Missed deadlines, unclear objectives, miscommunications and misunderstandings – these familiar blights of team work usually result in poor quality work, delivered late.
But a new generation of collaborative software promises to improve team work and increase productivity – and employee happiness. Here are 10 of the best.
Google Drive Launched: 2012 / Owner: Google
An established favourite of communications teams is the cloud-based storage system Google Drive, where individual team members can work together, live, on the same documents, spreadsheets and presentations.
Igloo Launched: 2004 / Developer: IGLOO Software
A ready-made company intranet that is relatively simple to set up, Igloo is a quick and easy solution for companies needing a central online community to communicate and to manage work.
LeanKit Launched: 2012 / Developer: LeanKit
LeanKit is a visual project delivery tool that supports teams of all shapes and sizes to apply Lean management principles to their work. Enables a quick overview of tasks and the easy recognition of priorities
Podio Launched: 2011 / Developer: Citrix
Podio is a flexible and highly adaptable online hub for work and communication. We think it’s very user friendly and, given how easily it scales, an ideal choice for growing businesses with a virtual-based workforce.
Ryver Launched: 2015 / Developer: Pat Sullivan
Team chat app Ryver is a free, pared-down alternative for those who find competitor Slack‘s interface too busy, with simple but efficient file-sharing tools and a search function to help you locate that missing document.
Workfront Launched: 2015 / Developer: Workfront
Workfront is a project management software that features enterprise work management, issue tracking, document management time tracking and portfolio management. We particularly liked the tools that visualise the work lifecycle so users can maintain project schedules and budgets.
Dropbox Launched: March 2014 / Developer: Dropbox, Inc.
Whether you need to share social media images, strategy spreadsheets, in-progress documents, videos or slidedecks, Dropbox is a popular choice for file sharing among teams. Its multi-device capability, meanwhile, enables it to be seamlessly used from computers, phones or tablets.
HipChat Launched: 2010 / Developer: Atlassian Inc.
HipChat is an online, real-time, team communication platform. Features including screen-sharing and video calls are offered at a reasonable price. The groups feature, meanwhile, helps separate different topics and conversations, bringing clarity to your collaboration.
Yammer Launched: 2008 / Owner: Microsoft
Yammer is a private social network that helps employees collaborate across departments, locations and business apps. It’s clearly- labelled basic functions make it convenient for new users to utilise.
Slack Launched: 2014 / Developer: Slack Technologies
Slack is a high-performing group-messaging app with a strong range of settings and options. It’s the most convincing argument we’ve seen for erasing email from your internal communications flow and easily integrates to become an integral part of any team’s collaboration.