What are the challenges of using multiple team collaboration apps?

Many companies are already using various team collaboration platforms today. But it is not easy to manage them effectively. So, what should companies pay attention to when dealing with multiple team collaboration applications?

Overseeing multiple collaboration applications can present a variety of challenges. This is an important topic because most enterprises use more than one collaboration platform—often spanning both team collaboration and unified communications (UC). Things get even more complicated when an enterprise works with external organizations, who are likely using a different collaboration platform than theirs.

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To a large extent, using multiple team collaboration applications is inevitable. Many applications are now cloud-based, and their user-centric nature means that individuals or teams can easily access the platform that best suits their needs without involving IT. Therefore, it is unrealistic for IT departments to adopt just one platform for all forms of collaboration. Instead, the focus should be on finding the best way to solve key challenges. At a high level, it is best to consider the issue from two perspectives: the IT team and the end user.

Challenges facing IT teams

Obviously, supporting multiple platforms places more demands on IT teams, especially when end users take matters into their own hands and start using consumer-grade products. These applications may not integrate well with other platforms, will be less functional, and may introduce new security risks. While they may be convenient for end users, they can be problematic for IT departments, so this activity should be avoided as much as possible.

Regardless of which platform is used for collaboration, supporting multiple platforms requires IT to manage more moving parts to ensure they all work together. Basic governance (which includes password management, usage policies, administrative controls, and industry compliance) will fall to IT and may require more resources. Licensing costs are another consideration, as there are no economies of scale when supporting multiple platforms. This can make collaboration investments more expensive than they need to be.

Challenges faced by end users

How employees interact with multiple team collaboration applications presents a different set of challenges, as each platform will have a different user experience. Some employees will collaborate better over video, while others prefer a mobile setup. Power users will seek customizations to make their user experience more personalized. All of these needs can’t be solved with just one platform, so collaboration can become a messy process that requires a lot of effort to break down those silos. This is an important consideration, as it would undermine the platform’s core benefit of making employees more productive.

These issues revolve around consistency in the user experience and can impact employee productivity. Basic functionality like chat, calendar integration or meeting management will vary across platforms, as will features like mobile support or browser-based apps supported by the platform. If phone calls are a key channel for collaboration, native public telephone switched network (PTSN) support is necessary and not available on all platforms.

A unified user experience is critical to the UC value proposition, so the more collaboration platforms and applications are used, the more difficult it is to achieve full and seamless collaboration. IT teams must be prepared to teach users how to work on multiple platforms using tutorials and other training methods to manage their hybrid deployment environment.