Collaboration Software

The buyer’s guide for collaboration software aims to provide the users with in-depth knowledge about the importance of collaboration tools to improve overall business performance. Businesses can leverage efficient collaboration tools to ensure streamlined workflow and steady growth through enhanced communication, coordination, teamwork, workflow efficiency, and productivity.

In this buyer's guide, you will learn about the features, importance, and benefits of collaboration management systems. The guide also offers insight into the critical points that one should consider before buying the best collaboration software for your business.

With growing work and teams, numerous communication, coordination, and tracking issues crop up that affect workflow efficiency, team productivity, and performance. With time, these issues cause irreparable damages to the business. The most common collaboration challenges that companies encounter include:

• Task and workflow tracking and management
• Communication gap or miscommunication resulting in demotivation, affecting productivity and performance
• Sharing necessary documents and information with team members
• Assigning work to team members and ensuring optimal work allocation
• Time management issues including time wasted in searching for information and trying to communicate with multiple team members in the absence of a common platform
• Teams working across different time-zones on the same projects and team members finding it difficult to overlap and coordinate at odd hours
• Issues with file sharing, working together on same docs, and synchronous editing
• Difficulties in managing and monitoring the remote workforce
• Poor team building, compromised work, missed deadlines, and frustrated employees

Collaboration software is a set of automation tools on a unified platform designed to enable people to collaborate or work together and accomplish a common goal. The software helps resolve the collaboration-related challenges discussed above and manage group processes more effectively and efficiently to enhance overall performance.

Perfect collaboration requires flawless communication and coordination. Collaboration software offers audio/video calls, real-time chat, calendar management, contact management, project management, task management, document management, and other necessary features for transparent communication, hassle-free coordination, seamless collaboration, and improved workflow management. It offers the freedom of working from anywhere, anytime. Leveraging the best collaboration apps aid steadier business growth.

With so many benefits of leveraging top collaboration tools, reports suggest that the global collaboration software market size will grow at an annual growth rate (CAGR 2021-2025) of 7.2%, and the revenue will reach USD 17.5 billion by 2025.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, remote working is the new norm worldwide today. It is the need of the hour. Remote working suffers from numerous challenges in the absence of reliable collaboration tools, including:

• Time tracking and management is a severe challenge in remote working for both the company and the employees.
• Team communication becomes difficult with team members working from different locations and varied time-zones.
• Remote working without perfect collaboration creates a feeling of social isolation.
• Lack of communication reduces trust and work satisfaction.
• Misunderstandings due to lack of communication give rise to conflicts between employees.
• Deploying separate tools to serve different collaboration needs in remote working increases costs.
• Employees cannot resolve technical errors and issues related to PC, network, server, etc., and remotely working employees find it challenging to seek technical assistance without efficient collaboration tools.

COVID-19 outbreak has made businesses realize the importance and benefits of remote working, and top collaboration tools make remote working hassle-free by eliminating the above limitations. With collaborative management software, remote working becomes easy, productive, profitable, and flexible. It results in improved work-life balance and work satisfaction, thus boosting remote employees’ morale and performance.

Collaboration tools help businesses control, streamline, and improve the operational processes through enhanced communication and coordination. Below are the advantages of leveraging collaboration systems for your business.

Centralized collaboration

Software-based collaboration systems provide a unified view of the workflow tasks and team members and help manage these on a single platform. It enables collaborative work management, multitasking, communication, and coordination.

Quick information access and updates

Collaboration software provides a common platform for knowledge management, sharing process documents, and data. It offers powerful search tools to reduce search time and enable quicker information access. Online collaboration tools allow real-time information access, updates, and collaboration.

Improved task management

Collaboration tools help automate and streamline task management functions, including task scheduling, task assignment, workload monitoring, team tracking, and more. Business owners can ensure seamless workflow task management with collaboration tools.

Enhanced communication and coordination

Communication and coordination is the root to team success. The collaboration software enables collaborative working, messaging, calling, file sharing, whiteboards, screen-sharing, screen recording, synchronous editing, and more. These systems typically include all the necessary tools to help team members interact without hassles, thus reducing the communication gap and improving coordination.

