Do you need a way to improve your team communications? Collaboration tools can help you, and your team increases productivity and communications around your project deadlines. The greatest challenge in completing your project deadline is orchestrating the efforts of your team and ensuring that everyone understands the current position and status of the project.
In the past, this meant a loss in productivity time due to site meetings and team meetings held in stuffy conference rooms. With the advent of the internet and mobile technology, companies can now keep their teams connected anywhere in the world, removing the need for site meetings.
software for business collaboration allows teams to keep things updated in real-time. The use of on-board notifications will alert all team members of changes to the project. We selected five collaboration tools that we feel are the best available for companies and organizations of any size. Most of them integrate with programs and tools that you may already be using, making them a convenient and powerful addition to your current systems.
Here are the best collaboration tools of 2017, start a free trial with one of them today.
#1 Ryver
The reason we like Ryver isn’t just because it’s the only full-version open platform in this review. Ryver has an outstanding functionality suite and full integration with current apps that you may be using. Ryver don’t choke up the dashboard with free advertising either, making it a sleek and clean user-interface that’s simple to navigate and easy to use. Ryver integrates with Dropbox, Gmail, Yammer, and Basecamp, allowing you to get the best out of all your tools and pull them all together in one program that centrally navigates the project. Ryver has all the features you would expect in a collaboration tool, with a newsfeed, file-sharing, video conferencing and instant update notifications. Available for Linux, Windows, iOS, and Android, Ryver is an outstanding free collaboration tool.
#2 Slack
Slack comes ready for iOS, Android, and Windows phones, making this platform one of the world’s most popular collaboration tools. Compatible with Google Docs and Dropbox, you can easily import all of your project files into the platform and share them with team members in seconds. Keep everyone updated on the project progress with on-board notifications and never miss a deadline with real-time updates of all changes and additions to your project. Slack has a user-base of tens of millions of team members all around the globe, and the easy user interface, coupled with robust functionality makes it easy to see why it’s so popular. Download a free version, but for the full slack experience, sign up for the subscription service.
#3 Podio
If you run a remote team, then Podio is a mobile-friendly project management collaboration tool that will offer you real value. Podio is compatible with a wide variety of mobile apps, including; Evernote, Zen desk, Google Drive, and Dropbox. Podio makes it effortless to share files with team members and update projects status, all from your mobile device of choice. Podio works with iOS, Windows phones, and Android, making it a flexible option for any mobile user.
#4 Asana
Asana was one of the first communications collaboration tools, initially launched in 2008. The technology found its way into the communications systems of some of the world’s biggest firms such as Uber, Pinterest, TED, and Intel. Asana offers ready-made project templates, to-do lists, and dashboards to improve productivity. Video calling and conferencing, along with instant messaging keeps your team’s communications on point with the project. Compatible with iOS and Android, Asana allows you to set reminders for deadlines, assign duties and tasks, and keep the team updated on any changes, all within the platform. Asana integrates with other productivity apps such as GitHub, Dropbox, and Slack, allowing you to pull together the most important features of all your other productivity software into one platform that is easily accessed by your team.
#5 Trello
Trello is possibly the most popular collaboration tool on offer today. Compatible with Android, iOS, and web, this platform is suitable for the largest corporate projects, o the smallest project management teams. With integration into the most popular apps such as Evernote, Google Drive, GitHub. And even Slack, Trello offers a user-friendly experience that keeps your team updated on project changes at all times with notifications sent directly to mobile devices.
#6 Weje
Weje is a collaborative tool for both in-house and remote teams. Its online whiteboards are boundless canvases that teammates can tailor to keep and share ideas, notes, and visuals. Weje supports all file types, including documents, PDFs, images, and videos. It allows you to upload information from the hard drive or copy and paste links from the Web. Weje offers much to assist project managers and contributors. They can create mind maps, Kanbans, To-Do lists and track individual progress with workflow charts. Collaborators can edit to the board simultaneously and use an instant messenger and a drawing tool – to sync actions or highlight recent changes. Weje has a neat and accessible interface which makes it suitable for all kinds of teams, including white collars, students, teachers, and creative persons.
