Posted on: 13-04-2021

Real-time collaboration tools in 2022 - 7 benefits you get from using it

Real-time collaboration: Improve the company’s performance easily thanks to CKEditor 5 collaborative editing software!

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It’s not enough to say they make our experience better. They transform our lives, letting us always be up-to-date and stay tuned. Real-time features are today’s great facilitators, and you probably take advantage of them every single day. Real-time feed, live streaming, instant messaging, video calls, push notifications, online file sharing as well as live order status updates, tracking, and other eCommerce applications are only some of the everyday examples of how real-time apps and technologies enhance our existence, reflecting the fast pace of today’s world.

And the same goes for real-time collaboration — the lifeblood of progressive organizations. Its numerous advantages are something modern teams — whether working remotely or on-site — simply cannot go without. Well, they can, but they really shouldn’t if they want to stand out from the crowd, move onwards and upwards, and keep afloat in the race for greater productivity. Those unable to catch up with the technology train, probably will not be here with us soon. There are many problems real-time cooperation solves and many advantages it offers. But in case you are still on the “no, thank you, maybe later” side, here is the list of the 7 most loved benefits you get from real-time collaborative editing.

# 1. Collaborative tools help optimize content workflow and content creation

Real-time collaboration is a powerful and versatile tool that helps getting out of chaos. The workflow is managed better, in a smooth and trackable way and it’s easy to assign tasks. There are no unexpected glitches, no confusion, everything is expressed simply, and communication may be threaded. Project management as well as document or knowledge management is optimized, improved, and easier, as multiple activities may be handled at once. Also, you don’t need tools for checking your team members’ progress either, as everything is clear and easy to assess.

# Online document editing in a single application

Additionally, the access to the software and day-to-day operations is easy as everything is kept in one place — users may stay within your WYSIWYG editor as they do not need to switch between third-party applications, and copy-paste content from external resources to get the work done. No external applications such as Google Docs or Word are needed as you have an equivalent to them — CKEditor 5 — right within your single mobile app. It comes with ready-to-use, customizable features you may use if you need, or discard. On top of being modular, CKEditor’s collaborative solutions are customizable and may be suited to your specific needs, which together give an unrivaled convenience.

# Real-time collaboration — flexibility at its fullest

Here, content creation is centralized but on the other hand, you may grant access to selected parts to particular employees when needed. CKEditor 5 enables user presence list and, unlike many other solutions, does not limit the number of connected collaborators. But flexibility is taken to an even higher level. With a real-time editor, teams may be organized ad hoc to work on particular projects or documents, across the organizational division. And when another need arises, the entire team may be completely rebuilt to suit it better.

# Use collaboration software and track changes synchronously

What’s more, employees may access those collaborative tools easily, anytime and from anywhere in the world, no matter if they are early birds or night owls. It’s easier to gather people to collaborate online, but if you want this cooperation to be fruitful, you’d better make it a real-time one. With it, you don’t need fancy tools like remote desktop control, or screen sharing because real-time collaborative editing lets you observe and track changes synchronously. No need to guess (or ask others) which version is the most up-to-date one, as everything will be clear in this regard, too, thanks to the upcoming revision history feature.

# 2. Real-time collaboration helps reach flawless effects

And have you heard of the synergistic effect, based on many contributors’ input? The combined, overall outcome is greater than just the sum of all contributions that get strengthened and augmented. One way to achieve this is through real-time collaborative editing. Thanks to real-time collaboration, work gets done faster, everyone is encouraged to have a say, and great results may emerge out of it. That is especially the case when the contributors are people from all over the world, of different backgrounds, locations, and cultures, and with varied experience. Variety of ideas and looking from different angles always result in the added value.

# A good team communication tool: high quality at one click

When the editors may cooperate in real-time, it’s easier for them to speak up than if they were to communicate, say, via email. It might be that they wouldn’t want to “bother” the team (or themselves) to write a single message about just one minor issue. And within CKEditor 5 they may write their comments the way that can’t be overlooked. Let’s not forget that high quality is made of thousands of minor issues that somebody addressed and resolved.

