Being able to communicate and collaborate always helps in having a successful organization. The right collaboration tools can help you better communicate with the people you work with as well as those who you lead . It is not as easy as it might seem though.
First, you need to determine what type of collaboration tool will work best for your needs, and once you make that decision, you need to find the right one. There are many collaborative tools available online today making the choice easier.
Office Online
To edit the same document paragraph by paragraph with the rest of your team remotely or from different devices, Office online is the go-to tool.
Provided that you have internet connectivity, this web version of Microsoft Office allows you to co-author a document in real time, edit and converting PDF documents to Word documents and vice versa, resume reading your word documents where you left off, and send in-line replies to your team by email. And it allows you to do all these from any device, securely and reliably.
Pros
- It is free
- Works perfectly from both mobile and desktop
- Changes made by collaborators are updated in real time and everyone can see who is making them.
Cons
- Requires internet connectivity to work
Filestage
Filestage allows you to easily review content with your team and clients on a clean and user-friendly interface. Manage digital projects while bringing your stakeholders (internal and external) together to collaborate in real time. As an intuitive tool, Filestage allows your clients to feel great about the project review and approval process.
Pros
- Manage project members (internal and external) with one platform
- All-in-one platform allows you to review videos, images, and documents
- Timestamped & documented approval from all stakeholders for active feedback
Cons
- Does not offer a mobile/desktop app
Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams is a unified communications platform that merges workplace chat with video meetings, file storage, attachments and app integration. Your teams can host web conferences on this platform, and communicate through audio, video and chat – with both people from within and outside the organization.
Pros
- Full integration across Office 365 apps
- Ample cloud storage per user
- Provides access to Microsoft Office tools in one place
Cons
- The interface is fairly complicated
- Challenging to start
InVideo
InVideo gives you the scope to easily design videos and share them online while you’re in a webinar or video conference. The easy accessibility and editing features on InVideo help you get creative with your data and its portrayal using corporate templates for your video presentation.
InVideo is an online collaboration tool that can be accessed from all the commonly used browsers. Its user-friendly interface helps you figure out what’s best for a corporate video and how to share it online on your organization’s social media handles and other websites.
Pros
- 4000+ handcrafted templates. From numerous meme templates to educational tutorial templates, InVideo covers all possible video creation purposes.
- 8M+ iStock Media Library and 1M+ Premium Media Library from Shutterstock and Storyblock
- A feature to convert the article to video easily
- An easy way to cut, trim, crop, create a composite, apply brand presets, etc.
- Auto text-to-speech + ability to add your own voice-overs
- 24/7 live chat support + community of more than 20K creators and marketers
Cons
- Users are allowed to work on one project at a time
- Can be accessed only through a browser
Karbon
Karon is a work management platform for accounting firms and professional service businesses. It provides a truly collaborative platform to manage workflows, communicate with teams and deliver exceptional client work.
Karbon combines email, internal discussions, tasks and powerful workflows, which gives teams a single place to communicate and collaborate. It is proven to increase visibility and efficiency. In fact, according to a recent survey, the average Karbon user saves more than 10 hours each week.
Pros
- Integrated email
- Automatically compiled activity timelines
- Lots of task automation
- Extremely robust and feature-rich
Cons
- Designed for accounting firms, so many features aren’t relevant to other businesses
- No free version (although there is a 14-day free trial)
Skype for Business
Most of us are familiar with Skype. Simply put, it’s an online collaboration tool that allows users to communicate with any other Skype user for free via instant messaging, voice, video and screen sharing.
More importantly, Skype supports conference calls for up to 25 people, which means it can be a very convenient way to bring all your team together for a quick update of project status.
For more premium features, opt instead for Skype for Business.
Pros
- The tool is free
- You can call anyone in the world who has a Skype account
- Supports screen sharing
- The app is easy to install
Cons
- Offers no language translation services
- Skype picks up background noises easily
- Sound quality is dependent on bandwidth
Bonus: Go Brief
Brief is a team collaboration tool that boosts productivity by enabling team members to prioritize and focus on important tasks while minimizing distractions. In 2018 and 2019, Brief was featured by Apple among the Apps We Love.
It has an elegant dashboard that combines chat, video, team hubs, to-do lists and file sharing.
