Doesn’t matter you are just a high school grad student or high flying professional , you need to collaborate with your friends and colleague, time such it is. Though for friendly chit-chat and sharing resource and information social networks like Facebook should be more than enough. But when it comes to professional/business collaboration, the hunts for collaboration software/system begin. In case you are wondering, Collaborative software is the basis for computer supported cooperative workspace, in easy words the software/system that create a virtual office. This is also known as GroupWare.
GroupWare have its own classifications on the basis of the level of collaboration- —communication tools, conferencing tools and Co-ordination tools. But anyway the GroupWare today we will discuss fall under hybrid genre rather than just one individual category.
When it’s come to Project Management software, everyone knows there is no match for Basecamp, which is a 37 signals product. Basecamp is a hoisted project management app used by millions of users like small businesses, Freelancers, designers, lawyers, publishers, teachers, manufacturers etc. Basecamp has all the tools tailored to improve the communication between people working together on a project. The key features of Basecamp are:
Customizable design: Users have the ability to customize colours and upload logo to make their Basecamp account’s look as part of their own site.
Centralize management: Centralized dashboard which overview all the projects, clients, tasks, milestone etc. for easier management. Not to mention which can be changed according to user/group permission. File sharing can’t be easier than it is, upload file and group them into categories. You can track version, audit etc. through dashboard on the fly.
Easier task management: It’s easy to manage task of a certain projects via to-do-list. Make lists, add items, and assign responsibility, which can be viewed only by assigned user. Completed task, will automatically moved to complete section and when all task of a project’s milestone finished it automatically reflect in the dashboard.
Apart from above mentioned feature you do get obvious features such as time tracking, project management, milestones, massage boards, comments on message, Email notifications, Writeboards, chat etc. All in all if you are looking for a solid project management app/solution, Basecamp can be a solid solution. They offer six type of pricing plan one of that is free; obviously you won’t have access to features like—file sharing storage, SSL and time tracking and also in free account only one project can be active and maximum two whiteboards allowed.
37 signals also offer another collaboration app called Highrise, which is for tracking leads, clients, vendors, all in all a simple CRM.
Zoho Virtual Office is a Web-based, groupware, collaboration software. It gives you an array of applications, which includes email, documents, calendar, tasks, contacts, notes, links, IM. It is free for individuals with 1GB storage, which is huge compare to even any paid collaboration suit I came across. For group/individual, $3/user/month with same storage limit per user which obviously support multiple email. This allows users to create multiple groups and provides smooth collaboration of these components within groups.
The key features of Zoho office suite that will blow your mind-highly configurable built in email and chat client that supports tagging, integrated calendar that can be shared between groups and users for better time management(you can easily export/import that in ICS format), integrated documents, spreadsheet, notes, picture and presentation creator and manager. With Zoho virtual office task management and file sharing is just a matter of few clicks.
The biggest difference between 37 signals Basecamp and Zoho Virtual office is Basecamp focus on project management itself where Zoho much more on sharing/collaboration. An excellent state of the art app that is almost free, recommended for lightweight project management such as study projects. For big scale project management try Zoho projects.
That’s all for now, in next series we will be talking about downloadable or self hosted collaboration tools, that are free/ partially free.
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Anyone looking for a great online project management and collaboration tool rolled into one should check out Huddle
Unlike Basecamp, Huddle users have visibility over all the huddle projects they have been invited into from a central dashboard, regardless of who set them up. Everything stored in Huddle is automatically versioned, includes a full audit trail of all activity and reminds people about documents they have been asked to approve, upcoming tasks or information they need to review through alerts, email and RSS feeds.
There’s a free version on Huddle which allows up to 5 users and includes document sharing. There’s also a free 30 day trial for paid packages, which range from GBP £4.99 to £24.99 per month.
Another online collaborative tool worth looking at is Peepel (www.peepel.com). It allows users to share many documents and spreadsheets, in one browser window, at one time.
Jon, I like huddle and surely one of a kind but I had to pass that for now, In part two of this collaboration tool, surely Huddle will be featured. Thanks.
Stephen,
As much as I like to add peepel, in this series but I honestly think that is much more like virtual desktop/sharing place rather than high scale collaboration/workspace tool. So definitely I will keep that for the end of the series where sharing tools will be featured. Thanks.
Hello! I work with Yugma and I would definitely recommend that you check it out for your next set of reviews. One thing that makes us unique is our support for Windows, Mac and Linux, and you’ll find a very extensive list of features at extremely low prices– FREE for up to 10 users. If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact us at info@yugma.com
Austin
Thank you Austin, you can bet i will give it a shot before Friday(next set of review).
For a completely different take on collaboration, getting away from the old list-oriented approach in favor of a more visual style, try Kerika (www.kerika.com). This lets you sketch out a project, process or strategy on a digital page, drag and drop your content onto the page and then share it so that you have a “graphical Wiki” working.
You can see a demo at
http://www.kerika.com/demo_intro.html.
Kerika is free for students and academics.
Thank you Arun.
Would love to give a test shot, but you have a 404 in your link destination? Anyway if you want to attract users, you have to provide full featured demo, not video tour. That’s just my opinion though
Users the working URL is :
http://www.kerika.com/demo_intro.html
Keep it coming guys, we are having an outstanding lists for next set of reviews.
Thanks — looks like I had an extra “.” at the end of my demo link.
There is a 30-day free trial for non-academic users, and then it costs $6.95-$9.95/month. Academic users, i.e. people who sign up with a “.edu” email address don’t get charged at all.
Thanks Anil,
I will give a whirl to your trial. I am sure it will be great addon to my next set of collboration toll review.
[...] our last set of collaboration tools review we featured two of the most outstanding free online collaboration app. But if you think your choice [...]
Hello,
Here is another free online collaboration tools, ajaxworkspace.com. Its offers corporate and personal collaboration solutions to different type of users. The product features include project management, document management, task tracking application, online event calendar, discussion board, news & headline, file sharing, expenses management, contact management and personalization
The interesting part is the personal workspace allows you to work with different group of people within the same workspace. Unlike traditional collaboration tools, you do not need to create multiple workspaces to work with different group of people. You can invite anyone to join your workspace with one single workspace login.
Hi Felix,
Thanks for your sharing. Have tried the ajaxworkspace.com. What a cool stuffs! Now I can manage my project in a more efficient way. Thank you!