# Collaborative editing — accuracy that may save the project

Also, collaborative writing tools are multi-user ones, so every team member is heard, and has a sense of empowerment, even being shy. For some people, it’s easier to share their thoughts in writing than speaking. With real-time collaborative editors, they can present their ideas to the world being self-assured. And because we live in the sharing age, this may be good training to get used to the fact that we are not as anonymous as we used to be anymore. Plus, some people need feedback that they are doing OK to keep going. And collaborators’ accurate comments at an early stage may change the whole project, and also save a lot of time.

A good real-time collaboration tool CKEditor 5 is, can help find the perfect solution for all that you want to express. For instance, if you run a FinTech company, it can be utilized in processes and tools like document management, risk management, project management, idea management, legal contract management, credit scoring, customer communication, procurement management, and content management systems.

# 3. Real-time collaboration tools trigger greater productivity

Of course, all the things mentioned so far eventually result in greater productivity. And of course, triggering greater productivity is one of the main reasons why real-time document collaboration and CKEditor 5 have been introduced. Since then, quick and fruitful discussions and exchanging remarks on the content with collaborators have become an everyday routine for millions of its users worldwide. Thanks to lightning-fast adding, deleting, and editing (e.g. a to-do list), as well as replying and creating threads, employee interactions became more efficient, and there is no need to supervise the team that much.

# Lowering business risk with online document collaboration

All this may have an immensely positive impact on the organization’s condition, lowering business risk considerably. Why? Everything is clear content-wise, you know what people are doing every day, you can track the stages of ongoing projects, and be more alert if deadlines are approaching.

Also, if you need to reuse, revamp, or paraphrase the existing content, you have it ready and easily accessible — no need to search the particular employees’ mailboxes or desktops. This is a vital advantage as access to some files may simply be cut off because people who created them may no longer be your employees at that point.

With CKEditor 5, everything is gathered in one place, available with a single click.

# Collaborative editing — the empowering feeling of togetherness

What’s more, not only working together on a task, but even a sense of it, being aware that you are a team member, can inspire motivation and effort, boosting the person’s productivity, engagement, and interest in the task — a study conducted by Stanford faculty member Gregory Walton, and Priyanka Carr, showed. It also proved that the group work may turn out to be unproductive if team members feel their input will not be noticed.

For that reason, a real-time team communication tool CKEditor 5 is, seems to be a perfect solution here because, on one hand, it makes people feel they belong to the team and, on the other, that they can speak out in a secure environment. A real crowd or just too large a team could put a cup on their creativity and self-expression. Here, even if they are shy they still can share their ideas or opinions — a contribution they might not make if they were forced to meet face-to-face.

# 4. Real-time editing gives more freedom and fun

Greater productivity may also translate into greater satisfaction with work, and even result in a decreased risk of job burnout and a higher retention rate. Work-life balance is also an issue here, as happy employees, those who have more space and fun at work, tend to be more productive. If people don’t need to send emails back and forth but have a good, responsive, feature-rich real-time team communication tool as their everyday companion, their work is just much more pleasant and fun. It’s way nicer and stress-free to use and rely on something modern, fast, and intuitive than on old-time and inefficient editing solutions we’ve known for decades.

# Comments and track changes — available also in asynchronous mode

People can edit the content anytime they want and whatever their location, so they may rest assured that they will be able to finish a given task even after hours if needed. It’s worth mentioning, however, that some great collaborative features (comments and track changes) are available in CKEditor 5 not only in real-time but also in asynchronous mode in case tools for simultaneous work are something you don’t really need.

# Online collaboration tools — free access to priceless resources

The access to resources you are eligible to read or edit is also free, and this has great consequences, too. With CKEditor 5, everything is gathered in one place, available with a single click. Because the newest findings and the most up-to-date information are here for the whole team and people whom it may concern, the decision-making process is enhanced, with the possibility to become extremely reasonable and evidence-based.

# 5. Collaborative editing software saves time and effort

First, you create a document and write down your thoughts, next you send it to your colleagues as an attachment and encourage them to share their remarks with you. They either reply to your email — in a variety of ways and formats — or you organize a meeting where they speak out what they think, and you write it down in a document or on paper. Then, you come back to your desk and apply those changes within the initial document. All right, but you need to make sure it’s really alright, so the whole cycle is repeated. Sounds familiar, right? If that’s the case, then a real-time collaboration platform definitely can be your savior, making the whole creation process much simpler. You just need to do what thousands of others already did.

