If you're anything like the majority of large organisations out there, the likelihood is you have PowerPoint documents sprinkled across departments in your company. Important versions of PowerPoint files sit on individuals' computers. Regularly, sales reps refer to their 'go to' document, tweaking it for each customer they go and see, but basically rely on a core deck they received some time ago from Marketing. PowerPoint slides are never updated automatically. In fact, they may never get updated with the latest information at all.
These are some of the issues with people 'going rogue' and doing their own thing with their PowerPoint files. Sooner or later, things will get out of date. People will scrabble around trying to track down the latest version, wasting time and creating stress in the process.
Here are 5 reasons to do things differently and create a PowerPoint slide library online instead:
1) PowerPoint slides can be accessed anytime, anywhere
When creating an online slide library, users can log in from anywhere in the world, at any time of day and simply access the latest versions of slides, which will always be kept up to date in real-time. They don't need to be in the office to access a shared drive, and they certainly don't need to be emailing their colleagues to request the latest versions of their slide decks.
2) The slide database can be searched easily
Rather than relying on 'old faithful' on the desktop, the latest versions of slides can be searched for with the click of a mouse. A slide database, such as Slidebank, will search through all the slide content, speaker notes, and PowerPoint presentation metadata, to deliver the most relevant and up to date slides straight to your fingertips. Just drag your preferred content into a new presentation file, and you're good to go!
3) Hosting online promotes collaboration and knowledge sharing
So often, companies work in entrenched silos, with the huge opportunity cost of a lack of shared learning, communication and collaboration. Having a centrally accessible slide library can deliver the benefits of corporate knowledge sharing - including up-skilled employees across the organisation, lower transaction times and greater efficiency, new sales and business development opportunities, a heightened profile for employees alongside improved personal performance. All good stuff!
4) Improvement in brand consistency and accuracy of message
When sales reps stop doing their own thing, and start drawing from a pool of high quality, approved content, magic starts to happen. Suddenly, the consistency of brand, tone and message is massively increased. Sales reps start presenting a united front and delivering presentation slides that are proven to have impact and drive results. The corporate brand packs a mightier punch, and because slide content is kept up to date centrally, there is little room for presenting out of date or erroneous material. This keeps legal and compliance teams happy too!
5) PowerPoint slides can be kept up to date automatically
The beauty of having a centralised PowerPoint management system is that slide updates can be pushed out to different users from a single source. Instead of having 400 iterations of the same slide, such as a terms and conditions slide, that need updating manually (almost certain never to happen!), a single core slide can be updated instead. This will automatically push out the new content to every user who had included that slide in their presentation. This can save a huge amount of time for both Marketing and Sales reps.
These are simply five reasons to create a PowerPoint slide library online, although there are many more benefits available. Let us know about your experiences in centralising content management. We'd love to hear about any unexpected benefits you've seen across your organisation!