If you fail to prepare, then you should prepare to fail. Often when implementing a collaboration environment, companies rush through the planning stage in order to get the new environment up and running as fast as possible. In the long run, however, this can take more time and cause far more frustration than simply developing a complete plan beforehand.

Based on my experience evaluating companies´ current needs, suggesting new products to help make their businesses more efficient, and implementing new environments, I´ve developed several tips for planning a new collaboration environment.

Preparation for a collaborative environment goes beyond simply running a few ideas by an IT manager and then designing the infrastructure. It should include an examination of the current environment and a company´s needs, preliminary pitch meetings to both IT managers and the CEO and a workshop for the staff that will be performing the technical implementation. All of this planning ensures that you understand your customer´s needs and that your customer understands all the features and capabilities that this new environment will bring.

To help illustrate my advice, I´ll provide a real-world example from a recent implementation I´m completing. By thoroughly planning ahead of time, the actual implementation has the best chance of developing smoothly and making the customers happy.