With 43% of us spending at least some time working remotely, online collaboration tools are becoming a vital element of the modern workplace. Welcome to the MakeAnAppLike, where we dive into everything that you need to know to stay relevant and authoritative in the digital world. Today we are going to review the 10 Best Collaboration tools, along with some key features and pricing. They’ll help you decide which tool is best suited for your application. So let’s jump into it.
How to Make Remote Work More Collaborative With Microsoft Teams
The COVID-19 pandemic has revolutionized the way companies operate tremendously. With the rise of remote work, it’s more important than ever for employees and project teams to collaborate effectively. However, remote working has its own set of difficulties, the most significant of which is the lack of face-to-face interaction. But Microsoft Teams made collaboration more effective than ever with its significant improvements.
Many companies across the globe are switching from Slack to Microsoft Teams to make team collaboration more efficient, engaging, and productive. Microsoft Teams key features that make remote work more collaborative for businesses looking for modern workplace solutions are as follows.
Top 8 Tools for Successful Remote Work
Working from home is not only comfort and coziness, but also a global restructuring of the day, and life. Under such conditions, it’s important to monitor the condition of employees, their productivity, and efficiency. These are must-have tools for organizing remote work.
Always in Touch: Corporate Messengers
Slack
Slack is one of the most optimal options for corporate use. It separates work issues from personal communication and supports integration with Google Docs, Trello, and Twitter.
In the messenger, you can communicate personally with users and in individual conversations or channels. You can create a channel for each team or project. Slack can set up notifications when a document is created in Google Drive, a new task in Trello, or likes on Facebook.
Pros of Slack:
- Support for creating voice and video calls directly from the messenger.
- Users can create availability statuses for themselves, which allows them to immerse themselves in their work.
- there is a feature to show the screen to other users.
- mentioning the user with “@” sends him a notification, even if chat notifications are disabled.
- Security thanks to HTTPS and two-factor authentication.
Discord
This messenger was originally intended for gamers, letting them play together at the best payout online casino Canada or Dota2. But now it’s used for corporate purposes. You can write text messages in it, as well as communicate in voice or video chat. There is an option to create group chats, video conferences, and private channels.
Pros of Discord:
- A user-friendly interface that’s easy to understand from the first minutes of use;
- uploads files and transfers data quickly.
- Supported on all OS.
- High level of security: there is protection from DDoS attacks, IP leaks.
Deadline Monitoring: Project Management
Trello
Task manager for teamwork, displaying projects and tasks on Kanban board. You can assign tasks to specific users, monitor their completion and deadlines. The tool is integrated with Jira, Google Drive, Dropbox, Slack, GitHub, GitLab, and other programs.
Pros of Trello:
- The interface of the boards can be customized.
- customization of boards with filters for commands, task creator, labels, etc.
- The application is available on all platforms, and the mobile one is as good as the desktop one in terms of functionality.
Jira
Task manager for developers and IT specialists with a Kanban board and ability to prioritize tasks. The system allows you to generate reports, schedule tasks, monitor the employee’s work in real-time.
Additionally, it’s possible to optimize with Confluence, Bitbucket, HipChat, and other software development tools.
Pros of Jira:
- Ability to generate reports quickly.
- Data protection with controls such as permissions and encryption for transmission and storage.
- Ability to flexibly schedule tasks.
Asana
That’s a tool for teamwork, project management and self-organization. In Asana, employees can communicate with each other, share files, and make to-do lists and tasks.
The software has a tiered task system for detailing tasks, as well as an extension to translate the system’s interface.
Pros of Asana:
- Integration with Google and Adobe, file management, reporting, and timekeeping programs.
- user friendly interface.
- Employees can clearly see all tasks and deadlines, and the supervisor can easily track progress and control the execution of tasks.
Seeing Is Believing: Video Conferencing Software
Zoom
Zoom is a well-known tool for conducting video conferences, webinars and masterclasses. In addition, it is possible to exchange chat messages and various files during or outside the conference.
Pros of Zoom:
- There is the ability to make group or individual voice calls.
- Zoom is suitable for webinars.
- In the free version, you can invite up to 100 participants to a video conference.
- There is a screen sharing function for easy discussion of a project, presentation or document.
Skype
One of the first video-communication tools appeared in 2003. You can use it to send text, voice, and video messages and exchange files. Skype also has simple bots where you can check the weather or read jokes. The tool works as a separate desktop and mobile application, but there is also a web version.