Increased process efficiency and team productivity

Businesses can ensure better time management by leveraging collaboration systems. The software brings all information and stakeholders in one place, automates repetitive routine tasks, reduces process time, saves communication/coordination time, and enhances process efficiency. The team members can thus better utilize their time and be more productive.

Cost-saving and profitability

With collaborative software, businesses get a comprehensive collection of numerous collaborative working tools in one platform at nominal costs. Besides, they do not need to spend on multiple collaboration tools separately to streamline varied functions/processes, thus reducing overall costs and enhancing profits.

Better decision-making

Collaboration tools enable businesses to measure the performance and productivity of their team members with ease. It offers Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) based business insights through analytics and reporting for better decision-making and business growth.

Enhanced work satisfaction

Collaboration software allows flexible working by reducing process, individual, and team dependencies through improved collaboration. The team members can thus work at their convenience, update work status on the platform, share documents, resolve queries, and monitor tasks. The software helps boost employee morale and work satisfaction resulting in happy employees.

Ease of remote working

Top collaboration tools eliminate the challenges associated with remote working, including communication, coordination, task monitoring, productivity tracking, performance evaluation, knowledge sharing, mentoring, data security, and more. The software thus supports remote working, flexible working hours, and work-life balance for employees. With the increase in the remote workforce or work-from-home employees, businesses can increase employee strength without additional office-space and infrastructure costs.

A reliable collaboration system typically has everything you need for perfect collaboration, including one-to-one and team communication, coordination, project/task management, workflow management, and security features. Here are the prominent must-have features to look for in collaboration systems.

Instant messaging

Instant messaging is one of the most crucial collaboration tools for businesses. Whether within the team or with clients, real-time chat/messaging helps solve queries and build trust among the users, thereby ensuring uninterrupted work. Better and quicker communication through instant messaging enhances productivity and performance.

Audio/video calls

Audio and video calls enable transparent communication instantly between individuals and groups. Audio and video conferencing allow virtual group meetings where multiple people can interact as conveniently as in a real meeting room. This feature supports better teamwork by preventing miscommunication and work interruption. Managers can utilize this feature to keep updated about their team members and their work status from anywhere, anytime.

Presentation features

Collaboration is enhanced with presentation tools like screen-sharing, whiteboards, annotation tools, virtual notepads, offline viewing, etc., that help team members share their ideas and work together towards a common goal with ease.

Calendar management

The calendar management feature of collaboration software allows sending meeting requests, book meeting slots/rooms, and schedule events. It automatically sends notifications and reminders for task status updates, deadlines, meetings, etc., thus ensuring better work coordination and tracking.

Performance and productivity tracking features

An ideal collaboration system allows monitoring team members’ performance and productivity through features like attendance, login/logout time records, idle time, productive hours, database creation, timesheets, task hours, sites visited, and more. This feature enables work schedule flexibility. These tools collectively help track efficiency, ensure integrity/accountability, and enhance individual and team productivity.

Remote work management features

Remote work management is gaining success and popularity and has now become the new norm for businesses. Collaboration software eases remote working through numerous remote work software features, including employee monitoring, file sharing, live chat, remote access, screen sharing, audio/video calls, meetings management, and security.

Project and task management features

Collaboration systems typically provide comprehensive project management tools, including portfolio management, idea management, project tracking, project budgeting, project planning, project scheduling, resource management, task progress tracking, reporting, forecasting, timesheet, and more, to control and streamline various tasks in the project.

Workflow management features

Collaboration systems provide a wide range of automation tools to streamline workflow management for businesses, including business process automation, workflow configuration, access controls, forms management, notifications/reminders, etc.

Document management features

Collaboration is incomplete without document management. Thus, collaboration software offers versatile document management features, including file sharing, synchronous editing, storage, version control, customized access, search, etc.

Contact management repository

Collaboration systems act as a central repository of all relevant contact information of people involved in a business to ensure seamless communication, including employees, customers, clients, vendors, and other business stakeholders.

Security features

A perfect collaboration tool typically offers security features to include encryption, multi-factor authentication, automatic backups, role-based access, and more.

Other features

Collaboration software offers other useful features, including activity/news feed, dashboard, forms management, Agile/Scrum, and more. Modern collaboration tools include comprehensive analytics and reporting features for team/process monitoring and performance appraisals.

