We all know that the best way to achieve success is to collaborate with others; there is truly no limit to the number of individuals you can connect with. A great reason for this is that it expands your business, allows you to build industry connections, and helps you grow your target audience. Granted, collaboration with others is difficult when you’re competing against each other. Tools that allow online collaboration is often seen as the solution; here is a list of what they are known as and how they’re used.
A collaboration tool is a software that lets you share, create and edit documents with others. It helps in creating a central repository for information that everyone can access, participate in, and work on.
Online Collaboration Tools is the generic term used to refer to web tools that organizations use for collaborating and communicating with each other.
Types of Collaboration Tools
In recent years, the number of collaborative tools has increased. What once started as simply shared agendas has now developed into something extraordinary.
Communication tools are among some of the more popular types of collaboration tools. These involve shared calendars, live chats, whiteboards for note-taking, videoconference, and instant messaging applications.
Decision-making tools help organize ideas in graphic form; organizational tools make it easy to share files.
There are many tools that organizations can acquire to assist with collaboration. Google offers document sharing with Google Docs and allows employees to chat and communicate via Google hangout. Microsoft offers outlook messaging for emails, Skype conversations, and a space for sharing OneDrive documents.
Calendar sharing tools:
The shared calendar facilitates the organization of appointments and meetings without the need to consult all participants. The person organizing the event finds a time interval and can check the availability of the other participants, the meeting room, and then send out an invitation. These tools save a lot of time for facilitating teamwork.
File sharing tools:
File sharing tools allow you to transfer files, distribute them and give access to them. Shared files can be various kinds; software, books, videos, documents, etc.. These tools avoid transferring everything via email and saturating inboxes with heavy files.
Instant messaging:
Instant messaging allows you to exchange text messages and online files in real-time via a computer. The dialogue is interactive and most applications allow the exchange of video files, voice communication, and video conferences.
Document synchronization:
Document synchronization aims at matching two documents. This means that any modification, addition, or deletion of a document in a directory will also be effective in the second directory. This way, employees have the latest version and the information remains the same everywhere. The two documents remain exactly identical.
Cloud storage:
Storage can be done within the organization but also in the cloud. Cloud storage exploits the power of the server’s information storage system which lives in the cloud. The data is stored remotely via a telecommunications network.
Video-conferencing:
A method of communicating with a live, visual connection by means of a video with multiple people across multiple locations. In-person meetings can be replaced with videoconferences so the team can still get the “feeling” of seeing each other as they communicate.
Collaborative Methodologies & Techniques
Proximity, intimacy and permissiveness:
Harvard researchers have shown that three factors are important for collaborative work. Proximity makes it possible to bring people together, intimacy implies that everyone remains independent and permissiveness encourages relationships and activities outside of work.
Methods of exchange:
Synchronous tools such as instant messaging or video conferencing enable real-time collaboration. The phone is also widely used and enables employees to quickly access information on a specific topic.
Asynchronous tools include shared calendars, online word processing, and to-do lists. While email remains the most commonly used tool, today it’s heavily challenged by applications to avoid the ever-growing pile of emails.
Collaboration using computer tools:
Collaborative work can be achieved with a computer tool, such as project management software, which allows team members to follow the progress of projects and organize tasks. A collaborative platform allows employees to find information at any time, share documents, and comment on or annotate pooled information.
User collaboration:
Bringing us back to the roots of collaboration, users can collaborate with one another on tasks without using a system. As long as they’re located in the same office and speak the same language, they can get together to work on tasks and complete them with more fun, clarity and efficiency.
There are several methods to encourage collaborative work. Each organization can adapt and select the techniques that it considers more appropriate. On the other hand, these methods are very different depending on the size of the company, the purpose of the work, the means of the organization and the technical nature and training required.
nTask
nTask is a task management and online meeting software designed to simplify project management, time tracking, budgeting and resource allocation and team communication.
Task management features provide estimated project budgets by letting users customize billing methods according to fixed and hourly costs, cost per task, and the cost of resources and materials.
Users can also set task deadlines, sub-tasks, and dependencies, create to-do lists, and estimate the amount of time each task will take. Multiple users can be assigned to a single task, assignees receive real-time notifications for comments and task updates, and real-time document sharing and collaborating is also available. Tasks can be categorized and tagged, given priority levels, and users can update task status.