# Don’t let too many tools spoil the broth

Aligning content from different sources, and copy-pasting across documents is extremely time-consuming and ineffective. Too many tools do spoil the broth. But with CKEditor 5, you get the whole package of solutions that make the creation process faster and easier. Collaborators can write, comment and edit at the same time, as well as suggest, accept and reject changes. And, when tracking them, they may create discussion threads as this feature is combined with comments — that can be made either on the content itself or on suggestions regarding it.

# Live collaboration: no endless email exchanging, no resolution delays

Choosing the right WYSIWYG editor means you no longer have to perform endless email exchanges over revisions with the necessity to wait until somebody opens the attachment, and writes down the notes. Resolution delays become a minor problem instead of a major one. Also, no need for aggravating face-to-face or time-consuming online meetings anymore, as the powerful, and easily accessible team communication tool (that can even be called a project management tool) may be available at your desk, as well as on mobile devices. Timewise, client consultations may also be made via real-time collaborative editing software or a collaboration app.

# 6. Real-time collaboration saves money and helps make it

A real-time team collaboration tool like CKEditor 5 has everything it takes to create and enhance a modern workspace so you simply don’t spend money on useless tools or applications. Also, one of the reasons for hiring office space — the necessity to organize meetups for exchanging thoughts and discussing documents — simply disappears. Real-time online document collaboration is one of the pillars of remote work and something that makes people use technology to its fullest. On top of faster-paced work, and cutting expenses on tools you no longer need, you may choose cost-efficient cloud backend solutions to support collaborative editing.

# New business possibilities, extended market reach

Also, using a real-time rich text editor makes time to market a product shorter, strengthening the impact of clients’ businesses and increasing their competitive advantage as well as revenue. Real-time collaboration can simply open new business possibilities, as it was in the case of Tablo Publishing. It extended market reach and sales and established a new B2B model with collaboration as their massive headlining feature. Alex Eckermann, CTO at Tablo, admitted: “I realized CKEditor 5 saved us so many hours of development!” And Rick Nash, Managing Partner at Spotlight, added: “We’re now in the process of taking what we’ve built and selling it as SaaS to other AR professionals. We can now run our business bigger, faster, and better.”

# 7. Real-time co-authoring creates an innovative mindset

Real-time collaboration is about an innovative, modern mindset, so by applying it, you simply and inevitably become more up-to-date and innovatory. And once you try and test it, you get on the fast track to success in the innovative world by becoming its part.

# Scholars and business executives know it

A strong link between collaboration and innovativeness is well-recognized by both scholars and business executives. The former coined the term “Collaborative Innovation” and the latter can’t say enough about how strong this relation is. For instance, Marissa Mayer (formerly of Google) stated that “when you need to innovate, you need collaboration”, and Michael Dell put it even shorter — saying that “collaboration equals innovation”. But there’s also hard data to support those statements. In Nielsen’s 2014 Consumer Packaged Goods Innovation Report, collaboration was ranked one of the top three most critical factors for innovation success by professionals representing this industry. They said it was even more important than strong leadership and access to financial resources!

# Collaborative software: set your mind to the innovative mode

So, in today’s world, an innovative approach is simply a must, and the earlier we set our minds to the innovative mode, the better. Of course, we don’t need to be inventors of groundbreaking devices or technologies. It’s enough if we adapt it to our lives by trying to do old things, the new, more modern ways. We don’t need to be geeks to take advantage of the effective and advanced collaboration tool CKEditor 5 is, as well. It’s easy to implement, it runs in every browser, as well as on mobile applications on tablets, and it’s very user-friendly and intuitive, with a truly smooth integration.

# Innovate with CKEditor 5

Undoubtedly, CKEditor 5 makes progress easier, and we may expect some interesting breakthroughs here, as Tablo’s example shows. Alex Eckermann is already considering how to make use of collaboration in Tablo’s future projects. “There is a phenomenon called social writing. It would be interesting to have an author writing a book live and interact with the community around them. We haven’t tested that yet but we are excited to see where these collaborative features can take us.”

If you, too, are looking to enhance your software with collaboration features, don’t hesitate to try our real-time collaboration demo or contact us now!

You can read more on the topic of collaboration in our blog posts: