The State of Collaboration in the Digital Workplace

Introduction

Collaboration with external parties requires careful security protocols, but even as collaboration tools have improved, the current environment isn't working the way it should — and it's becoming more complex, straining both productivity and security. Employees in many organizations resort to insecure workarounds like personal email or shadow sharing when the tools they use for internal collaboration don't extend safely to external parties. Changes to Microsoft 365 sharing restrictions have added further friction, and organizations are struggling to balance the people side and the tech side of external collaboration.

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About the Survey

eSHARE, in partnership with Reworked Insights, surveyed more than 400 director-level and above leaders across IT and Digital Workplace roles to understand the current state of external collaboration, where the biggest challenges lie, and where the opportunity exists to build a safer sharing environment.

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Key Findings

• If an organization uses a tool for internal collaboration, odds are it's also being used for external collaboration — even when security settings weren't designed for that, pushing employees toward unsafe sharing workarounds.
• Safe sharing is a top-of-mind concern for leadership: 88% of IT and Digital Workplace leaders at enterprise organizations strongly agree that how safely they share information externally is a top priority.
• Digital collaboration with external parties has become more complex over the past year: 69% of respondents said it's become more complex, versus only 19% who said less complex.
• Enterprise organizations are generally aware of changes in Microsoft 365 sharing restrictions, but many haven't yet decided how they'll respond.