Google has a suite of tools designed to help people work together on projects, whether they’re in the same room or across the globe. These tools make it easy to share documents and files, ask questions, and find answers. Here’s the thing: they’re not just for businesspeople. These tools are great for anyone who wants to make collaboration easy and fun!
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Google Collaboration Software
Whether you are running a pre-seed startup or a multinational conglomerate, the core values of teamwork remain the same. Without alignment, cohesive communication, mutual trust, and clear accountability; any team can fall apart.
Technology has empowered teams with various tools to address specific challenges of teamwork. And that’s what we’ll discuss today – top 6 collaboration tools for teams of any size.
The phrase “teams of any size” ensures that the tools will meet the following two criteria –
- They are not specific to any industry or niche. This means that any team regardless of their size and industry can find value in them.
- They are easy on the pocket. Even bootstrapped startups or mom & pop shops can afford them.
Let’s take a look at the top 5 collaboration tools for teams of any size.
1. G-Suite
G Suite is a collection of productivity, collaboration, and other utility tools developed by Google Cloud. Some of its popular tools are Gmail, Hangouts, Calendar, Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Sites.
Launched in 2006 as Google Apps for your domain, it was only in 2016 these apps were rebranded as G Suite.
Almost every team occasionally collaborates on different documents, sheets, slides, etc. For years, Microsoft completely owned this space. This made it expensive for especially smaller teams to get a hold of all these tools. Although MS 365 (formerly Office 365) is still the market leader in the cloud-based productivity suite segment, G-Suite is quickly catching up, especially in the SME segment.
A big reason for G-Suite’s popularity among smaller teams is its price. Unlike Office 365, it is available for monthly subscriptions. Price starts from $4.2 per user per month.
2. Taskworld
An interesting thing about G-Suite is that although it has a collection of utility-based collaboration tools, it doesn’t offer a project/task management tool (Google Tasks is a simple to-do list). In fact, it also doesn’t offer an enterprise chat solution (the equivalent of Teams in MS 365).
Most MS 365 users use Planner/Teams integration to get a team collaboration tool (project management + chat). Some teams use a Trello (task management) and Slack (chat) integration. There are two common problems with it:
- Third-party integrations are never as seamless or secure as built-in features.
- They can get exponentially expensive as teams scale.
Taskworld is a great alternative because it combines both project management and messaging. It’s like Slack, Asana, Trello, and Dropbox in one clean tool. This allows your team to track work from start to finish, communicate, and get reports in real-time.
Kanban based task management forms the backbone of Taskworld’s experience. That’s why it is highly optimized. You can create your own templates, sync tasks across multiple boards, create subtasks, and allocate task points.
Taskworld is one of the few SaaS tools that’s available on both public cloud and VPC (Virtual Private Cloud). This makes it easy to adopt for both small teams and enterprises in regulated industries.
Taskworld’s price starts from $10 per user per month.
3. Discord
You are aware of Slack so we thought of shedding light on another really popular team messaging tool – Discord. Discord is a free team chat and VoIP software. It evolved in the gaming community but is increasingly used by teams for work-related communication as well.
What sets Discord apart from all other messaging tools is its emphasis on voice chat. Discord gives you an option to set your microphone to “always on”. Whenever you enter a voice channel you can immediately start talking with other members. It gives a much more intimate feel to team collaboration.
Discord has most of the features you’d expect from a business team messaging app. Although it’s informal tone and branding can be off-putting for formal organizations, it gets the job done really well. Being a freeware, it’s a completely free alternative to Slack. Unsurprisingly it’s used by over 250 million users.
4. Smartsheet
Although Kanban is widely considered to be the most effective approach to task management, many teams like to use spreadsheets out of habit. For such teams, Smartsheet is an effective collaboration tool.
Smartsheet provides project/task management features such as Gantt charts, request/budget management, and work tracking along with a host of add-ons. Although it can be a bit intimidating for those new to project management, it’s useful for teams that have established PM processes.
Another advantage of Smartsheet is that it supports Microsoft’s Azure Active Directory that allows you to log in to Smartsheet and products like Excel with the same login. You can make changes to Smartsheet directly from Microsoft Outlook.
Smartsheet’s pricing starts from $14 per user per month.
5. Basecamp
Launched in 2004, Basecamp is one of the oldest collaboration tools in the market. It’s the product of the company (also called Basecamp) which also created a team messaging tool called Campfire. Campfire has now been merged with Basecamp – creating a collaboration tool that offers simple task management and chat in one tool.
Unlike project management tools like Taskworld, Wrike, and Asana, Basecamp doesn’t offer powerful reports, resource management or advanced PM features. However, if you are looking for a solid task manager with built-in messaging, it’s a very good tool.
One of the biggest USPs of Basecamp is its price. At $99/month you can use it with an unlimited no. of users. This makes it very attractive among small teams.
6. JioMeet
**BONUS**
The latest entrant in enterprise-grade video calling solutions, JioMeet is a product by the richest man in Asia – Mukesh Ambani. It has an uncanny resemblance to Zoom.
What makes JioMeet an interesting alternative is that unlike Zoom it doesn’t impose a short-term restriction on group calls on the free plan. In fact, it doesn’t have a paid plan at all. You can talk with up to 100 participants for up to 24 hours at a time.
JioMeet also offers enterprise-grade host options such as password protection on each call, multi-device login support (up to five devices), and ability to share screen and collaborate. It’s not confirmed whether its encryption is end-end.