Pros of Skype:
- There is a screen demonstration feature and real-time captioning activation.
- clear and simple interface.
- Available for iOS, Android and PC.
Google Meet
Handy video calling tool allows you to quickly organize an urgent meeting without scheduling an event or conference. You can enter the conference via a link from both your computer and smartphone through the Google Meet app. There’s also a live captioning option based on Google’s speech recognition technology.
Pros of Google Meet:
- Excellent video quality.
- High level of security due to encryption during data transfer.
- Has a screen demonstration feature.
5 Effective Remote Team Working Strategy in 2023
- Collaborate on Files in Real-Time
Microsoft Teams, by default, is integrated with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and many other third-party applications of your choice can be integrated, allowing you to upload, collaborate, and save files while communicating with members of your team or other teams. You can edit files in real-time with your team in Microsoft Teams itself without having to switch to any other application.
- Integrate With Planner for Easy Task Management
The Planner has evolved into a fantastic tool for task tracking and employee job management. It eliminates the need for a third-party task manager as you can refer to the tracked tasks directly from Planner. You can quickly “pin” the Planner app to any channel in Teams for quick access. The Planner will now appear as a tab at the channel’s top.
You might already have a Google Workspace subscription and plan to migrate from Dropbox to Google Drive instead of Office 365. But there is nothing to worry about. Google Calendar is a great alternative to Microsoft Planner. Like Microsoft Planner, you can plan and schedule everyday activities to stay on top of your weekly or monthly work calendar.
- Change the Background for Video Calls
Finding the “perfect” location for a video meeting might be difficult at times. You might be working from home or at a coffee shop with a lot of visual distractions in the background. However, if you’re having a meeting via Microsoft Teams, you won’t have to worry about any of that. You can either utilize an existing background image, create a new one, or blur your background. You can change the background before joining the meeting and even during the meeting. Microsoft Teams is deservedly regarded by many users as the best video conferencing software. In addition to the background swapping feature, it is also packed with lots of instruments for instant ideas exchange, prompt commenting, etc., allowing every person to take an active part in the discussion.
- Use SharePoint to Store and Share Files
File management is critical when your team is working remotely to ensure that you can work faster and more effectively. Microsoft Teams and SharePoint are tightly integrated to keep your files centralized and access them easily. This feature helps businesses manage file storage and collaborate on shared files.
You and your team members can quickly exchange files by going to the Files tab in SharePoint and viewing SharePoint files previously shared on the platform. Team members can use the Office desktop app or an Office Online to collaborate on a file that has been shared to a channel through SharePoint.
- Run Brainstorming Sessions on Online Microsoft Whiteboard
Whiteboard allows for true collaboration by allowing meeting attendees to sketch their ideas, erase them, and exchange content on the whiteboard app, which is visible to everyone in real-time. Microsoft has added 35 new features to the whiteboard allowing users to add images, color, stickers, and other elements to improve collaboration.
8 Strategies to Make Remote Teams Work in 2023
- Getting your remote team’s recruitment and onboarding processes down pat
- Choosing the appropriate objectives
- Making use of communication tools
- Using software to manage and track activity
- Fostering a sense of belonging
- Assigning important work
- Paying a visit to your distant team
- Acknowledging outstanding performance
Top 10 Virtual Team Collaboration Tools 2023
Let see the 10 Best Collaboration tools, along with some key features and pricing.
- Monday.com
- Backlog
- MilaNote
- Hive
- MindGenius Online
- Gmelius
- Notion
- Teamwork
- Asana
- Redbooth
First, we have monday.com is a collaboration and task management software that provides a highly customizable interface that resembles a spreadsheet, however, includes a ton of additional features that make it much more interactive and visually appealing than just a simple spreadsheet. Some features include message boards, task management boards, and some easy to read visualization that allow you to display your projects and data quickly to get an idea of your progress.
Price of Monday
You can try monday.com for free, and then start the standard package that starts at $67 per month for up to five users.
2. Backlog
Second, we have backlogs feature set is unique and that it offers project management, bug tracking, and a version control management in a single app. If you’re looking for a tool to help manage development projects, or working closely with a team of developers, this is the app for you. collaboration features include task management, which includes subtasks, checklists and customizable fields, milestones, file management, wikis, and more.
