Collaboration Software Tools Proven to Increase Business Productivity
Collaborative networks are the latest trend in increasing business productivity, and not without a reason. In a world where social media is king, and people are so used to being interconnected with one another, business tools are only expected to follow suit. The following software tools are famous for being able to increase business productivity, by stimulating and offering the proper means for members of the same organization to collaborate and work towards the same goal.
Microsoft SharePoint
This is one of the most popular collaborative platforms that companies use at the current moment. Because it is interconnected with Microsoft Office, and Office is used by a large number of companies, SharePoint has been chosen by a lot of organization. This tool allows for easy document management, the creation of lists, wikis, discussion boards, portals and workflows. The Exchange environment Share Point works hand in hand with allows teams to work together on the same project, totally seamlessly. As Microsoft develops new tools that work with SharePoint, this could be your best choice for collaboration software.
IBM Lotus Notes
Another collaborative software developed especially for businesses, Lotus Notes continues to be quite strong. As it also allows the development of various tools for increasing business productivity, this IBM product looks like a reliable platform that you can use in your work. Developers that want to program software for Lotus Notes can use Java and JavaScript as programming languages. There is also a formula language available, but this can be used only by power users. All in all, Lotus Notes allows for collaborative behaviors within an organization and even stimulates the production of tools that increase business productivity as a whole.
Google Apps Premier Edition
Google could not lag behind in a world where collaborative tools are the latest trend in business productivity. Google Apps Premier Edition does nothing else but brings together several well known Google tools that only needed to be placed in the same package to act like a collaborative platform. Google Docs has already been in use for a while, for document management. Also, G-mail allows for easy communication between members of the same organization. Google Calendar allows you to schedule events, and Google Groups works as a workspace.
Jive Software
Business productivity can also be increased by using Jive Software. Like the aforementioned tools, this one allows easy messaging and collaboration between people working for the same company. Among its features, it must be mentioned that Jive Software supports project management, the creation of discussion boards, announcements, blogs, surveys and tags. This collaborative platform also allows microblogging, which is pretty much like using a sibling of Twitter for your business. You can also use this platform for creating your own widgets and use them on your websites. These widgets can also be used by other members of your organization.
Open Text
Bringing three different products under its umbrella – Communities of Practice, Extended Collaboration, and Social Media – Open Text can be used as collaborative platform to increase business productivity. Communities of Practice deals with forums, discussion boards, calendars of events and workspaces, while Extended Collaboration specializes in creating lists of tasks, project workspace and real time interactions between members of the same team. The Social Media component is designed to allow members to create sharable profiles and their own dashboards.
All the above tools are used extensively by businesses and organizations. However, the largest corporations and the most successful brands have chosen so far SharePoint as their preferred collaborative platform, especially due to its complexity, on one hand, and ease of use, on the other hand. If you are interested in trying out sharepoint for your business contact us for more info here.