The global shift towards remote collaboration has presented a new set of challenges and opportunities. While the shift may be challenging for some, there’s no doubt that having the right collaboration apps in your tool stack can make a world of difference.
In this article, we’re going to walk you through the key features of seven collaboration apps that you should consider using. Whether it’s project management, communication, time tracking, or invoicing, the apps on this list are sure to streamline your digital workflow.
Top 7 Team Collaboration Apps
ProofHub
Let’s start things off with ProofHub — an all-in-one project planning tool that unifies all aspects of team collaboration. Being able to do everything like scheduling, proofreading, task management, and time tracking on a single platform saves your team a lot of time.
After all, the last thing you want your employees doing on a busy workday is hopping back and forth between tabs on their browser. In addition to unifying the needs of remote teams, ProofHub also makes it easy to scale up thanks to their fixed pricing model.
You’ll be able to add as many people to your team as you want without having to pay extra on your subscription. This benefit is equally invaluable to SMBs with a limited budget or large teams who don’t want to spend a fortune on individual licenses.
The interface of ProofHub is also very conducive to collaboration since it has a Gantt chart view that lets you view your project in a timeline format. You can also choose between nine different languages which ensure that every team member can understand the interface.
ProofHub’s group chat also provides a centralized spot that your team can use to communicate during key moments in the project. In terms of integrations, you have quite the selection to choose from such as Freshbooks, Google Drive, Dropbox, and more.
Chanty
When it comes to team communication, Chanty has quickly become one of the most popular options in the SaaS space due to the features it provides at such an affordable price. Those on the free plan will be able to add up to 10 team members.
You’ll even be able to access your full message history without upgrading which is quite refreshing. Other communication apps lock your chat history behind a paywall after the most recent 10,000 messages.
Despite being a team communication platform, Chanty also has native task management functionality that makes the tool very versatile. You’ll be able to assign tasks through the chat, use a Kanban view, and access these tasks through the Teambook.
Those who plan to upgrade to the Business plan will get 20 GB worth of cloud storage for each member as well as free video conferencing. This means Chanty can actually reduce the overall price of your tool stack since you won’t need to pay for cloud storage or conferencing solutions.
Other perks that come with the paid subscription include the ability to add guest users, create custom roles for your team, and use unlimited integrations. The catalog includes the likes of Trello, Asana, Jira, MailChimp, GitHub, Google Drive, and more.
HelpCrunch
Customer support is essential to the success of any business — especially growth companies that rely on acquisition and retention to maintain their momentum. HelpCrunch makes setting up a self-serve customer support model easier than ever before thanks to its unique feature set.
Its WYSIWYG editor makes the process of creating help articles a lot easier since you’ll be able to save drafts, schedule publications, insert tables, or add an image/video. These features not only speed production up but also make the content more helpful for the end user.
The only downside of HelpCrunch is the fact that you’ll be capped at one chat widget and three auto-messages if you don’t upgrade to a higher plan. That being said, upgrading gets you unlimited auto-messages and popups alongside other premium perks like custom branding.
Finally, the smart suggestions functionality on HelpCrunch helps users find the articles they’re looking for on your knowledge base by automatically suggesting content based on the keywords they type.
Ultimately, HelpCrunch is a comprehensive customer support tool that manages to cover most of the crucial areas at an affordable price. They also offer a 14-day no-card free trial which means you can experience the value for yourself before paying a dime.
Apploye
Out of all the time tracking apps currently available, Apploye is unique in that it uses a smart time tracking approach to help companies get the most out of their workforce. As a matter of fact, the website claims that your team will become 20% upon using the app.
It obviously has basic time tracking functionality like you’d see in similar tools but its feature set goes far beyond that. For instance, those who subscribe to the priciest Apploye plan will get advanced real-time monitoring over their employees so they can identify where time is wasted.
This feature can track which apps they’re on, what websites they spend the most time browsing, and even provide engagement analytics. Apploye also takes screenshots at random moments to create tangible evidence of whether or not an employee is slacking off.
Geofencing attendance also makes it harder for your employees to cheat the clock like they would with other time tracking tools. When it comes to integrations, Apployes supports popular tools like Slack, Google Drive, and GitHub.
