10 Things You Need To Know About Mobile Collaboration

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

Choosing a mobile collaboration tool is an important decision which is why there are 10 things you should consider before choosing one.

An Intralinks' whitepaper outlines just what to look for in your next mobile collaboration tool: from security to financial stability, it’s a guide to choosing the right software for your business.

1. Trust — Look for a company to be a long term partner, remember, some of your information might be sensitive and it’s important to trust who you choose to help your team collaborate.
2. Security — Your new partner should have experience protecting data. Checking their client list isn’t out of the question when you’re trying to determine if their level of security is right for you.
3. Mobility — Saving, copying, and printing of sensitive content and data are vital, and the provider must offer more than a data repository. The whitepaper asks, “Can you use the solution to support mobile workflows? Can the platform be used to run a sales presentation from a tablet? Will it let you amend and submit a contract?”
4. Collaboration — Your staff needs to be able to work together, and do it easily. Consider the ease of use of the tool and how it adjusts to track changes and save work from multiple users.
5. Integration Capabilities — “Select a provider that can leverage your existing enterprise IT investments, to reduce the costs connected with secure collaboration. Consider your provider’s ability to enable users to work within familiar technology environments, such as Microsoft Outlook or SharePoint.”
6. Compliance — Can the solution be adapted to your company’s policies? Ask if it can report everything you need, including audit trails.
7. Financial Stability — Making sure your partner is stable is important; if you want to build a lasting partnership, do your homework and make sure they’re financially stable.
8. Outside-the-Firewall Accessibility — Everyone you want to access the data needs to be able to do so. Don’t bother your business partners with downloading applications or installing plug-ins to view and work with your data
9. Information Rights Management (IRM) — Look for a tool that offers sophisticated IRM, with end-to end encryption of an individual documents and can determine who can view it, who may download it, who may edit it, and for how long they may access the content.
10. Customer Managed Keys (CMK) — Your new tool should give “you sole control over the ability to create and manage dedicated encryption keys to protect data in the cloud, providing you with absolute ownership of your most critical documents and intellectual property.”

These criteria should guide you on the selection process for a secure collaboration solution that enables you to organize and access data wherever you go.