Note that users need to connect to a Zoom account to access video conferencing.
The nTask free plan includes:
- 100 MB storage
- Gantt charts
- Set recurring tasks
Task import and export to .csv files - Calendar, list, Kanban, or grid views
- Task milestones
- 5 members per team
- Unlimited tasks and workspaces
- Issue tracking
- Timesheets
- Meetings
Best For: nTask is best for It’s also an ideal solution for teams that need a better way to track timesheets, estimate project timelines, and design/manage budgets.
Basecamp
Basecamp is a decent project management tool in many ways. They have a top-notch instant messaging platform that promotes collaboration, a handy universal search, a central place for files, and a simple task management interface that’s great for small team collaboration.
Basecamp also has a great portal for outside clients to manage projects and deliverables with the main project team, without altering any of the plans.
While the tool is still quite popular for most devices, it’s one of the oldest project management tools in the market. Therefore, its features are rather basic and insufficient for modern project collaboration.
Pricing: $99 per month.
Trello
In a very similar way to Asana, Trello has also changed the face of project project management apps by taking a different route – with card and board views. This popular Kanban board look has really taken off with Scrum and Agile teams or as personal to-do lists.
Trello has a straightforward interface that’s standard across all devices. With the drag and drop Kanban board, you can get a quick view of any project and see who’s responsible for completing each task. This makes it easy to keep track of what everyone has on their plate. Each Trello card also has a functional comment section to facilitate simple, effective team communication.
One issue with Trello is that they depend on lots of integrations. Now, that’s not necessarily bad – but what do you actually get? It’s a basic framework with lots of add-ons. You may be better suited to team collaboration tools that offer you everything in-built instead.
Pricing: Free to $20.83 per user/month.
Flock
Flock is another application very similar to Slack but is arguably a little less daunting to use and offers more comprehensive communication tools.
Flock supports channels for different teams as well as 1:1 or group conversations. Users can search through messages, files and links and Flock will find it no matter who sent it and where.
There are audio and video calls and screen sharing as well as productivity tools such as polls, note sharing, and reminders, while users can assign tasks to certain members of the group.
There are also integrations with third-party applications like Google Drive and Twitter, with notifications appearing directly in channels.
Flock has a free tier, but searches are limited to 10,000 messages, there is a 5GB storage limit and only five third-party integrations are permitted. A-Pro plan adds unlimited search, 10GB of storage per user, and admin controls, while the Enterprise plan adds 20GB of storage per user, more admin controls, and dedicated support.
Samepage
Companies looking for the most complete free team collaboration tool — or those that have more communications needs than most — should strongly consider Samepage.
In addition to free audio and video calls with screen sharing features, Samepage’s native task management software features allow team leaders to schedule and track the progress of multiple projects simultaneously.
It also boasts excellent integration with tools like Salesforce, Slack, Google Drive, and even social media integration via Facebook and Twitter.
With a free plan this comprehensive, the vast majority of companies likely will not need to pay for a SamePage plan, though there are paid options available.
Samepage’s free plan includes:
- Unlimited chat and message search history
- Unlimited number of users and guests
- Screen Sharing
- File sharing and editing
- Group audio and video calls
- Group texting
- Up to 2 GB of storage
- Unlimited pages and folders
- Surveys
- Calendar
- Ability to create/assign tasks
Best For: Samepage is best for small teams that need a free team collaboration solution with such robust features that they may be able to avoid ever needing to upgrade to a free plan, and teams with a near-constant need for collaboration.
Slack
If you’ve heard of team chat, you’ve probably heard of them. IM, channels, video calls, integrations, and bots for hundreds of third-party tools; Slack has it all. But the free plan limits you to 10 service integrations, so choose wisely.
Slack’s free plan
- Unlimited users, messages, and channels
- Unlimited one-to-one voice and video calls
- 5GB storage for file sharing and 10K message history
- Up to 10 apps or service integrations
For video conferencing (up to 15 participants) and guest accounts, you’ll need to upgrade to a Standard plan that costs $6.67 per user per month. There’s also a Plus plan that adds more features at $12.50 a user per month.
Conclusion: Online collaboration tools should be the focal point whenever we talk about collaborative work. This is because they enable businesses to communicate and reach out effectively to their stakeholders and clients. Collaboration tools are extensions of enterprise software that help individuals as well as employees collaborate, share information as well as data as well as files across the globe.