something about the hosted environment. I don’t know what.

3) Select all the folders or files, except the Forms folder. Right-click > Copy.

4) Switch to the destination document library. Change it to Explorer View. Right-click > Paste.

5)  Change your view back to All Documents.
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Creating 14 videos is no small task, trust me, I know. I’d like to thank him for going above and beyond.

http://communityclips.officelabs.com/User.aspx?cid=-226744010422865504

Andrea

Andrea Kalli Virtual Trainer and Assistant, LLC

Affordable, on-demand video tutorials at our E-Learning Center

Article by Andrea Kalli

Take a stroll over to my Facebook Page and become part of my community. I invite you to become a fan and participate in the conversation.
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• For SharePoint IT folks:  April 28 to May 2, 2008 – 5 Days to a Successful MOSS Deployment 
• For SharePoint pros, IT generalists, IT directors/managers responsible for SharePoint deployments: May 1, 2008 – SharePoint Pro Live Roadshow

Personally, I’m signed up for the second one. It’s more up my alley.

The first one is geared toward installation and configuration of a MOSS site, so WAY too technical for me. It’s put on by Bob Mixon, a very respected name in the SharePoint industry. If you’re an IT person that has been tasked with the implementation of a MOSS site, but it’s very new to you, then this is the ticket for you.

If you haven’t already signed up for one of these two seminars, there is still time. Neither are free, but both are well worth the price of admission.

Andrea Kalli

Article by Andrea Kalli

Take a stroll over to my Facebook Page and become part of my community. I invite you to become a fan and participate in the conversation.
Certified Internet and Social Marketing Assistant

I met with a local gentleman last week whose company, BPFast LLC, does SharePoint Development. Their tagline is: The Fastest Way to Business Process Automation. It’s the perfect description of what they’re all about. Providing targeted SharePoint solutions in a shorter amount of time than you would expect, AND for a lower cost than you would expect. What a great combination!

What they do (excerpt taken from their website): We specialize in applying out-of-the-box features of Microsoft Office 2007 and SharePoint to meet your goals. This approach helps reduce the cost of creating your solutions. We quickly build business solutions by configuring SharePoint and Office.

What I really like about them and what makes them stand out from the crowd is that they focus on smaller development projects that REALLY utilize the integration between the Office 2007 products and SharePoint to bring Reporting, Workflow, Electronic Forms, etc. to the table for a fraction of what you would normally expect to pay for a SharePoint development project.  Perfect for small to medium sized businesses where their development budgets are tighter than a large or Fortune 500 company. 

To see an example of what combining a Microsoft Office application and SharePoint can offer, check out a whitepaper they wrote called Access 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Integration

Check them out at www.bpfast.com.  Don’t be fooled by the fact they they focus on smaller development projects. One of the owners, Cliff, is a SharePoint architect with 20 years of consulting experience. Their dedication to helping small businesses is quite admirable.

They could take you or your client’s SharePoint usage to the next level and make it an even more powerful tool than it already is.

I’ll be posting an interview and demo at my podcast site (once I record them), so be sure you’re subscribed there as well.

Andrea Kalli

Andrea Kalli Virtual Trainer and Assistant, LLC

www.virtualassist.net

Check out our E-Learning Center for affordable, on-demand video tutorials on Outlook and SharePoint.

Article by Andrea Kalli

Take a stroll over to my Facebook Page and become part of my community. I invite you to become a fan and participate in the conversation.
Certified Internet and Social Marketing Assistant