JioMeet also offers some unique features such as the ability to seamlessly switch devices in the middle of the call and a “Safe Driving Mode” to facilitate communication in commute.
JioMeet is a part of Jio Platforms which has received billions of dollars of investment from Facebook, Intel, Silver Lake, and other popular equity funds.
best microsoft collaboration tools
There is no question that Microsoft 365 is a powerful business tool — in fact, the company reported 200 million monthly active users at the end of 2019.
Its popularity is likely due in part to the power of a platform. However, with dozens of apps, tools, and features, it can be overwhelming to determine which ones will help you do more. Add to that the hundreds of third-party tools, and it is enough to make companies stick with current workflows and tools, however imperfect they are.
That could result in wasted time, missed deadlines, and frustrated employees. Which tool is right for your business, your team, and your goals? Let’s take a look.
SharePoint Online
SharePoint is a cloud-based storage and collaboration tool that helps organizations share and manage content and files with secure file sharing, document collaboration, metadata management, and advanced search features. It is best used for familiar teams to collaborate; however, higher plans also offer enterprise features.
Features of note include:
Communication sites for organization-wide collaboration
Hub sites for aggregated collaboration
MySites for personal profiles
Enterprise Wikis and internet
SharePoint has a lot to offer in the way of collaboration tools, so be sure to explore all the workflow, team collaboration, and document management tools this Microsoft product has to offer.
Similar to: Asana and similar collaboration tools
Outlook Groups
Outlook Groups is a feature within Microsoft 365 that allows you to create a group chat and collaboration space based on a discussion in email, SharePoint, Team, Planner, and others.
All members are added as guests and have immediate access to a shared inbox, calendar, project planner, and document library. The creator of the group can add and remove people, conversations, and threads without help from IT.
Similar to: LinkedIn Groups, but with far more features.
Yammer Groups
Similar to Outlook Groups, Yammer works well for forum-like team collaboration in a social media-like setting. It integrates with Outlook and OneDrive and creates a ‘feed’ where users can see the most popular posts, follow posts, and even leave comments.
Designed to foster open communication within large groups, this tool works well in a changing workforce where many younger workers are familiar with social media.
Similar to: Workplace by Facebook
wast less time on meeting management
Microsoft Teams
Used for chat-based teamwork, Microsoft Teams is similar to the popular online collaboration tool Slack with channels, commenting, and one-on-one messaging features. It also integrates with Skype for Businesses to allow team members to call, chat, and web conference.
Microsoft Teams is ideal for fast-paced companies looking to collaborate on tight deadlines.
Similar to: Slack
Microsoft Teams-collaboration-tolls
To Do
According to authors David Allen and David Kelvin Allen of the book Get Things Done, one of the best ways to improve productivity is to get all of your tasks out of your brain to make room for developing solutions, ideas, and creativity.
To Do lets you do just this by helping users track tasks, stay organized, and, hopefully, be more productive.
Features include lists for items such as restaurant recommendations, important tasks, flagged email, the ability to add due dates, share lists, and break down large tasks into more manageable parts.
Similar to: To-Doiost
One Drive
One Drive is Microsoft’s cloud storage service. It is incredibly popular and integrates with most other Microsoft 365 tools. Features include real-time co-authoring, share at will, offline access, and syncing across devices.
For example, you can update a document from your phone while on the go, and then move to your desktop to continue working.
Similar to: Google Drive
OneNote
OneNote is a program designed to gather, organize, and share free-form information in a collaboration space. For example, users can save and share drawings, audio files, screenshots, and more all in one space.
Because there is no enforced page structure, it provides the flexibility that can help teams collaborate more creatively.
Similar to: Evernote
Shifts
Shifts is a Microsoft mobile app designed to help teams manage tasks and shifts across organizations or teams. For example, a manager could open shifts to workers in a specific group or organization-wide. They can also assign tasks to specific users or set reminders.
Employes can view their upcoming schedule, see who else is working, request a shift swap, and request time off.
Similar to: HeySpace, Zoho Connect
Flow
Tired of wasting time on tedious manual tasks? Flow is ideal for increasing productivity by automating and streamlining workflows. For example, workers can use Flow to get a push notification when their boss emails them or when a new file is shared via SharePoint.
It integrates with a wide range of tools, including Dropbox, Outlook, Google Files, OneDrive, Gmail, and much more. The template library makes these rules easy to implement.
Similar to: IFTTT
Skype for Business
Skype is not a new tool, but if you haven’t upgraded to Skype for Business, you might be missing out on a ton of additional features that can improve your collaboration efforts.
To start, Skype for Business users can make audio, video, and conference calls. In addition, users can set a presence status, send and receive text messages, personalize their contact card, and host meetings.
Skype for Business also integrates with many other Microsoft products, including SharePoint and Teams
Similar to: Google Hangouts, Webex
AskCody
Our productivity software is designed to make collaboration easier by streamlining labor-intensive tasks related to booking meetings through Outlook and Microsoft 365. Features include hot desk booking, meeting room booking, the ability to order catering, reduce double bookings, and even manage visitors.
The Average worker reports wasting 15 minutes a day looking for meeting space. A one hour meeting is never just a one hour meeting!
It integrates seamlessly with Microsoft 365 so you can spend more time working and less time setting up times and spaces to collaborate.
Similar to: Meeting facility management software, visitor management platform, and analytics platform all in one.
Conclusion
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