Price of Backlog
You can try backlog for free for up to 10 users with one project.
3. MilaNote
Next step we have MillaNote by Melano is an easy tool to organize your ideas and projects into visual boards. It’s designed for the early stages of projects for mapping out ideas, writing project briefs, and planning the steps in a project. Before moving on to the robust project management tool for executing and assigning tasks. You can also collaborate in real-time making it perfect for brainstorming workshops and remote teams. There are three different ways for sharing boards within team members in Edit comments only or read-only mode.
Pricing of MilaNote
MillaNote offers a free pricing option, or you can choose from the professional plan for 999 a month.
4. Hive
Fourth on our list is hive. Hive is a creative project management and collaboration platform with AI-based analytics 1000s of integrations in flexible project views and more. Hive streamlines your work in one centralized platform. Hives time tracking and analytics and flexible view capabilities allow for transparent understanding of other team members work and upcoming projects. Choose hive if you’re in the market for a well laid out comprehensive and collaborative tool that can be scaled up or down based on your team’s needs.
Pricing of Hive
Pricing for high is $12 per user per month when billed annually.
Fifth is Mindgenius online. Mindgenius Online is packed with features for collaborative project management simplified in three views, Mind Mapping, timeline and task boards. Collaboration is built into Mindgenius online. For example, you can attach all project-related files to maps and plans. And you can message team members with built-in comments which generate automated email notifications.
Pricing of MindGenius
You can try Mindgenius online for $160 in your first year.
6. Gmelius
Six on our list is gmelius gmelius allows teams to collaborate on clients and projects without leaving their inbox. gmelius lives in Gmail, which means the learning curve is next to nothing. While most teams are using up to four tools to communicate and collaborate. gmelius allows you to get rid of them. Its interface is designed to be user friendly and intuitively feels like you’re simply using a more powerful version of Gmail. It empowers the Gmail inbox with a range of collaboration tools and allows users to combine them together to automate workflows.
Price of Gmelius
You can try Gmelius for free, and then upgrade to a paid plan if you require further resources.
7. Notion
Seventh on our list is notion. the notion is a lightweight collaboration tool with a clean and simple interface. The tool has four main functional areas, documentation, knowledge base, task and project management, and spreadsheet in databases. This tool is well suited for teams and individuals who use a combination of tools like Google Sheets, air table, Trello and Evernote. Because this tool combines all the capabilities of those task management tools into one application.
Price of Notion
You can try it notion for free or it’s $4 for a personal plan and $8 per user per month for group plan.
8. Teamwork
Eight is teamwork. Teamwork offers a project management suite tailored to the needs of mid to large size enterprises. Well, it can work for individuals. It provides more than enough functions to support large distribution teams who require more sophistication in collaboration tools. This app is visually more complex than many collaboration tools, but it does offer a more robust suite of project management features. If you’re just looking for something that goes beyond a simple communication tool, teamwork is a good choice.
Pricing of TeamWork
You can use teamwork for free for up to five users.
9. Asana
Asana is a visually simple and intuitive tool that Trello users will find familiar, lightweight and clutter-free. Learning to use Asana is very straightforward process, making it a great choice for users who haven’t worked with any other online collaboration tools before. Asana is also good for small growing teams who are close together and who don’t need a ton of projects or resource management functions upfront. You can get started with Asana with the basic plan for free, or choose from their premium and business plans if you require further resources.
10. Redbooth
Finally, we have Redbooth. Redbooth is a well rounded and flexible collaboration tool that can be adapted from small to mid and enterprise size teams. It uses a prediction algorithm for various aspects of task management, such as selecting the best member of the task, or predicting the amount of time needed to complete a task. Their communication tools include comments, HD video meetings, and with upcoming Group Chat feature coming soon.
Pricing of Redbooth
You can get started with a red booth for $9 per user per month.
Well, that wraps it up for the top 10 Best Collaboration tools to get you started. If you’re still unsure of which tool to pick, comment below about your work nature we will suggest a better tool to you.
Teams
Monday.com
Backlog
MilaNote
Hive
MindGenius Online
Gmelius
Notion
Teamwork
Asana
Redbooth
Summary
The quality and technological tools you use to communicate depend on the efficiency and effectiveness of your employees. Employees really need to communicate when they work from home. According to Buffer, 19% of professionals feel lonely while working remotely. And poor moods affect employee engagement and productivity.
