Collaboration is the new norm in the workplace. This means that gone are the days when employees used to work cut-off from each other. Employers today expect their employees to work closely together. Collaboration adds more to the workplace by improving efficiency and increases the productivity levels of an organization. Thanks to different tools and apps that help organizations all over the world to achieve targets and make sure tasks are carried out in a systematic way.
Collaboration tools are expected to be based on a platform that allows communication, can be accessed not only from the desktop computer but also from your handheld devices including phones and tablets. This will allow input from different people from the same department and other departments as well.
But communication is just one part that collaboration tools take care of. Collaboration tools also help in an even better way by letting people know about the tasks assigned to them, their deadlines, task management and ways one can get support for their tasks. All of this combines and creates an error-free and fool-proof mechanism to handle tasks. All you need to do is use a reliable internet connection with affordable plans and extensive coverage. You can get such a service if you are using internet service by Spectrum. Here are a few apps that can help you collaborate on projects in a convenient way:
Asana
Asana has been part of many organizations since the year 2008 becoming one of the major collaboration platforms for Uber, Intel, TED, Pinterest, and many other techs and industrial giants. It is designed to deliver ease of use for companies to track their work, tasks assigned to employees and to get the best output. Users can create to-do lists for projects at hand, set reminders for approaching deadlines and send requests to other participants in the team or department.
Asana also helps in staying organized by displaying all your projects in a listed or a board format. You can use the search option and locate your previous tasks more quickly. All in all, Asana is quite effective to stay organized, streamline conversations, and to get updates on your tasks.
Slack
Slack is an amazing collaboration tool, with dozens of tech giants using the application as a smart platform to use on mobile and desktop devices. You can send and receive direct messages, files to more than one recipient. Also, you can organize conversations in different channels, Slack also supports video calling to allow communication about projects and to get a better understanding of your tasks, without wasting too much time and effort in communication over DMs.
If you want to share a file or a number of files, you can simply drag, drop and share files with other users who are using Slack with you. Slack is one easy to use tool that is also compatible with services including Dropbox, Box, and Google Drive. You can use it for free but you have to purchase the tool if you have to add more space, more users or more messages after a certain amount of time.
Trello
You can find this tool on the web and as a mobile app too.Organize and work on projects and tasks with your colleagues. Trello has boards that you can work on by organizing them according to teams. Within these boards or lists, you can set-up and delegate tasks among members of your team. You can also assign comments to cards which serves as a quick way to provide feedback to others.
You can integrate different apps like Evernote, Google Drive, GitHub and Slack with your Trello account. The app is available for free, but if you want to add more features you can get the premium account or the Enterprise version of the tool to get more features,
Podio
This is a flexible and customizable platform to communicate and organize tasks. The tool helps you share files, view the status of a task or the projects you are working on. All this can be achieved using an easy to use tool that is available online. You can use Podio on your smartphones or tablets as well. If you want, you can integrate Podio with Dropbox, Zendesk, Evernote and Google Drive too.
Concluding Note
You can select from the different collaboration tools that are available online. These tools are helpful for people who want to manage their work, keep their tasks organized and make sure that every task gets done within the designated time. All you need is to know the budget you have, the number of users or team members you have. Also, you can manage everything using your cell phones by downloading the free mobile versions of these tools as well