Below is part 6 of our 6-part series aimed at helping you understand key trends that Small and Midsized Businesses tend to consider investing in as they aim to scale their business. To read part 5 of this series, click here.
Welcome to the concluding chapter of our ‘Scale your Business’ series. Today, we’re focusing on a concept that’s crucial for organizations of all sizes, from the smallest startups to the largest enterprises: Enterprise Collaboration. Don’t be put off by the corporate-sounding phrase. It’s simply about the tools, strategies, and systems that facilitate seamless teamwork, irrespective of an individual’s role or location. From daily communication and document sharing to intricate project management, the principles of effective collaboration apply universally. Whether your organization is just taking flight or soaring at high altitudes, today’s insights will equip you with actionable strategies for enhancing your collaborative endeavors. Ready to break down barriers, connect your team like never before, and propel your organization to new heights? Then let’s get started.
Enterprise Collaboration
At its core, enterprise collaboration is about improving communication and collaboration among employees, departments, and teams to increase productivity, streamline workflows, and drive better business outcomes. It involves the use of various tools and technologies, such as messaging and chat apps, video conferencing, file-sharing systems, project management tools, and more. Some solutions have also evolved to bring this collaboration across vendors and external parties, thereby making it easier to collaborate across an organization as well as with trusted partners that need to remove barriers that were once a difficulty or constraint when working with external parties.
Some of the key benefits of enterprise collaboration include increased efficiency, improved knowledge sharing and innovation, better decision-making, and more engaged and productive employees. By breaking down silos and improving communication and collaboration across teams and departments, enterprise collaboration can help businesses stay agile, responsive, and competitive in an ever-changing business environment.
There are several excellent Enterprise Collaboration tools available that can enhance productivity and facilitate teamwork within any organization. While we tend not to propose detailed solutions in our blog posts as we want to be careful when making such recommendations, we feel compelled to do so when discussing Enterprise Collaboration platforms. We have extensive experience with the solutions below. We have implemented them, and we use most of them within our organization every single day and can vouch for their effectiveness without hesitation. The best part is that all of the tools below can be used by organizations of any size, from startups with two employees to global enterprises with 100,000+ employees. Best of all, many of the solutions below offer a free version as well as entry-level capabilities that are still phenomenal and bring value to any business.
So let’s dive right in with some of the best ones.
Microsoft Teams
If you are already utilizing Microsoft technologies such as Outlook and OneDrive, Teams is an obvious choice. Microsoft Teams is a comprehensive collaboration platform that combines chat, video meetings, file sharing, and integration with other Microsoft Office applications. It offers a wide range of features and is widely used in businesses of all sizes. It is one of the most secure, integrates seamlessly with the rest of the Microsoft ecosystem, and is one of the dominant players in this space. We use Microsoft Teams as much, if not more than just about any other technology, with probably only Microsoft Outlook being a close second. Some of the highlights that make Microsoft Teams stand out:
Communication and Collaboration
Microsoft Teams provides a centralized platform for team members to communicate through instant messaging, audio and video calls, and virtual meetings. It enables real-time collaboration, making it easy to share ideas, discuss projects, and make decisions as a team.
Integration with Microsoft Office
Microsoft Teams seamlessly integrates with other Microsoft Office applications such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. This integration allows users to create, edit, and share Office documents within the Teams environment, promoting productivity and streamlining workflows.
Channel-based Organization
Microsoft Teams uses a channel-based structure that allows users to create separate channels for different projects, topics, or departments. This helps in organizing conversations, files, and meetings within their respective channels, ensuring relevant information is easily accessible.
File Sharing and Collaboration
Microsoft Teams provides a shared file repository where team members can upload, store, and collaborate on files. Multiple users can simultaneously edit documents, making it easy to collaborate on projects and track changes. Microsoft Teams also integrates with SharePoint, OneDrive, and other cloud storage solutions, expanding file-sharing capabilities.
Third-Party Integrations
Microsoft Teams offers a wide range of integrations with third-party applications and services, allowing teams to connect their favorite tools within the Teams environment. This includes project management tools, customer relationship management (CRM) systems, and more, enabling a seamless workflow and reducing context switching.
Security and Compliance
Microsoft Teams prioritizes security and compliance features to protect sensitive business data. It provides data encryption, multi-factor authentication, and compliance with industry standards such as HIPAA and GDPR. Administrators have control over user permissions and can enforce data loss prevention policies.
