To find the best collaboration and productivity tool for your business, you need to examine what your business needs are. Depending on your business, you’ll want to know how well the software scales with new employees and how easy it is to onboard new teams. Depending on your industry, there can be regulations and compliance issues that need to be addressed so that customer and business data are kept secure, both online and off.

You should consult with your IT staff to determine if there are any technical limitations or specific security requirements, especially with users working offsite. Some collaboration solutions will have encryption built into the design, while others will require it to be handled on your end. If you’re using other software alongside your collaboration tools, you’ll want to see if there will be any redundancy with the new platforms and to know what integration options are available. For example, can you send emails with attachments directly to the collaboration app? Can the deadlines you set for each task sync with your preferred calendar?

Once you have an idea of your business needs, you can choose from one of many teamwork software solutions designed for your business. While the number of options can be overwhelming, you can consider the following features when making a decision.

Top Collaboration Software Features

Suites vs. Single-Purpose Tools

There isn’t a single option that will work for every business. Single-purpose tools can work best if you’re already using a suite of software for projects and need to add in a single collaboration solution like project management, document management, email, social tools, or any other option. Some businesses like to slowly ease their teams into new software, or they may want to take it slowly as they wait for existing licensing agreements to expire.

Full collaboration software suites provide your business with all of the tools needed to handle a project from start to finish. This can be a great option if you don’t have an existing system in place or want to downsize on the number of apps used in the business, as the costs are generally lower compared to purchasing individual solutions.

Updates

When selecting collaboration tools, many security and feature updates are a necessity for business. Customer data protection regulations are continually changing and security threats always evolving, so you want to make sure that you’re working with the most up-to-date program. Cloud-based solutions generally update automatically, which can be timesaving and can free up your IT resources. With cloud-based and web-based apps, you know you’re always working with the latest version.

Social Tools

Most collaboration solutions have some group communication tool built-in, such as instant messaging, screen-sharing, or video conferencing capabilities. With these features, you will want to consider how many team members will need to be in a chat or on a conference call at the same time as some programs limit the number of users.

Team management is another vital part of this feature. Some solutions allow you to assign workers to specific teams so that they’re able to communicate with the people they need quickly. This can be helpful for keeping teams on task.

Document Management

With this feature, you have the option of using your existing cloud storage or the one that comes with the suite of software. If you plan to use document management capabilities, you will need to decide how much storage space is required. Storage amounts will typically be in GB increments and can be used store documents, photos, graphics, spreadsheets, and other files needed to complete a project.

Cloud-based options allow for multiple users to access documents at the same time. This ensures everyone has access to the same version of a file, and metadata such as the date or time something was last modified can ensure that everyone is working with the most up-to-date information.

Usability

How easy is the software to use? While having a large number of features can be useful, their value drops if your employees have difficulty finding them. Determine what your teams or employees need, and select a solution based off of those needs. If training is required, you will want to know what options are available—especially is some of your team is working remotely. Remember that this can also increase costs in the short term by requiring team members to take time away from their work to complete training requirements.

In addition to the ease of use, you also want to find information quickly. If you need to see previous emails or files, you should be able to locate it with little difficulty.

What to Avoid

When selecting a collaboration app, you should avoid choosing one with too many superfluous features. Collaboration tools are designed to improve efficiency, and some tools that may work well for another industry may not be useful at all for yours. If you choose an offsite cloud system, you will want to avoid options that offer little to no security or compliance with your industry. This can end up costing extra money in fines if the data isn’t secured properly.

Selecting the Top Collaboration Software

So what’s the best collaboration software for your business? That depends entirely on the needs of your business, and no two companies will have the same needs. Once you compare your requirements with the features offered by the software, you can find one that best works with your business. Many of these solutions provide trials so that you can test drive the software before making a purchase.

Explore our list of top collaboration tools and reviews, compare different options, and choose one that best works for you.

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