The five essentials of communication come as an answer to the questions left in the wake of ad hoc collaboration. Businesses do it, whether large or small. Sure, the ideal would be perfect control of documents as they get passed around and changed. But when deadlines fall due, or when something unexpected is called for by your boss or your clients, it simply needs to get done. The problem, however, comes when it’s time to pull a document back together again after it has been passed around and pulled apart in the ad hoc editorial process. All that’s left is questions.

That’s where a content management tool comes in. Since all you were left with were questions, the 5 essentials of communication that a content management tool provides are simply answers. Answers to the questions “Where is version X stored?” “When was version Y created?” “Who created version Z?” “What changes were made to these versions?” and “How am I supposed to bring them together?”

Here is another question for you: Do these questions sound familiar? I thought so. But when answers are available, businesses want them. So, Adam Smith’s invisible hand has reached into the market again to create the content management tool, often referred to as Groupware. Let’s take a look at how exactly the content management tools are created to handle the ad hoc business collaboration process. In fact, most are created to manage, store, and file documents. The technologies and information mentioned in this article should simplify the sifting and introduce you and your business to a new way of answering the confusion of ad hoc with the 5 essentials of communication.