Productivity Features
Microsoft Teams includes a variety of features designed to enhance productivity. This includes the ability to schedule and conduct online meetings, screen sharing, collaborative whiteboards, and integrated task management with Microsoft Planner. Microsoft Teams also supports the use of bots and automation tools to streamline repetitive tasks.
Mobile and Remote Access
Microsoft Teams offers mobile apps for iOS and Android devices, enabling users to collaborate and communicate on the go. It facilitates remote work by providing a virtual workspace accessible from anywhere with an internet connection.
Extensive Meeting Capabilities
Microsoft Teams offers a robust set of meeting features, including video conferencing, screen sharing, meeting recording, live captions, and meeting notes. It supports large meetings, webinars, and live events, making it suitable for organizations of all sizes.
Scalability and Enterprise-grade Support
Microsoft Teams is designed to support organizations of various sizes, from small businesses to large enterprises. It offers enterprise-grade support, including administrative controls, analytics, and compliance tools, to meet the needs of complex organizational structures.
These benefits make Microsoft Teams a comprehensive and versatile enterprise collaboration tool, fostering teamwork, communication, and productivity within organizations. Microsoft Teams is also very affordable, even for startups or very small businesses. The number of capabilities and value within packs a punch, and it is no surprise that Microsoft Teams is the leader in this space. We have to be honest. We are avid fans.
Slack
Slack is a popular team communication tool that allows real-time messaging, file sharing, and integration with various third-party services. It provides a highly organized and searchable platform for team collaboration. We quite often see Slack in use alongside Microsoft Teams in larger organizations and in smaller companies operating primarily outside of the Microsoft stack. We see these solutions as direct competition with one another, but in many ways, they do offer similar capabilities. Slack offers several benefits as an enterprise collaboration tool:
Real-time Communication
Slack provides instant messaging and chat functionality, enabling real-time communication among team members. It supports individual and group conversations, allowing for quick and efficient information sharing and collaboration.
Channel-based Organization
Slack utilizes channels to categorize discussions and topics. This channel-based structure helps keep conversations organized, making it easy to locate and reference information. Channels can be created for teams, projects, departments, or any other relevant categories, streamlining communication and collaboration.
File Sharing and Collaboration
Slack allows users to share files, documents, and multimedia within conversations. It supports drag-and-drop file sharing, integrations with popular cloud storage platforms like Google Drive and Dropbox, and in-line file previews. This promotes collaboration and ensures that all relevant files are easily accessible within Slack.
Integration with Third-Party Tools
Slack offers extensive integration capabilities, allowing seamless connectivity with a wide range of third-party applications and services. This integration enables users to bring their favorite tools into the Slack environment, consolidating workflows and reducing the need to switch between different platforms.
Searchable Archive
Slack maintains a searchable archive of conversations and files, making it effortless to find past discussions, shared documents, or important information. This helps in knowledge management, ensuring that valuable content and context are readily available.
Customization and Automation
Slack provides customization options and supports the use of bots and automation tools. Users can personalize their Slack experience by setting custom notifications, creating shortcuts, and integrating with workflow automation tools like Zapier or IFTTT. This flexibility allows teams to tailor Slack to their specific needs and streamline processes.
Voice and Video Calls
Slack offers voice and video calling capabilities, facilitating remote collaboration and reducing the need for external communication tools. Users can initiate one-on-one or group calls directly from within Slack, enhancing communication and fostering teamwork.
Collaboration Beyond the Organization
Slack allows organizations to connect and collaborate with external partners, clients, or vendors. The shared channels feature enables secure collaboration with external parties, promoting seamless communication and coordination across organizations.
Mobile Accessibility
Slack provides mobile apps for iOS and Android devices, allowing users to stay connected and collaborate while on the go. This mobility ensures that team members can access important conversations and information regardless of their location.
Security and Compliance
Slack offers robust security features, including data encryption, two-factor authentication, and enterprise-grade security controls. It also complies with industry standards and regulations, such as GDPR and HIPAA, making it suitable for organizations with strict security and compliance requirements.
These benefits make Slack a powerful enterprise collaboration tool, enhancing communication, productivity, and teamwork within organizations of all sizes.
Google Workspace (formerly G Suite)
Google Workspace offers a suite of collaborative tools, including Gmail, Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Meet. It enables real-time document collaboration, video conferencing, and shared calendars, among other features. Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) offers several benefits as an enterprise collaboration tool:
Seamless Collaboration
Google Workspace provides a suite of collaborative tools, including Gmail, Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Slides, and more. These tools are designed to work seamlessly together, allowing real-time collaboration on documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. Multiple users can edit files simultaneously, making it easy for teams to work together and see changes in real-time.