Pros
- Turn any message into a task with one click
- Create hubs that let you organize your teams, chats, tasks and files
- Available on the web, desktop, iOS and Android
- Has a user-friendly interface
- File sharing of any size
- Offers exceptional quality video and audio calls through integration with Zoom
- Has an elegant dashboard
- This tool is free at the moment
Cons
- Has few integrations so far
Google Docs
This is likely nothing new to you. It is perhaps the most famous documentation tool out there. Google Docs allows multiple people to edit the same file at same time, leave comments, and see changes made by every participant (revision history).
All you have to do is invite team members to work on a file in Google docs. With that, all participants have a central place to store and share information, take notes, and just seamlessly collaborate and have access to the information they need to get work done.
Pros
- Cloud based, no installations required
- All changes made on documents are automatically saved to Google Drive so you won’t lose them
- Multiple collaborators on a document can see changes in real time
Cons
- Limited features compared to Microsoft Word
Bit.ai
This is a smart document collaboration platform that allows teams to create and collaborate on robust internal and client facing documents with built in tracking capabilities.
Bit has over 50 integrations, and lets you collaborate on interactive documents, track the engagement levels on your documents, and manage your digital content with ease.
Pros
- Numerous integrations
- Robust templates
- Slick interface
Cons
- Lacks a robust mobile app
Online Software Tools
GitHub Online Software Tools
Consider GitHub if you are into programming. This development platform owned by Microsoft Corporation allows programmers to seamlessly collaborate and work on the same projects simultaneously.
On the platform, each collaborator gets a working copy of the code displayed on their computer through the GitHub web-based graphical interface. Any changes made on a project can be reviewed and easily rolled back if need be.
Pros
- Unlimited private repositories on the tool’s free tier
- Easy to use and track changes with the Gists feature
Cons
- Can easily be affected by a security breach
- Some great features are locked away behind a SaaS paywall
TimeCamp Online Software Tools
TimeCamp is widely known as an automatic time tracker, but also helps teams and freelancers manage tasks efficiently. Its unique project structure allows the user to add as many tasks and subtasks to the projects, so it’s easy to assign hours spent on working for each customer.
The tool offers a wide range of reports, so that managers know exactly how their teams are performing.TimeCamp minimizes time spent on filling timesheets manually. Desktop app works in the background and tracks time for each activity performed during working hours, then it assigns them to the appropriate project. Saves a lot of time for being more creative!
Pros
- You can define different billing rates for specific users and groups
- Easy to invite your clients to let them keep an eye on time and resources spent for their project
- Attendance module allows managers to track employees workdays, leaves, vacations and holidays
- Employees can fill their timesheets automatically with activities tracked during work hours
Cons
- Some users point the UX is quite outdated
Adobe XD
For designers, AdobeXD makes quite a bit of sense. The software allows for real-time collaboration between team members on design projects.
The solution has a creative cloud that allows others to edit and make any needed adjustments on design in real time. With this solution, teams can design and prototype websites, mobile apps and more in real time.
Pros
- Replete with great native UI elements
- Has a tutorial to help you get your way around
- Very clean interface
- Easy to fill the UI with content
Cons
- Fairly hard to animate the UI
- No CSS export
Creatopy
Creatopy is the efficient and intuitive visual production platform delivering a well-crafted experience for communicators. The brand-new platform allows individuals and teams to easily create engaging advertising visuals for multi-channel creative mediums.
Featuring advanced automation capabilities, along with an ever-growing library of templates and visual elements, Creatopy gives communicators the needed tools to spark their creative journey and keep visual content organized and always on-brand.
Plus, with Creatopy, you get an online workspace in which you can create and store unlimited designs and animations. You can also share notes and projects, give feedback, and pass around links, not files.
Pros
- Cloud-based collaboration for all stakeholders
- Accessible, intuitive interface with a drag and drop editor
- Design presets, templates, and original illustrations, available at no resale
- No coding or design skills required
- Designs can be exported as HTML5, GIF, AMP HTML files
Cons
- Requires a stable internet connection
- They don’t have a mobile app yet
Conclusion
Collaborative software is said to assist in enhancing teamwork. This technology usually comes into effect when number of people or departments are working together. The collaborative software plays the role of mediator between the players and helps them in sharing important data that can result into better decision-making.