Top 15 Cloud Collaboration Apps
Judging by the investments that developers -- both well-established and start-ups -- are making in the collaboration market, software vendors are paying more than lip service to the adage that no man is an island. Certainly, businesses are investigating -- and investing in -- tools that help employees brainstorm, locate each other, schedule meetings, and communicate via social networks. Collaboration technology itself covers a broad spectrum of devices, from instant messaging and email, to cell
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AtTask, which develops a social work management platform and on-demand project and portfolio software, extended its incorporation of social media elements with the February unveiling of Stream. The new feature is an ongoing flow of conversational data that employees enter into the software, a capability that boosted productivity at many beta sites, AtTask said. "Our team members really like using TeamHome," a dashboard-like workspace designed to help team members understand, organize, and get their tasks done, said John Gilmartin, head of programs at Sage, a software developer and customer of AtTask. "They like how they can add their own tasks, prioritize them on their homepage, and spend less time fumbling through the software wondering what their tasks are -- everything is in once place and is easy for them to access."
Worldwide, collaborative decision-making (CDM) software, which represents only a portion of the collaborative software world, is expected to reach $769.2 million in 2011, up 15.7% from 2010, according to Gartner. Last year, the researcher predicted revenue would reach $664.4 million. This year, CDM is expected to integrate deeper with business intelligence tools, Gartner said.
"Social software improves the connectedness of workers, promotes collaboration, and helps capture informal knowledge. Social software excels in business contexts that leave room for individuals to interact informally, brainstorm, explore ideas, and encourage or challenge peers. Specific business value can be derived through customer intimacy, product/service excellence, operational effectiveness and creating innovation," said Tom Eid, research vice president at Gartner.
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With tools such as Cisco WebEx, businesses have been able to eliminate many of the costly, time-consuming in-person meetings once such a necessary component of their operations. WebEx Connect IM, part of the total Cisco WebEx system, uses presence and instant messaging to enable users to communicate with colleagues, both inside and outside an organization. Because of the presence technology, WebEx Connect IM knows whether users are available, reducing communication delays and boosting employee productivity. For its part, Cisco rolled-out the service internally to 90,000 employees, partners, and contractors in 45 days, said Bailey Szeto, director of strategy and architecture for communication and collaborative IT at Cisco.
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Available free to businesses users -- whether they are Salesforce.com customers or not, Chatter lets users collaborate, share, and interact via a private, secure network. Chatter works on any desktop, as well as multiple mobile devices such as iPad, iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android. Users also can receive notifications; find and share files; get reports and analytics from the software's dashboard, receive recommendations on people to follow, and invite colleagues to join the social network software. More than 60,000 companies use Chatter, according to Salesforce. Santander Consumer USA, for example, uses Chatter to share presentations, documents, and status updates, the auto-financing company said. "Our employees love using Chatter to stay informed and learn from each other," said Will Stacy IV, director of marketing at Santander, in a video.
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With LotusLive Symphony's Web-based software, users can co-edit, organize, and manage document-creation in real-time. Lotus Symphony includes free spreadsheets, document, and presentation software; LotusLive is the developer's online collaboration suite, which includes a 30-day free trial. Unwrapped in late January 2011, LotusLive Symphony incorporates feeds from popular social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Although the software will not be released until later this year, it is available now as a technical preview. "Social software helps enterprises define their collaboration agenda," said Alistair Rennie, general manager, IBM Lotus Software. "The use of social software can transform the way people work increasing the speed of business."
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Microsoft SharePoint Online, which can be deployed either on-site or in the cloud, is available bundled with Microsoft's business productivity suite, online standard suite, or as a standalone offering for about $5.25 per user, with a 30-day free trial. The software, which is part of Microsoft's Office 365, includes a portal, collaboration and social computing, content management, and search. "Departments are getting information out to stores faster, because SharePoint Online is so easy to use," said Rhonda Cobb, IT manager at REEDS Jewelers.
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The Jive Engage Platform melds together collaboration, community, and social media monitoring software, providing customers with blogs, tags, videos, social bookmarks, collaborative documents, polls, profiles, and status updates. In addition, the software provides social media monitoring, mobile applications, community analytics, and integration with legacy systems, the developer said. Jive Engage works on desktops and mobile devices including the iPhone and BlackBerry. It is sold on-site or as a cloud version. "We quickly realized that Jive had almost everything we needed out-of-the-box for social networking and a vision for future development in line with ours," said Brice Jewell, the senior manager at Cerner responsible for the health company's social network experience. "Our clients don't want to hear about the 'potential' impact of Web 2.0 on their business. They want real, proven examples from people like them."
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Touted as easy to use, Google Groups for Business gives users access to email, documents, folders, calendar, and videos. Unlike the free standard edition of Google Apps, Groups for Business costs about $50 per user per year, and may include a set-up fee. But the business edition also provides an uptime guarantee, either via Google or an authorized reseller. Companies also can disable ads in the Web interface; Google offers a free trial. "Google Apps saves us millions of dollars over five years over any of the alternatives that we looked at and provides us with worldwide disaster recovery, unprecedented integration, and device independence," said customer Todd Pierce, vice president of IT at Genentech, in a video.
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StreamWork marked SAP's foray into the social media collaboration space. The software, available for a free trial, is based on Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11, and lets users continue working within their applications while accessing StreamWork, according to SAP. The basic edition is free; the professional version starts at $9 per user per month, and the enterprise edition begins at $192 per user per year, and includes advanced security, provisioning, and auditing.