Cloud-based Storage and File Sharing
Google Drive, the cloud storage component of Google Workspace, allows users to store files securely in the cloud. It provides ample storage space and supports easy file sharing with team members, both within the organization and with external parties. Permissions can be set to control access and editing rights, ensuring data security.
Email and Communication
Google Workspace includes Gmail, a robust email service that offers professional email addresses using your organization’s domain name. Gmail provides advanced search capabilities, spam filtering, and integration with other Google tools. It also supports threaded conversations, making it easy to follow and respond to email discussions.
Integrated Productivity Suite
With Google Workspace, users have access to a comprehensive suite of productivity tools. Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides are powerful alternatives to traditional office productivity software. These tools allow for easy collaboration, version control, and document sharing, enabling teams to work together efficiently.
Real-time Communication
Google Workspace provides Google Chat and Google Meet for real-time messaging and video conferencing, respectively. These tools facilitate instant communication and remote collaboration among team members, no matter their location. Google Meet supports high-quality video calls, screen sharing, and live captions, making virtual meetings more productive.
Centralized Calendar and Scheduling
Google Workspace offers Google Calendar, which allows teams to schedule meetings, events, and appointments. Calendar invites can be sent to participants, and availability can be checked across different calendars, streamlining the scheduling process and reducing conflicts.
Easy Integration with Third-Party Tools
Google Workspace supports integration with various third-party applications through its Marketplace. This allows organizations to extend the functionality of Google Workspace and integrate it with other tools and services they use, enhancing productivity and streamlining workflows.
Mobile Accessibility
Google Workspace provides mobile apps for iOS and Android devices, allowing users to access their emails, files, and collaborative documents on the go. This mobility ensures that teams can stay connected and collaborate, even when they are not at their desks.
Data Security and Compliance
Google Workspace prioritizes data security and provides robust measures to protect user information. It offers data encryption, two-factor authentication, and advanced security controls. Google also maintains compliance with international standards and regulations, providing organizations with peace of mind.
Scalability and Reliability
Google Workspace is designed to scale with the needs of organizations, from small businesses to large enterprises. It offers high reliability and availability, ensuring that teams can access their files and collaborate without disruptions.
These benefits make Google Workspace a popular choice for enterprise collaboration, providing a suite of tools that foster productivity, communication, and seamless teamwork within organizations.
Jira and Confluence
Jira and Confluence from Atlassian are a powerful combination of project management, issue-tracking, and documentation. JIRA offers features like task tracking, agile boards, release management, and extensive customization options while Confluence offers an unparalleled document management and documentation universe. We personally love how flexible, powerful, and versatile the Atlassian stack can be. As with any new tool, there can be a bit of a learning curve, especially on the administration portion of it, but it is an amazing platform.
Jira offers several benefits as an enterprise collaboration tool:
Robust Agile Support: Jira is recognized for its extensive support for agile methodologies like Scrum and Kanban, providing user stories, sprints, backlogs, and boards for effective project planning, tracking, and management.
Customizable Workflows and Task Tracking: With the ability to create tailored workflows and track tasks throughout the project lifecycle, Jira ensures your team can manage work according to your unique needs and processes.
Integrations and Extensibility: Jira’s seamless integration with a multitude of development tools, coupled with an extensive marketplace of apps and APIs, enables better coordination between teams and a customizable work environment.
Advanced Reporting and Scalability: Jira provides robust reporting features for insightful data analysis alongside a scalable platform that can accommodate organizations of all sizes and complexities.
Confluence offers several benefits as an enterprise collaboration tool:
Centralized Knowledge Base: Confluence acts as a single source of truth, making it easy for teams to find information, collaborate on documents, and keep work organized.
Real-time Collaboration: Confluence promotes real-time collaboration on documents and pages, enabling teams to work together seamlessly, regardless of their location.
Integration with Atlassian Suite: Confluence integrates smoothly with other Atlassian tools like JIRA, enabling teams to link their project documentation with corresponding tasks or issues.
Customizable and Interactive Content: With the ability to create personalized, interactive pages featuring multimedia and dynamic content, Confluence offers teams a rich and engaging way to share information and ideas.
The Atlassian stack offers several benefits as an enterprise collaboration stack:
Collaboration and Communication
Atlassian promotes collaboration through features like comments, attachments, and mentions. Team members can discuss issues, share files, and provide updates, keeping all relevant information and conversations in one place. This enhances communication, reduces the need for disjointed communication channels, and fosters better teamwork.
