Communication and Collaboration Tools include everything you need to stay in touch, collaborate, and create efficiently with colleagues, clients, and friends including: Dedicated storage compartments for tablets and laptops 2nd section of organizational pockets with a removable padded divider (fits Macbook Air) Dedicated tablet and laptop sleeves in the lid and main compartment Dedicated writing pad section Interior slot pocket for storing writing instruments Map pocket that fits up to a 15″ laptop Pockets for storing important travel documents
With the advent of new online and mobile collaboration tools, today’s workforce needs increased access to information and to their colleagues via these newer technologies and processes.
Hubstaff
Remote and asynchronous teams face communication challenges that in-office teams don’t. With Hubstaff’s stopwatch-style timer, teams can track time and see real-time updates from their desktop, web browser, or mobile device.
A virtual dashboard lets them view activity scores, enable optional screenshotting, and set productive and unproductive apps and websites for each member of their team. Integrations with over 30 popular project management, help desk, and HR apps make Hubstaff even more powerful for growing teams.
Pros
- Beautiful UI/UX
- Simple tracking
- Unlimited screenshots
- Automated timesheets
- Customizable invoices
- Easy team payments
Cons
- Relies on integrations
- If you’re looking for just a time tracker, there are free options that don’t provide the same features Hubstaff does but are cheaper.
Nifty
True collaboration is where communication meets action. If you’re planning in one place and discussing in another — where is the collaboration truly occurring?
Nifty is the award-winning project management tool that closes the gap between communication and action to serve as the all-in-one remote office you and your team have been looking for. Packed with easy-to-use project management tools as well as direct and group messaging experiences, Nifty is the glue between planning and execution.
Pros
- Build roadmaps with Nifty’s milestones which are phase-based Gantts that roll up tasks into actionable steps and automate progress as the tasks are completed.
- Timeline, Kanban, List, and Swimlane views let teams of all types visualize their work in the way that suits them best.
- Tags scale across tasks, docs, and files in all projects to create scalability within the workspace
- Built in docs, including a two-way Google Doc, Sheet, and Presentations bring your notes, content, and specifications directly into your workspace.
- Overviews, Workloads, and All Tasks give automated managerial insight on project and portfolio health and make managing resources across projects as simple as can be.
- Project Discussions and Team Chat give opportunities for group and direct communications
Cons
- API in the process of being opened
- Free trial, but no Free plan
Chanty
Chanty is a simple team chat solution, with easy-to-use collaboration features, unlimited message history, and workplace apps to enable teams to foster healthy relationships through transparent and accessible communication.
It is a messaging tool that enables your team members to complete projects, activities, or tasks easier and faster. It also helps you consolidate all the information you need in one easy-to-use application.
Pros
- Unlimited searchable message history
- Inbuilt task manager
- Simple and clean interface
- Easy-to-start and easy-to-use
Explore pricing and features to find the Chanty plan that best fits your team.
Cons
- Limited in custom integrations
Nextiva
Nextiva brings all the features of traditional business phone systems to companies that work remotely or across multiple locations and time zones. Using just one robust online platform (and one service provider), you can deliver and manage reliable phone service to employees in multiple locations.
Remote and flexible companies traditionally struggle with reliable communications. In fact, LucidChart points to a Zogby Analytics study that isolated information gaps and delays as a top obstacle facing remote workers.
Nextiva helps companies overcome the remote communication barrier. Manage call traffic over the internet, establish a cloud-based call center, and so much more.
Pros
- Top rated customer service and free trial period
- Reliable cloud-based enterprise Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) with zero outages last year
- Streamlined control panel and single platform for easy management of phone, email, chat, and SMS
- Collects customer insights to supplement business decisions
- Security monitoring and protection
- Tons of bells and whistles, including automations and integrations
- Physical phones available on request
Get a full view of all Nextiva’s products and features.
