There are a growing number of collaboration tools for small to midsized businesses. It can be hard to differentiate between them- prices, features, functionality, security and IT questions can blur together as you search for the collaboration tool that first your company’s budget, size and resources.
Questions to ask when searching for a Collaboration Software
- What is my budget?
- How much will this software cost me in the long run? Consider additional costs such as upgrades, hardware maintenance, IT technicians, server costs
- What are the features that I really need in my collaboration software?
- What are the biggest collaboration problems that I absolutely must solve with my collaboration tool?
- Will I have to scale this software to a growing number of employees? Will the company be able to grow along with software?
- Will it make things easier, not harder, for my business and team to get more done in less time?
- Which collaboration software solutions are the most dependable and trusted by users? Name isn’t everything, but a well known and trusted brand shows reliability and industry leadership.
Budgeting for your Collaboration Software
When you are determining your budget, remember that different size companies have different size pockets. Just because huge corporations use SharePoint, doesn’t mean it’s right for you. Small to midsize businesses usually find that it’s much more affordable to go with an alternative that costs not only a fraction of the initial subscription cost, but doesn’t require extra budgeting for training, implementation, hardware maintenance, hardware purchases, upgrade purchases and IT staff maintenance. Alternatives like Central Desktop offer pricing plans that start as low as $25 dollars a month, while providing features and functionality comparable to Microsoft SharePoint.
What Does your Collaboration Software Need?
There are several use cases for collaboration software, the most common of which are:
- Team Communication
- Project Management
- Document Management
- Document Collaboration
- Intranet Solution
- Extranet Solution
Decide which of these features/functions are most important to you. Certain collaboration solutions like Basecamp provide simple project management solutions for smaller teams, while more robust solutions like Central Desktop provide a comprehensive suite of tools for larger businesses. The benefit of having a comprehensive solution is that you don’t need to sign up for a bunch of applications and manage them at once. Instead, you have a single platform that handles all your business collaboration (document, project and team collaboration) needs at once.
For more information on choosing a collaboration solution, download this free whitepaper “6 Steps to Collaboration Success” for a roadmap on choosing your collaboration solution, implementation and getting started.
