Today, with so many employees working from home, maintaining productivity in an office requires tools that can connect teams through voice, chat, and video. Slack rules the roost as a top team collaboration software, but it’s far from being the only reliable one.
Dozens of team collaboration tools have recently gained popularity. Some of them offer similar functionality to Slack and may even be better at some tasks; others are sorely lacking in utilities to help a team get organized.
To help those working remotely in a group environment, we asked 15 entrepreneurs from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) the following question:
Besides Slack, what is a good collaboration tool to help remote teams stay on task and communicate? Why does it work so well?
1. Carrot
Slack is a great tool, but it’s easy for important messages to get lost in the noise. One tool that has helped to alleviate some of this Slack stress is Carrot. Carrot lets you keep key company communications in one place. The key to Carrot is the fact that it’s not for everything. We use it for important all-company communications, promotion announcements, and shout-outs. —Jonathan Steiman, Peak Support
2. Chanty
I like Chanty. For one, it seems to be a lot easier to use than Slack, and it’s a bit more affordable. Plus, workflows can be optimized, great ideas can be pinned, and there are several other features which make it a better alternative compared to Slack. —Andrew Schrage, Money Crashers Personal Finance
3. monday.com
Since we’ve been working from home, I’ve found that monday.com, a project management tool, is very effective. It allows me to stay in touch with all team members, track project progress, and collaborate with clients. It’s an affordable alternative to other project management and communication systems. —Kristin Kimberly Marquet, Marquet Media, LLC
4. Zoom
Slack is great for asynchronous communication, but when it comes to good old face-to-face conversation, nothing beats Zoom. There are other tools out there for video chat, but I’ve found Zoom to work consistently without any buffering or shaky video. You can have one-on-one meetings or an entire team, all-hands gathering. It’s easy to use, fast to set up, and works on a variety of devices. —Michael Averto, ChannelApe
5. Freshconnect
Freshconnect by Freshworks is a collaboration tool that supports both inter- and intra-team communications via one-on-one meetings or group chats. What is great about this platform is that it allows users to start a discussion right in the CRM/helpdesk that can be shared with contacts outside of the organization. —Jared Weitz, United Capital Source Inc.
6. GoToMeeting
Hosting meetings while working remotely can be difficult, especially if you are working with outside contacts like customers or vendors. GoToMeeting has been a great tool to launch meetings through email, IM, or project management tools. It incorporates well with other tools, making access to engage easy and fast. —Matthew Podolsky, Florida Law Advisers, P.A.
7. Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams is great because it integrates with the entire Microsoft 365 suite of products. This makes it very easy to bring together more tools you need to collaborate onto one screen. —Angela Ruth, Calendar
8. Microsoft Planner
Microsoft Planner is a great, user-friendly, and simple software for organizing teamwork online. Our team has been using it for a while and it has a lot of features that will help your company save a lot of time, share files and tasks, and perform even better and faster. —Kevin Leyes, Leyes Media & Team Leyes, by Leyes Enterprises
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9. Skype
Skype is a great way to communicate with your team on the fly. You can have scheduled meetings or simply jump in if everyone is talking in the chat channel. There are plenty of great features that make connecting with multiple people fast and easy. —Chris Christoff, MonsterInsights
10. Asana
Asana organizes our tasks and projects as a team. What makes it so great, however, is that you can also track your team’s progress so you know what stage a project is in and what else needs to be done until completion. It also reminds you of the tasks you have due that day so you don’t forget about even the smallest things on your to-do list. —Stephanie Wells, Formidable Forms
11. Houseparty
In order to stay on task with our workload and projects we use Asana, but there are some elements to communication that we miss in project management software. When you hit a wall in communication or with brainstorming sessions, you need to lighten the mood and take a break. Houseparty is excellent for team breaks and has a Pictionary game that is wonderful for keeping culture alive and projects on track. —Matthew Capala, Alphametic
12. Calendly
My biggest obstacle when working with my remote teams is organizing everyone’s schedule, whether it’s for team meetings, conference calls, weekly check-ins, etc. I use Calendly so everyone’s calendars sync up and there’s no guesswork with time zones or conflicting meetings. It keeps everyone in the loop without the need for back-and-forth emails and saves me considerable time setting things up. —Jordan Conrad, Writing Explained
13. Basecamp
There are plenty of collaboration tools that you can use to help remote teams stay in touch. Basecamp, for example, is a great tool to keep projects on task and to keep everyone in the loop. Videoconferencing tools like Zoom are also integral to having face-to-face communication, even when you’re not physically together. —Maria Thimothy, OneIMS
14. Google Drive
All of our important files and uploads go straight to Google Drive for instant access. You can leave comments on these files to start a conversation if anything needs tweaking or editing. Although it’s not a direct communication system, G Suite is a great tool for teams to collaborate on projects effectively. —Jared Atchison, WPForms
15. Trello
We have half of our team in house, and the other half works remotely. For us, Trello has worked great. It allows everyone to stay in the loop and up-to-date on what is happening within the company. Through the app, we can assign projects, give notes, and communicate 24 hours a day with everyone. It has truly made our lives easier. —Zach Binder, Bell + Ivy
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