A free online collaboration tool for remote teams. Built around a shared calendar, shows mutual availability and allows you to join common calendars/organize shared events
Collaboration is great for remote teams for many reasons, including the ability to better connect team members on projects and create an environment of sharing, information swapping, understanding, and transparency. You can set up online environments to communicate with each other in real time or share access to documents, all while staying on your own schedule.
nTask
nTask is one of the best project management software if you need a proper tool that is structured to take care of your remote teams collaboration. The application is entirely only. This helps project and task managers to get rid of measly desktop client installation processes. It is also all the more reason to use the program from any remote location because the project data is stored in the cloud.
With its amazing functionality regarding remote working and project management, this application is perfect for freelancers, remote agencies, and small teams that rely on project management software for their businesses to function.
All in all, nTask can become the software your team needs to become more productive and value-producing, in no time at all. Let’s take a look at the key features that this amazing application has to offer.
Key Features
- Multiple in build collaboration features for teams
- Project management modules for seamless milestone achievement
- Timesheets, time monitoring, and approval process control at both manager and worker level
- Task comments
- Multiple board views
- Data export
- Project time tracking
- Prioritizing
- Risk analytics and management
- Risk matrix & pie charts
- Task assignment
Pricing
- A Free Trial is available
- Paid Subscriptions start at $2.99/ user/ month
ProofHub
Next on the list is the amazing software ProofHub, which was specifically built with large teams in mind that are not looking to spend a couple of hundred bucks every month on fully-featured project management and collaborative tool.
One amazing thing about this software is that it will not cost you for every user that joins a team and use the software. Instead, the software will charge you a flat price, after which you can add an unlimited number of users to the software without being charged a single penny.
Let’s take a look at some of the features that this application has to offer.
Key Features
- Collaboration
- Gantt charts
- Product Road-mapping
- Chat
- Calendar management
- Project templates
- Project notes
- API
- Automatic notifications
- Dynamic workflow
Pricing
- A Free Trial is available
- Paid Subscriptions start at $45/ month
Chanty
Whenever we talk about collaboration in the organizational paradigm or any other working environment, communication is an essential part of that dialogue. And when you want the best software for your remote teams that will help them with their communication needs, no-one can match the value that Chanty provides.
One of the most incredible features of this application is its intuitiveness and the fact that it’s so easy to use that you don’t even have to read a guide for this. You just get it and start using it. That’s it.
You might think that when the software is this easy to use and widely accepted by users all over the world, it would cost a lot. But it’s quite the opposite. Chanty, for all intents and purposes, has a Free version that has nearly all of the premium features unlocked for everyone.
And if you still think that some features are missing, you can purchase the premium subscription for $1,50/ month/ user right now.
Key Features
- Alerts/Notifications
- File Sharing
- Search
- Activity/News Feed
- Discussion Threads
- Real-time Chat
Pricing
- A Free version of the application is available for everyone that wishes to use it
- If you want a premium subscription of the software, the prices start at $1.50/ month/ user
Slack: The best team communication app
Slack is one of the most widely used tools by remote teams. Remote-first companies like Zapier, Buffer, and Help Scout consider Slack their “virtual office”—a place where employees can get instant feedback and connect with their colleagues, both one-on-one and in groups.
One feature that stands out is the ability to install apps that automatically report on business activity, like new email subscribers or product reviews, and bots that help keep employees engaged.
When asked about Buffer’s remote team technology stack, loyalty marketer Bonnie Porter had this to say:
“At Buffer, we use a lot of tools to communicate and collaborate. The ones I use most frequently are Slack, Zoom, Buffer, Dropbox Paper, and Trello. One fun thing the marketing team has been using in Slack is the HeyTaco! Integration—it makes it fun to celebrate each other’s accomplishments (big or small) throughout the day. Who doesn’t love a taco party?!”
Zapier, on the other hand, uses Slack to communicate important status updates:
“In the age of open floor plans and constant collaboration, there is something that is rarely mentioned in today’s design world: the creative process needs quiet. Remote work is ideal for the creative process, because it easily allows for designers and researchers to have the solitude they need [….] We leverage Slack’s status+emoji feature to communicate to our teammates when we are ‘heads down’ in the creative process,” explained Julia Elman, the company’s Director of Design.
They also use Slack to facilitate design critiques:
“Design Club is an inclusive space where anyone in the company can come to present their work for critique and provide feedback for others. This could be anything from research plans to visual designs from your product teams. We have both a Design Club Slack channel and a weekly Design Club video call where folks can sign up to receive asynchronous or real-time critique from their peers and stakeholders from around Zapier.”
If you’re looking for something different, check out this detailed review of Slack alternatives.
InVision: The best design collaboration app & digital whiteboard
InVision is undoubtedly the most comprehensive suite of design software on the market. With a 4.5 out of 5 rating on both G2 Crowd and Capterra, and an 8.5 out of 10 rating on TrustRadius, it’s no wonder remote teams like Treehouse, Help Scout, and Trello love using it.
“InVision is one of my favorite products,” shared Nick Francis, Co-Founder and CEO, Help Scout. “The experience is flawless, little details are executed beautifully, and it keeps our remote team in sync throughout the design process.”
“InVision helps our distributed design team stay in sync,” agreed Jeremy Jantz, Product Designer, Treehouse. “We can facilitate design discussions asynchronously, track feedback from everyone on the team, and demonstrate interactions easily and efficiently. It’s the best rapid prototyping tool we’ve found.”
Some of the InVision—and Studio—team at a recent event in San Francisco
Real-time collaboration is an essential part of the design process. InVision Freehand is a digital whiteboard that allows you to wireframe, plan, design presentations, and give and receive feedback, between designers but also in conjunction with other stakeholders.
For example, Trello relies heavily on InVision for communicating with developers. “The comments are extremely valuable when it comes to feedback and questions. InVision has really become an integral part of how we work,” explained the company’s Product Designer, Adam Simms.
Atlassian Jira
Aimed specifically at software development, Atlassian Jira allows users to plan the software, track and prioritize the creation process, release, and get reports on all steps of the project. Choose the way you work, either using an out-of-the-box workflow, or create one to match the way your team works.
Jira integrates with over 3,000 different apps and third-party services. There’s a free version for those with under 10 users, and pricing starts at $7 per month and user.
Also, teams can get cloud-based editions of Jira Software, Confluence, Jira Service Desk, and Jira Core at no charge. They can be accessed at www.atlassian.com/free.
Dropbox Business
There’s more to Dropbox Business than just file storage — it’s also a smart workspace where teams, tools, and content come together. With Dropbox Business you can create, store, and share cloud content from Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides, and easily access your team’s work from your computer, mobile device, or any web browser. There’s also deep integration with tools such as Slack and Zoom.
There’s a 30-day free trial. After that, prices start at $12.50 per month and user (minimum three users).
Conclusion
Remote teams have a number of barriers to collaboration. The three most common are: a lack of ability to communicate effectively, a lack of ability to coordinate effectively, and a lack of ability to work together seamlessly.
Collaboration is at the heart of today’s distributed teams and any industry. While 90% of people globally collaborate electronically, 71% say email makes it difficult to stay on top of team conversations, and contribute ideas to them. Join this class to learn how to set up drip campaigns, use project management tool for collaboration, create forums where users can post questions or comments, how to distribute links for the latest newsfeed with your product, surveys for continual feedback with your users, setting up video conferencing facilities, make presentations available for viewing by all team members across the world, share files hassle-free etc..