As every business has different collaboration needs and challenges, choosing the best collaboration tools for your company is not easy. Here are some important parameters you can consider for selecting the best collaboration system solutions for your business.

Feasibility for your business

The software must be feasible for your business; it must cost well within your budget, and the Return on Investment or profits (ROI) from its deployment should outweigh its cost. Before buying the software, analyze whether free collaboration tools would suffice or you require comprehensive paid tools (or even advanced higher-priced plans). Also, confirm that the particular collaboration solution is suitable for your specific industry/business. Check the reviews, ratings, and feedback of the software from other users of the same industry.

Features

All collaboration applications offer different features, so it is crucial to ensure that the product you opt for covers all the necessary collaboration tools to satisfy your business needs.

Deployment type

Analyze whether your business needs an on-premise solution or a SaaS-based collaboration system. On-premise solutions have one-time costs, while the SaaS-based software (hosted on third-party servers) vendors typically charge on a per-month basis.

Integrations

The business collaboration software must allow easy integrations with your existing or third-party systems as required; for example, it may require integration with your HR software for employee performance tracking.

Scalability and customization

Choose a software vendor that provides customization in the software solution to match your needs. The solution must also support scalability, which is vital for business growth.

User training and customer support

Collaboration tools are generally easy-to-use, but the software vendor must provide user training if needed. Also, confirm that the software provider offers prompt need-based customer support.

Additional costs

Analyze and discuss other possible costs involved with collaboration software implementation with the software vendor to include installation, training, maintenance, integrations, customer support, hardware costs, etc. 

Take a demo

Before finalizing the collaboration system, leverage the free trial version if available to ensure that the solution offers all you need and is user-friendly. Else, request the collaboration software vendor to conduct a demo session for your relevant staff or target users.

The cost of collaboration solutions depends on numerous parameters. Factors that predominantly affect the pricing of the collaboration tools include:

• Features it offers
• Number of users
• Number of projects
• Storage space
• Deployment type

Numerous free collaboration software options are available for businesses who need simple collaboration tools without affecting their business budget. Some software vendors also offer free versions or freemiums of collaboration systems; for example, Brosix offers a free version that allows up to 3 free users and Wrike up to 5 users. Other popular top collaboration tools that offer free versions include Asana, Trello, Beesbusy, MyChat, and OpenProject. These software solutions provide multiple feature-rich packages and higher storage space in the paid plans. Please refer to GoodFirms’ blog on free and open source collaboration systems for more free collaboration system options.

It is possible to avail paid packages of reliable collaboration software for as low as $3 per month; for example, G Suite. You can get numerous top collaboration system packages within $12 per month. Brosix costs $4 per user per month, Taiga $5 per user per month (allows unlimited users and projects), Wrike $9.8 per user per month, Trello $9.99 per user per month, Asana $10.99 per user per month, and Beesbusy costs $11.99 per month for one license.

Some popular and reliable collaboration systems that cost a bit higher include Backlog at $35 per month (for up to 30 users, 5 projects, 1 GB storage) and Basecamp that costs $99 per month for unlimited users and projects.

Top collaboration tool vendors are generally transparent about the pricing of their collaboration systems. Still, before you plan to buy one, you must confirm with the vendor about hidden costs (if any) related to installation, maintenance, system upgrades, integrations with other systems, data migration, customer support, etc. Additionally, vendors typically offer customization at extra costs based on the complexity of your requirements. All these can significantly influence the pricing of collaboration tools.

GoodFirms stands as the most reliable source for the list of the best software in numerous categories, with over 30,000 unbiased reviews from verified customers and a listing of over 60,000 services and software. GoodFirms’ insights are based on information gained from industry leaders worldwide and verified user reviews. We perform extensive research and rigorous analysis to handpick the list of best collaboration software for you.

Because every business has different requirements, GoodFirms offers multiple filters to sort and shortlist the top collaboration tools based on prominent features, business size, pricing models, deployment type, devices supported, and more. Leverage this list of the best collaboration system software summarized by GoodFirms and select the right collaboration tool to streamline and up-surge your business.