Integration with Development Tools
Atlassian seamlessly integrates with a wide range of development tools, such as version control systems like Git, continuous integration and delivery platforms like Jenkins, and testing frameworks. This integration enables teams to connect their development workflows with issue tracking and project management, ensuring better coordination and alignment between development and project teams.
Advanced Reporting and Analytics
Atlassian provides robust reporting and analytics features, allowing teams and stakeholders to gain insights into project progress, team performance, and issue trends. Customizable dashboards, burndown charts, velocity reports, and other metrics provide valuable data for evaluating project health, identifying bottlenecks, and making data-driven decisions.
Scalability and Enterprise-level Support
Atlassian is highly scalable and can accommodate the needs of small teams as well as large enterprises with complex project structures. It offers enterprise-level support, including security features, user management, access controls, and integration with identity providers. Jira can handle projects of varying sizes and complexity, making it suitable for organizations with diverse collaboration needs.
Atlassian Ecosystem
The Atlassian ecosystem includes other popular collaboration tools like Bitbucket OpsGenie, Atlas, and Trello. Integration among these tools provides a comprehensive platform for project management, documentation, code versioning, and team collaboration, allowing teams to work seamlessly across different aspects of their projects.
These benefits make Jira and Confluence powerful enterprise collaboration tools particularly suited for software documentation and project management. Atlassian empowers teams to streamline their processes, enhance collaboration, and deliver projects efficiently. These are just a few examples of the many enterprise collaboration tools available. The choice of the best tool depends on the specific needs and preferences of your organization. It’s recommended to evaluate the features, integrations, security, and pricing options of each tool to find the one that aligns best with your requirements.
Asana
Asana is a project management and collaboration tool that helps teams organize tasks, track progress, and manage projects effectively. It allows users to create and assign tasks, set deadlines, and collaborate on projects in a centralized workspace. Asana offers several benefits as an enterprise collaboration tool:
Project Management
Asana is primarily a project management tool that helps teams organize and manage projects effectively. It provides a centralized platform where users can create tasks, assign them to team members, set deadlines, and track progress. This promotes transparency and accountability and ensures that everyone is aligned toward project goals.
Task Tracking and Prioritization
Asana allows teams to track tasks and subtasks, enabling them to monitor progress, update status, and prioritize work. With clear visibility into task assignments and deadlines, teams can stay organized, ensure timely completion of work, and identify potential bottlenecks.
Collaboration and Communication
Asana facilitates collaboration by providing a space for team members to discuss tasks, share files, and provide updates. Users can comment on tasks, tag teammates for input, and have conversations within the context of specific tasks or projects. This eliminates the need for lengthy email chains and ensures that all relevant information is captured in one place.
Project Visualization
Asana offers visual project management features like boards, lists, and timelines. These visualizations provide a clear overview of project progress, task dependencies, and milestones. They make it easier to plan, track, and communicate project status to stakeholders, enhancing transparency and alignment.
File Sharing and Document Management
Asana enables users to attach files and documents to tasks, allowing for easy file sharing and collaboration. Team members can access and collaborate on files within Asana, eliminating the need to switch between multiple tools. This promotes efficiency and keeps all project-related assets in one centralized location.
Integration with Third-Party Tools
Asana integrates with various third-party applications and services, such as communication tools, cloud storage platforms, time-tracking software, and more. This integration capability allows teams to connect their favorite tools and streamline their workflows, enhancing productivity and minimizing context switching.
Automation and Workflow Customization
Asana offers automation features that can automate repetitive tasks and streamline workflows. Users can create custom rules and trigger to automate actions, such as task assignments, notifications, or status updates. This helps save time and ensure consistency in processes.
Team and Resource Management
Asana provides features to manage team members, their workloads, and availability. Managers can assign tasks based on team members’ capacity, view their workload across multiple projects, and make adjustments as needed. This ensures optimal resource allocation and helps prevent overload or underutilization.
Reporting and Analytics
Asana offers reporting and analytics features that provide insights into project progress, team performance, and workload distribution. Users can generate reports on completed tasks, project milestones, and other metrics to track performance, identify areas for improvement, and make data-driven decisions.
Mobile Accessibility
Asana provides mobile apps for iOS and Android devices, allowing users to access their tasks and projects and collaborate on the go. This enables teams to stay connected, update progress, and communicate even when they are not at their desks.
