Application sharing is a business tool that makes it possible for individuals located at a number of different sites to simultaneously collaborate on a single document. Remote access sharing of this type normally involves the use of some type of web-based conferencing tool that allows one individual to have ultimate control of the session, but with the ability to grant privileges to each attendee to work on the document in question. Depending on the type of platform used, all conference attendees may need to download some type of collaborative software in order to participate. More often, the application sharing function is managed through software that resides on the provider’s server, with the document and the changes made during the meeting saved on the hard drive of the individual serving as the moderator for the meeting.
One of the chief benefits of application sharing is that there is no need to gather key individuals from a number of different locations to a single site in order to work on a common document. This means that if there is a need for salespeople or others within the company to work together on preparing a proposal for a prospective client, initiating a web-based conference and using the application sharing tool makes it easy for everyone to contribute to the creation of the document at the same time. The moderator of the conference allows each attendee access to the document, making it easy to upload and insert photos, sections of text, or even to edit the existing text. All the changes and updates are saved to the original document that resides on the hard drive of the computer used by the moderator to access and initiate the conference session.
From this perspective, application sharing can save a great deal of time and money. There is no need for travel expenses to be incurred when working on a document. In addition, there is no time lost when it comes to creating, refining, and ultimately completing the document. This can be especially important when there is the need to prepare a document with very little notice, when that document must be reviewed, edited, and approved by personnel located at a number of different locations.
Application sharing is an extremely easy tool to use. Typically, anyone who has worked with any type of spreadsheet or word processing document will have no problem participating in this type of group collaboration. In addition to using this tool during a web conferencing session that is initiated on a provider platform, there are also application sharing tools that can be loaded onto a company’s internal system, allowing anyone with access rights to the project to participate without the need to leave their individual workstations.