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Designed to meet the online and collaboration needs of small and midsize enterprises, HyperOffice apps are in-use by more 300,000 users worldwide, according to the developer. The HyperOffice suite includes features such as business email, contact management, calendaring, document management, intranet and extranet workspaces, forums, Web conferencing, online databases, and Web forms. The HyperOfficesoftware -- which runs on a PC, Mac, or handheld -- is available on a no-contract basis, and starts at $44.99 per month for five users goes to $1,499 per month for more than 250 users, with discounts available for monthly and annual contracts.
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Zoho Projects incorporates email, collaboration, productivity, and business apps into a suite of tools that are free for personal users. The software is discounted for non-profit groups, and enterprises fees begin at $12 month for the standard version and $35 a month for the premium version. In February, the developer announced that Zoho Projects was integrated with Zoho CRM; in September 2010, Zoho integrated its capabilities with Google Gmail.
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While some competitors' Web sites are slickly produced, 37signals' is comparatively barebones. But the company, which developed the Basecamp online project collaboration tool, counts businesses such as National Geographic, Patagonia, Warner Bros., and Fox Sports among its clients. Basecamp, used by 5 million-plus individuals, supports multiple languages, and was also designed for mobile devices such as iPhones and Android smartphones. Available with a free 30-day trial option, 37signalssells Basecamp under three plans: Plus for $49; premium for $99, and max for $149.
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Based on Drupal CMS open source software, OfficeMedium was designed to affordably address small businesses' need to collaborate and manage projects, without spending unnecessary resources buying and managing proprietary software. OfficeMedium software includes contact management, events, tasks, calendars, file sharing, and client integration, the developer said. The software costs $6 per month, per user, and there is a $1 per gigabyte fee. "We understand that your needs may change over time and that you shouldn't have to worry about upgrading or downgrading your account," OfficeMedium said. "We also believe you shouldn't have to pay for features and users you may or may not use. Our software packages come full-featured no matter what -- at no additional costs."
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Socialtext, founded in 2002, developed software that integrated traditional customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource management (ERP) software with its social media platform. The self-titled software is built on an open, Web-oriented architecture, and includes activity streams, user profile pages, instant messaging, group creation, workspaces, blogging, and user-defined control panels. In November, the developer released Socialtext 4.5. The software "makes it easier for you not just to share but to curate and explore your people and content," said Ross Mayfield, chairman, president and co-founder of Socialtext.
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More than 400,000 people use Central Desktop's eponymous collaboration and project-management software to work on documents, share calendars and agendas, team-up on projects, and manage assignments. The software is available in three versions: Free or basic; workgroup (with free 30-day trial), and enterprise. Internet marketing agency BlueGlass, which began using Central Desktop to manage its 4 offices and 50 employees, chose this software over alternatives because of its lower price, power, and scalability, said chief technology officer Tony Wang, in a customer profile. "Central Desktop is an indispensable tool for connecting distributed teams," he said.
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With more than 700 customers and 90,000-plus users, Onehub's business has grown since it first opened its doors in 2007. The developer provides online collaboration and file-sharing software, specializing in creative industries and client service organizations. Sign-up for the application is free, and no credit card is required, the company Web site said. A paid version also is available, ranging from $29 a month for the individual plan to $499 per month for the enterprise program. "Onehub customers typically set up one workspace for each of their clients or one workspace for each of their internal departments. Sometimes, they set up one workspace for each of their projects," Onehub said.
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With more than 700 customers and 90,000-plus users, Onehub's business has grown since it first opened its doors in 2007. The developer provides online collaboration and file-sharing software, specializing in creative industries and client service organizations. Sign-up for the application is free, and no credit card is required, the company Web site said. A paid version also is available, ranging from $29 a month for the individual plan to $499 per month for the enterprise program. "Onehub customers typically set up one workspace for each of their clients or one workspace for each of their internal departments. Sometimes, they set up one workspace for each of their projects," Onehub said.
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AtTask, which develops a social work management platform and on-demand project and portfolio software, extended its incorporation of social media elements with the February unveiling of Stream. The new feature is an ongoing flow of conversational data that employees enter into the software, a capability that boosted productivity at many beta sites, AtTask said. "Our team members really like using TeamHome," a dashboard-like workspace designed to help team members understand, organize, and get their tasks done, said John Gilmartin, head of programs at Sage, a software developer and customer of AtTask. "They like how they can add their own tasks, prioritize them on their homepage, and spend less time fumbling through the software wondering what their tasks are -- everything is in once place and is easy for them to access."
Worldwide, collaborative decision-making (CDM) software, which represents only a portion of the collaborative software world, is expected to reach $769.2 million in 2011, up 15.7% from 2010, according to Gartner. Last year, the researcher predicted revenue would reach $664.4 million. This year, CDM is expected to integrate deeper with business intelligence tools, Gartner said.
"Social software improves the connectedness of workers, promotes collaboration, and helps capture informal knowledge. Social software excels in business contexts that leave room for individuals to interact informally, brainstorm, explore ideas, and encourage or challenge peers. Specific business value can be derived through customer intimacy, product/service excellence, operational effectiveness and creating innovation," said Tom Eid, research vice president at Gartner.
See More
SAP Takes On Salesforce.com With Sales OnDemand
Verizon Announces Cloud Unified Collaboration
TeleTech Offers Crowdsourcing, Simulations For Training
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