Clients and vendors are complementary: one buying products or services, and the other supplying said products or services. A vendor may wish to develop a unified client collaboration portal to perform workflows and share data.
Similarly, a client will want a digital solution to receive and revisit vendor products or services, as well as get support or provide feedback with ongoing managed services.
When planning your client collaboration portal, look no further than Pulse.
Developing a Client Collaboration Portal in Pulse
A client collaboration portal typically exists when vendors are providing supplementary services to clients. For a creative writing agency, they may have a client portal containing blog requests, points of contact, historical content archives, collaborative word processing tools, videoconferencing solutions, and marketing KPIs.
For instance, this would help a marketing agency to monitor projects, contact clients, resend old project files, and collaborate when proofreading or editing deliverables. Similarly, the client can receive updates on finalized content, access old documents, provide real-time feedback, or speak directly with writers.
Controlled Client Collaboration Portals in Real Time with Pulse
Working together as an internal team is no walk in the park, but working collaboratively with external clients is even tougher. Different time zones, methods of communication, cultural quirks, and languages can make client collaboration difficult to orchestrate. This is where a client collaboration portal can really shine.
By adopting a client collaboration portal, businesses can keep documents, attachments, instant messages, and phone or video recordings all in one place. Everything relating to a specific project or client can be identified and viewed quickly and shared with the client as necessary.
Similarly, clients can just log in and go. A client collaboration portal means less cumbersome contact between your employees and the client, without losing any value from the chain. The information is accessible and ready—no reminders necessary.
Client Collaboration Version Control and Process Handoffs with Pulse
When collaborating with clients, projects can switch versions and undergo process handoffs. Without a client collaboration portal, it is difficult to track versions and monitor process handoffs, leaving everyone wondering whether if they’re working on the most current document, or where it is in a review process.
As the business and its clients use the collaboration portal, version numbers are updated automatically depending on whoever edited the project last. Similarly, process handoff can be automated so that everyone knows what is pending, and who is currently responsible for the pending change.
Client Collaboration Portal IT Security and Data Governance
When working with clients, businesses need to share information relevant to any projects in progress with a client. A client collaboration portal offers a safe space for all relevant documents and files within an isolated sandbox, preventing client employees from accessing sensitive internal business data.
Businesses can implement role-based access controls (RBAC) to host a client collaboration portal on their internal IT infrastructure without the governance risk. When inviting guests, automated RBAC rules can detect emails from outside your organization and assign a restricted access control group to govern network resources. Similarly, it can allow clients to invite their own team and have the same rules be automatically applied via Pulse.
Client Collaboration Portal Knowledge Base
When collaborating with clients, what the client says goes. In a business context, this may mean they have brand voice guidelines, trademarks and logos, internal best practices, and other similar frameworks. By making these resources readily available in a client collaboration portal, employees on both sides of the pond can stay aligned with project objectives.
By building a knowledge base, clients and the business can share relevant information to guide processes and workflows. The client may have keyword objectives, a specific target audience, SEO guidelines, a content management system, citation styles—whatever it is, write it down and store it in a knowledge base so that everyone is on the same page. Even better, you can get the client to upload their own guidance so you can collaborate together!
Client Collaboration Portal Analytics and Reporting
Whenever an action occurs in a client collaboration portal, system logs are generated to provide context. This log data can be accessed by analytics and reporting software to assess performance against client key performance indicators, and with integrations can conflate with data from marketing, sales, finance, and IT orchestration software.
As the client portal is collaborative, businesses can share reports and analytical insights with clients through the same pane of glass. By integrating visualized analytics tools, this goes a step further with visually pleasing and easily understood graphs and charts. This data can even be used to retain the client, clearly demonstrating how you’ve gone above and beyond their expectations during project performance reviews.