Cons
- Employees may have to change existing phone numbers
- May require a light communication and training plan if you’re replacing an existing system
GoToMeeting
GoToMeeting is a robust online meeting and video conferencing tool designed to enable businesses to collaborate with their teams, clients, customers, and other businesses in real time via the Internet.
It is particularly great for international teams and can greatly reduce the learning curve as it also supports screen sharing.
The other handy features of the platform include messaging, group chat, recording, integration with other tools, and a one-click meeting feature that instantly schedules meetings in Google Calendar or Outlook.
Pros
- Intuitive user interface
- Can host large meetings
- Allows users to record meetings so you don’t have to attend in real time
Cons
- Subscription is fairly expensive
- Requires a stable internet connection
Trello
An app for organising all your projects
TODAY’S BEST DEALSVISIT SITE
REASONS TO BUY
+Clean, easy-to-use interface+Free version
REASONS TO AVOID
-Not many comms features
If you have ever looked into project management software and online collaboration tools, then no doubt you’ve come across Trello. Available on the web and with mobile apps, it lets you easily organize projects and work on them with colleagues.
The platform allows you to work with boards or lists, which can be organised by teams and different tasks. And within these, you can set up to-do lists and delegate amongst colleagues. There’s also the option to assign comments to cards – a quick way to give feedback to others.
Furthermore, Trello boasts a number of integrations with apps such as Evernote, GitHub, Google Drive and Slack. You can download the app for free, but there are premium options available which give access to more features.
The Premium pricing tier unlocks a number of additional administrative features for better organization. There’s also an Enterprise edition which is priced according to the number of users required, and provides some additional organizational management features.
Filestage
The second one in the list of tools for online collaboration is Filestage. Filestage gives teams the easiest possible way to manage the content review process. The project management software and platform makes it simple for internal and external stakeholders to leave in-context feedback on videos, images, PDFs, and more. The tool also generates to-do lists based on those comments to make sure your team never misses a piece of feedback. With Filestage, you can review and approve in real-time, external partners and clients can comment without registering, version control makes projects easy to manage and easy to see as to which stakeholders have approved a file.
What is unique about Filestage?
- Easy review – FileStage makes feedback gathering simple, you don’t even have to sign-up, if you are a reviewer, to carry out the review process.
- Comments – reviewers can directly comment on files to share feedback making the process easy and less time consuming.
- Consistency – by giving you a central place to review files and share feedback, FileStage helps you develop consistency in your feedback sharing process.
- Creative management – with easy-to-use features for reviewing and feedback sharing, FileStage aids in creative management and quick collaboration for teams as well.
- Time saver – by simplifying the process of creative reviews and approvals, the software saves a lot of time that was earlier spent by teams juggling through email threads.
Acquire
Acquire customer support software is an easy to use, multi-channel customer communication platform. It is ideal for businesses of all sizes. The software is equipped with the latest customer engagement options, particularly live chat, chatbot, cobrowsing, voice calls, and video chat to deliver high-quality support to your customers quickly and efficiently.
What is unique about Acquire?
- Customizable – one of the best things about this customer support software is that it is completely customizable according to your business needs. You can choose the apps that suit your requirements and use it just the way you want to.
- Chat routing and history – Acquire also gives you the option to track chat history for better information management. You can even route chats by tagging your team members for complex queries for which you don’t have an answer.
- Tracking – with Acquire you have the option to track various factors of performance like chat time periods, total number of chats, demographics and others.
- Automate responses – you can send messages proactively to customers based on their location, behavior and various other factors.
- Data security – Acquire enables you to share PII (personally identifiable information) in an encrypted manner to ensure complete safety of your data
- Video chat – you can switch to video chat for a better customer service experience from within your chat window.
Conclusion
Communication and collaboration are key to getting things done. To ensure that you can share data with anyone anytime, Microsoft offers powerful solutions across productivity and collaboration—from tools for the modern workplace that make it easy to communicate with colleagues, stay productive on the go with Office 365, meet virtually or face-to-face with Skype for Business, and access workbooks through Excel Online, to applications for connecting people across teams with SharePoint Online.