These benefits make Asana a powerful enterprise collaboration tool, supporting effective project management, communication, and collaboration within organizations of all sizes.
Trello
Trello is a visual project management tool that uses boards, lists, and cards to help teams track tasks and collaborate. It provides a simple and intuitive interface for organizing projects and assigning tasks to team members. We have to admit on this one we avid fans, there’s just something about the user experience and overall simplicity of the UI and how a user engages with Trello cards that just makes it enjoyable to use. Depending on how complex you make your Trello board, it can definitely get out of hand, but the ease of spinning up a board, sharing it, collaborating, and moving items in a digitized Kanban model is somehow very gratifying. Some of the silly stickers and add-ons and so on don’t really pique our interest. We prefer simple basic functionality. If there’s a solution out there that got it right on the initial release, it’s definitely Trello. Awesome stuff. Trello offers several benefits as an enterprise collaboration tool:
Visual Task Management
Trello utilizes a visual and intuitive interface based on boards, lists, and cards. Teams can create boards for projects, lists for different stages of work, and cards for individual tasks. This visual representation provides a clear overview of tasks, their status, and progress, making it easy to track and manage work.
Easy Task Organization
Trello allows users to create and prioritize tasks using cards. Cards can be customized with labels, due dates, checklists, attachments, and comments. This flexibility enables teams to organize and structure their work in a way that suits their specific needs and workflows.
Collaborative Workflows
Trello promotes collaboration by allowing team members to contribute to tasks, provide updates, and discuss work within cards. Users can mention teammates, attach files, and comment on cards to facilitate communication and keep everyone aligned. This transparency ensures that everyone has access to the relevant information and can collaborate effectively.
Kanban Methodology
Trello follows the Kanban methodology, which focuses on visualizing work, limiting work in progress, and optimizing workflow efficiency. This approach helps teams identify bottlenecks, balance workloads, and streamline processes. It also encourages continuous improvement by providing insights into the flow of work.
Customizable Workflow Automation
Trello offers automation capabilities through its Power-Ups feature. Power-Ups allow users to automate routine tasks, set triggers and actions, integrate with other apps, and customize their workflow. Automation reduces manual effort, increases efficiency, and ensures consistency in processes.
Integration with External Tools
Trello integrates with a variety of external tools and services through its Power-Ups and APIs. It seamlessly connects with popular apps, such as Google Drive, Slack, Jira, and more, enabling teams to consolidate their work and streamline workflows across different tools.
Mobile Accessibility
Trello provides mobile apps for iOS and Android devices, allowing users to access their boards and tasks and collaborate on the go. This mobility ensures that teams can stay connected, update progress, and communicate even when they are away from their desks.
Scalability and Flexibility
Trello is highly scalable and can be adapted to fit the needs of teams and organizations of all sizes. It can be used by small teams or scaled up to enterprise-level collaboration. Trello’s flexibility allows teams to customize their boards, cards, and workflows to match their specific requirements.
Transparency and Accountability
Trello provides transparency by making work visible to all team members. This fosters accountability as team members can see who is responsible for each task, track progress, and ensure that work is being completed in a timely manner. It also reduces the need for excessive status meetings or email updates.
Cost-Effective Solution
Trello offers a free plan with basic features, making it a cost-effective option for small teams or organizations on a budget. It also provides paid plans with additional features and advanced functionality for larger teams or those with more complex collaboration needs.
These benefits make Trello a popular choice for enterprise collaboration, providing a flexible and visual platform that enhances task management, collaboration, and team productivity.
Wrap Up
We hope you see this as a good short list of some excellent Enterprise Applications on the market. If you’re not using any of them yet or are curious about what they can offer to your business, let us know. We would love to help your business understand what each can offer. Each of them, and many of them when strategically deployed in your organization with the right roadmap and vision of how they can enable your business to higher efficiency, is truly revolutionary. We tend to find many businesses using the tools for only a fraction of what they can do without realizing the vast capabilities they offer or how bolting some together truly expands the workforce output potential.
How StrataNorth can help.
Are you in need of scaling your small or mid-sized business? Do you need help with an Enterprise Collaboration strategy for your business? Let us help you. If you are ready to evaluate Enterprise Collaboration technology and are looking for experts to guide you, StrataNorth has Technology consultants with decades of experience. We can help you reach Strategic Growth and deliver an IT Roadmap. Reach out for a no-cost, no-obligation chat with an IT Consultant today.
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