Collaboration vs Engagement in the Context of Productivity

While the world offers up collaboration platform after collaboration platform, Wippli is here to do things a little differently. 

We’re an engagement platform above all else, helping suppliers and clients work together more effectively on projects - because business partnerships deserve better ways of working. But what exactly does that mean? Today we’ll explore these two different themes - engagement and collaboration - in the context of how people do business - launching off with the Cambridge Dictionary's definition of the two terms.

Engage:

• To employ someone

• To interest someone in something and keep them thinking about it

• To become involved, or have contact, with someone or something

Collaborate:

• To work together with someone else for a special purpose

(via Cambridge Dictionary)

Engage: To employ someone

Engaging the services of someone for some task is an employment contract between two parties. In the context of digital deliverables, this could be a company looking for a new brand identity pack engaging the services of a graphic design agency. After a discussion, the two parties sign a contract and work gets underway. A lawyer will never send you a collaboration letter - always an engagement letter.

A lawyer will never send you a collaboration letter - always an engagement letter.

Engage: To interest someone in something and keep them thinking about it

To have an engaging conversation is to have someone hooked on your every word. In the digital deliverables space, there isn’t always a clear cut process whereby a brief is giving then the final version is delivered. Often, there is back and forth between client and supplier throughout the entire process, particularly on the first contract between the two. The two parties need to be able to communicate ideas, plans, goals, and suggestions easily when they’re top of mind.

In the digital deliverables space, there isn’t always a clear cut process whereby a brief is giving then the final version is delivered

Engage: To become involved, or have contact, with someone or something

If you’re engaging with someone, you’re interacting with them. For instance, you might hear someone say, “Oh that’s Kyle, he’s a bit aggressive, don’t engage with him.” In business relationships, such as the supplier-client, engaging with each other is simply communicating.

Collaborate: To work together with someone else for a special purpose

The meaning of collaboration speaks for itself. Perhaps you and a friend are planning an event together - you’re collaborating. Traditionally, collaboration platforms are designed to work only within the bounds of internal teams, with limited outside input due to the sensitive nature of the information contained within the platform. Wippli allows internal teams to collaborate on projects for clients, with limited views provided for clients to obtain project insights and feedback. We’ve designed the platform so that whatever comments, files, and conversations either suppliers or clients want to keep private, stay private - with careful permissions and visibility.

Traditionally, collaboration platforms are designed to work only within the bounds of internal teams

A transactional working relationship

Whether you are working on the providing side or on the receiving side of an engagement where there are digital deliverables involved, you know that the relationship is transactional in nature. You aren’t working together, per se, you are working with outlines, contracts, a digital handshake, approvals, feedback, and check-ins. The supplier does their work and the client provides input. 

“Outsourcing requires exchanging information, aligning policies and organizational goals, achieving common targets, and defining conditions.” - The Facets of a Client-Vendor Relationship, 2016

With Wippli, this process is managed within one platform: initiate, produce and deliver. Instead of hunting through email trails or instant messages, suppliers and clients can communicate on projects on a project-based platform. Everything is right where you need it, when you need it, and easily searchable. 

A new study suggests that “22% of remote workers want to leave their current job because of the volume of email they receive” and almost half the population would rather clean the bathroom than sort through 10 days worth of unopened emails (source: Superhuman). We’re not surprised, which is why we built Wippli to help - although unfortunately, we’re not available to scrub your bathroom.

From initial brief requests, to contracts, internal project work, client insights on progress, and through to brilliant, branded, and signed off deliverable assets, Wippli enhances efficiency and transparency in working relationships.

It’s about engagement - with a side of collaboration, please. Contracted project work with digital deliverables?

- Wippli is the tool for you.