What are the best collaboration tools?
As Chief of Staff, I'm looking to manage strategic projects utilizing a collaboration tool that all executives can access and update. I've reviewed Wrike, Smartsheet, and now Google Pages. Google is free. Does anyone have experience with any of these tools? Thanks for sharing.
Hi! I am a fan of open source software and there are a couple of them good ones you can try - I recently used projectsend and it worked so well for that project time. Keep in mind technical skills people in your team has and how easy or engaging that collaboration tool may be. There are lots of fancy ones out there, but complicated enough to no get me the work done on time. Some members in my team plainly said the don't like some of those tools. So it's imperative to move on.
Google, Realtime board, Free Conference Call now has a online conference wall as well
Cathy,
I have just looked through the answers so far and this piece of software I use with clients as well as collaborating within my consultancy is Mindjet, it links with all the Microsoft office software including outlook, and can be used on a variety of platforms from PC to ipad, great for producing mindmaps to share, there are of versions with different licensing fees. http://www.mindjet.com
Jamie
Cathy,
My experience with Trello.com is very satisfying, I do recommend you to give it a try.
It is a simple and free tool allowing multiple options to share data and project update.
Best, Naziha
What kind of collaboration do you need? Simple document sharing? Schedules and calendaring? Workflow or approvals? Communication? How important is mobile?Permissions? Depending on your needs, different tools will be appropriate.
Personally I like the combination of Google for document collaboration and Slack for project-based communication.
Cathy,
If you are doing a small project then a simple task lists from Outlook shared with the group and communicating through email and lync is sufficient. If you are doing a larger project then I have found MS Project to be very helpful.
Google pages and small software e.g business e-diary are good for you.
I found proofhub to be very useful. Has helped me a lot in collaboration and project management.
My experience with collaborative tools is that they are best custom-made. You need a back-end database - MySQL or Microsoft will do. Then use spreadsheet with visual basic code to make [animated] charts and calendar sheets for executive review. Meanwhile, the nitty gritty data - exact names for example can still be extracted by a secretary.
I am currently using Wrike through Google Apps for Business as well as another application called AceProject. AceProject may be a bit more simpler to use than Wrike, but nonetheless it depends on your business and how you process through your projects. For more information, please feel free to contact me to further discuss.
https://slack.com/ is fantastic we are using it for a startup which involves teams in different parts of the world. Great and easy to use.
Hi Cathy. There are several on the market.
My favorite two are:
1. Yammer (http://www.yammer.com/)
2. Incentive (http://www.incentive-inc.com/social-collaboration-platform)
Incentive is a rather new comer on the scene but I especially like the features and integration.
I've used Zoho's suite of apps for many years including Zoho Projects and Zoho Docs. Both of these offer internal (i.e., employees, management) and external (contractors, clients) controls. Both Zoho Projects and Zoho Docs have free versions, but the paid version of Zoho Projects is needed if you have multiple projects. Zoho applications also work with Google apps (i.e., Google Docs) and with Dropbox.
Asana is another project management tool that is good and there's a free version that may suit your needs. It's similar to Wrike and Smartsheet.
Try Padlet.com
It is a great collaboration tool. Very easy and reliable to use :)
Cathy,
I have found Google to be very productive in this regard.
Good Luck!
Doug