The most popular workplace collaboration tool is Microsoft Office 365. According to a survey by InsideView, an enterprise content management and collaboration company, “Among companies with more than 300 employees, the most popular workplace collaboration tool is the cloud-based Office 365 at 33.7 percent.”
When it comes to workplace collaboration, competition is no longer between companies , it’s between coworkers . So what “workplace collaboration tool” is the most popular ? OfficeWeb will compare these services against each other
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
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
GitHub
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
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
Microsoft 365
Share and edit documents, now with messaging
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REASONS TO BUY
+Familiar software+Collaborative editing+Teams provides UC+Cost-effective bundling
Microsoft Office may not be the first platform you think of when it comes to collaboration, but this now runs at the heart of the Microsoft 365 cloud-based office suite.
This is important because Microsoft Office remains the most used and therefore important office suite out there, and while there are competitors such as OpenOffice and Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) they still haven’t caught up to the same level of functionality and ease of use.
Therefore as Microsoft Office is likely to be at the heart of many businesses, the move to Microsoft 365 offers a number of advantages, not least the ability for teams to collaborate directly on the same set of documents. This could be anything from work shifts in an Excel spreadsheet, to a presentation in PowerPoint, to client reports written in Word.
Added to this is that Microsoft Teams now comes bundled with a number of Microsoft 365 packages, allowing for Unified Communications integrated with the traditional office software.
What makes Microsoft 365 more attractive is that as a cloud-hosted platform it can be used not just with Windows, but also Mac, Android, and iOS.
Pricing depends on whether you are buying for personal or business use, with fees starting from $6.99 or $8.25 a month per use, with business use requiring pre-paid annual plans.
However, one little advertised alternative option is Microsoft 365 Business Basics, which offers most of the same software packages and options as above, but only comes in at $5 per month per user when paid annually. This makes the entire package extremely cost-effective, especially when compared to standalone UC and collaboration software prices.
Overall, Microsoft 365 doesn’t simply offer a great office suite, but one that is also firmly designed for collaboration and sharing with teams.
Asana
Organisation to the max
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REASONS TO BUY
+Project tracking+Handy integrations
REASONS TO AVOID
-Other apps have better comms features
Asana has been around since 2008, making it a veteran in the collaboration arena, and companies such as Intel, Uber, Pinterest and TED all use it as their core method of communication.
It’s been designed as an easy way for companies to track the work of employees and to get the best possible results. Using the platform, you can create to-do lists for ongoing projects, set reminders for upcoming deadlines and send requests to colleagues. Team members can also assign comments to posts within the app.
You can organize all your projects in a list or board format, and there’s a search function so you can locate past work quickly. In short, Asana is a very effective way to stay super-organized and facilitate conversations when it comes to updates on how work is progressing.
Podio
A mobile-friendly collaboration tool
TODAY’S BEST DEALSVISIT SITE
REASONS TO BUY
+Easy-to-use interface+Quality mobile apps+Wide range of integrations
Podio describes itself as a flexible and customizable online platform for work and communication among teams. In other words, it gives you a way to organize large stacks of work and to delegate tasks between employees.
Just like many of the other business collaboration apps out there, Podio provides you with the tools to share files, view the status of ongoing projects and get feedback on the things you’re currently working on. These functionalities are combined into an easy-to-use interface.
Podio is also equipped with quality mobile apps for when you’re out and about, and need to use your smartphone or tablet, and it has an impressive amount of integration with third-party services and apps including Dropbox, Google Drive, Evernote and Zendesk.
Google Apps for Business (G-Suite)
Google Apps for Business, or G-Suite, is the strictly cloud-based competitor of Office 365. Applications include Gmail, Docs, Drive, Sheets and Slides; these are the equivalent apps for Outlook, Word, Sharepoint, Excel and Powerpoint.
Google’s business suite is well-known for facilitating collaboration. The suite’s web interface means users can work on both PCs and Macs. This also allows teams to work on files at the same time (which helps eliminate version control issues) and enables users to share files with people both inside and outside the organization (by updating the share settings).
In addition to the collaboration capabilities available in their business apps, G-suite’s dedicated collaboration tools include:
- Hangouts: Chat and video conferencing
- Google+: Social networking, communication platform
Conversations in Google Hangouts
FAST FACTS: G-Suite is available in three packages: Basic, Business and Enterprise. Each version includes both the business applications and collaboration tools (content management, chat, video conferencing etc.).
The main difference between each version is the amount of storage: The Basic plan has 30GB of cloud storage and the Business and Enterprise plans have unlimited storage. The Enterprise plan also includes additional features such as data loss prevention for Gmail and Drive as well as integrations with third-party archiving tools.
The Basic plan can be purchased for $5/user/month and the Business plan for $10/user/month. Contact sales directly for Enterprise pricing.
THE IDEAL USER: Startups and small businesses that lack a dedicated IT team are the ideal user for G-suite. Of course, midsize and enterprise organizations can benefit as well, but the needs of a small business will be well-served by Google Apps.
One disadvantage to Google Apps that may be felt more at the midsize and enterprise level is that Google’s apps, especially Sheets, are not the exact counterpoint to Microsoft’s business apps (in this example, Excel). Functionality is different between the suites, which can cause friction, especially among users that have to work in both or are moving from one to the other.
Organizations that previously used Microsoft’s business apps may need to work hard to facilitate user adoption, including offering training designed to serve the needs of different users. For example, hosting classroom-style lunch-and-learns in addition to self-training.
Conclusion
The most popular workplace collaboration tool has been e-mail, and it has held that spot for more than 20 years. It is easy to use, and convenient with an always-open mailbox.