For consumers, collaborating in an online world has become the norm. Organising an event on Facebook, sharing opinion and news via Twitter or taking part in a crowdsourcing project, are all examples of how cloud computing – the delivery of services and software over the internet – allows a group or community to develop creative ideas and reach a common goal.

For many of us though, the idea of interacting and collaborating this smoothly in our professional lives is an alien one. Although cloud-based communication tools such as webmail and instant messaging have been available to businesses for years, they haven’t, for the majority of us, become an integral part of the way we interact with our colleagues. But all this is about to change. Applications such as word processing and spreadsheets can now be accessed through the web too, and people can work on them together, in real-time.

A younger, web-savvy generation is entering the workplace, expecting to interact and communicate as easily as they can in their personal lives. Companies are increasingly finding they have to adapt to these new ways of working, and are recognising that the benefits of cloud computing go far beyond cost savings. Having information stored online and accessible from wherever you have an internet connection, with the ability to collaborate with colleagues on documents and through real-time communication tools, will turn corporate culture on its head – driving innovation and creativity and increasing productivity and efficiency.

So how is collaborative technology changing the ways that companies work right now?

Collaboration driving innovation
If we look at all of these potential benefits in turn it is perhaps the role of collaboration in driving innovation that garners the most interest from business leaders. A great example of this is Irish soup and pie makers, Cully and Sully, who now use cloud-based Google Docs to create new recipes. Individual team members can add their thoughts into one shared online document in real-time, generating a constant flow and exchange of ideas. This means they generate more exciting and complete recipes than one person working alone would do. New ideas and projects can be created, responded to, fed back on and refined very quickly, without creating numerous different versions of documents, speeding up the innovation process.

The increased speed of communication that cloud computing offers is also at the heart of its collaborative potential. At The Telegraph Media Group, a publishing house with over 1,400 staff, an internal survey found that, six months after moving to the cloud-based Google Apps service, communication with colleagues had increased six-fold and workers were spending 42 percent more time collaborating with others. A quarter of Telegraph Media Group staff felt that they were generating more innovative ideas as a result.

In addition to the increased level of communication between employees inspired by more collaborative working practices, the use of communication technologies such as instant messaging (IM) offers major advantages. The ability to see if someone else is working in a document stored in the cloud and hold IM conversations with them within the document means you can ask and answer questions on specific problems or issues in real-time, rather than waiting for a response to an email. By making ways to interact more stimulating and convenient for staff, the use of these new methods of communication can help develop stronger teams and more efficient working practices.

Working without borders
By the same token, in an increasingly globalised world, the benefits of cloud-based working are clear. Global support services giant, Rentokil Initial, uses Google’s email translation service, where an email can be translated into any of over 40 languages with one click of a mouse, and its real-time translation service where text in an IM conversation appears in the recipient’s chosen language – actively encouraging collaboration among colleagues who may not have been able to communicate directly before due to a language barrier, as well as being a huge time saver for cross-country working.

The fact that cloud services are accessed through the internet also brings greater freedom to staff about when and where they carry out their work, which in turn drives productivity. When The Telegraph Media Group, moved to cloud computing, its staff found that they were sixteen times more productive when away from the office than they had previously been.

An additional attraction of using cloud technologies to enhance collaboration is that you don’t have to spend months adapting to complex new technologies or spend time and effort changing existing practices to accommodate them. While dispersed teams are increasingly the norm in companies of all sizes, face-to-face meetings will always be one of the most effective ways of collaborating and achieving results. However, we all know how difficult it can be to schedule a meeting for 10 busy people. Cloud computing can make simple collaborative tasks such as this painless, by offering web-based shared calendars which allow you to search colleague calendars online to find a free slot.

Collaboration in action
The potential benefits of online collaborative working are numerous, and it is not just the IT department leading the cloud charge. Ambius, a Dutch Interior landscaping company, recently used Google Video to share internal presentations on the progress of its business with all staff using an online portal, cutting the need for sending huge emails around the entire company. At Complinet, a provider of risk based compliance and technology, the HR team uses the cloud to conduct surveys on training and other personnel issues, and has found it a great way of getting feedback in one place, rather than having to collate information manually.

To sum up, the use of cloud-based, collaborative technology is accelerating, and businesses are already using it to give them a competitive edge by generating ideas, increasing efficiency and productivity and building strong teams. Just as social technology has transformed the way we communicate and interact in our personal lives, online collaboration will disrupt traditional ways of working in ways that we are only just beginning to realise. The cloud will fundamentally alter the workplace of the future – making it a more exciting and inspiring place for us all to be.