The main benefit of Apploye for most companies are the real-time analytics on the dashboard but the tool also has other useful features for invoicing, payroll, and task management so it’s really quite the maverick.
Workpuls
Workpuls is a great option for companies who are looking for detailed time tracking analytics. In addition to letting you create customer reports, it tracks productivity, attendance, and website usage across your entire team.
The data that you get out of Workpuls is very granular and lets you look at metrics of individual employees. You’ll be able to look at whether the productivity for that specific employee has been rising or dropping and which apps they spend most of their time on.
Security won’t be a problem either since Workpuls offers employee login and two-factor authentication options. Essentially, your employees will be able to log in extremely easily but everyone else will be kept out.
It’s also borderline impossible for employees to exaggerate their hours since Workpuls uses a verified attendance system. This means that time will be tracked based on the activity of their computer instead of relying on manual inputs that could be fraudulent.
Pricing is pretty forgiving and even the cheapest plan should have everything an SMB needs. If your needs are more complex then you can go for one of the pricier subscriptions that offer perks like 24/7 customer support, automated time tracking, and project management.
Asana
Asana has long been the gold standard for project management, especially in the context of online collaboration. Its intuitive navigation, clean interface, and smart notifications make it the ideal platform for teams who value efficiency above all else.
All the essentials like projects tasks, logs, activity, comments, and storage are available on the free version of Asana so you should be able to complete basic projects without having to pay for a subscription. You’ll even get access to integrations, but more on that later.
However, there are still many perks to upgrading. While features like SSO and 2FA are available on the free plan, upgrading lets you create private projects and grants access to the admin console that makes managing permissions a lot easier.
You’ll also be able to create more detailed reports and use automated workflows that can eliminate trivial, repetitive tasks from your daily to-do list. Upgrading also unlocks the timeline view which is quite helpful since you’ll be better able to visualize your project.
Integration-wise, Asana has most of the tools that you’d need. This includes Microsoft Teams, Jira, Salesforce, Office 365, Slack, Gmail, Google Drive, Canva, and many more. You can even download the Asana Chrome extensions to add tasks directly through your browser.
Teamwork
It can be hard to wrap your head around certain project management tools that have too many features and are generally more complex than they need to be. Teamwork seeks to solve this with its intuitive interface, forgiving learning curve, and a few other unique benefits.
Cross-platform compatibility is one strength of Teamwork since all its apps are available for both desktop and mobile download. There are also many integrations that Teamwork users can choose from including Microsoft Teams, HubSpot, Stripe, MailChimp, and Zapier.
Integrating Teamwork with Slack is particularly useful since you’ll be able to turn messages into tasks, add comments to tasks without leaving your team chat, and get real-time notifications whenever a task is updated.
Basic task management and messaging features are available on the free version of Teamwork but upgrading is worth the investment since you’ll get project templates, time tracking, invoicing, and an integrated team chat.
Lastly, enterprise customers will even get 500 GB of cloud storage through Teamwork which is a huge benefit considering the price of certain third-party solutions. Overall, Teamwork offers a very compelling package for companies of all sizes.
Conclusion
As you can see, we as consumers are spoiled for choice thanks to all the great collaboration apps that are out there. With the majority offering free versions or at least a 14-day trial, there’s no excuse to miss out on the value that these software solutions provide.
We’re not saying that you should break the bank on a toolstack you don’t need, but testing out a few tools and seeing what works for you certainly won’t hurt. Ultimately, it comes down to your specific needs and which tool has the right feature set for the job.
That’s all for now, stay safe, and keep collaborating!
Author bio: Mia Naumoska is a Chief Marketing Officer at Chanty - easy-to-use team collaboration app with a mission to help companies boost their team’s productivity. Having over a decade of experience in the marketing field, Mia is responsible for Chanty’s overall marketing strategy, managing an amazing team of marketing experts. Feel free to connect with Mia on LinkedIn.
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As research says, “70% of members of a team are dysfunctional where the rest 30% are bound with high time pressure”.And the team member who is having high time pressure may fail to complete their work on time in addition, they suffer from high-stress level as well.
Read the full article at Orangescrum blog
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