Online collaboration tools: Series C
Groupware or collaboration software aims to help organize teamwork. Microsoft Project is one of the best-known project management apps, but not every business requires its power. A new generation of simpler, Web-based services can do the job.
In our last two sets of collaboration tools review, we featured four of the most outstanding free/partially free online collaboration app. Of course those aren’t the only tools that can make your collaboration up to the mark, there are a bunch of app/software out there which are free (Partial or full) and this list is growing every day. So here are my today’s picks:
Wrike
Wrike offers a bit less Web-based project management services than most of its competitors. The service moved out of beta test into public release less than a year ago. Features a TimeLine view, which displays Gantt charts, will definitely impress you. In this short lifespan they already manage to get attention of big fish like PCWorld, eWeek etc.
Admit it, most of we collaborate our projects over hundreds of email, imagine the situation when you have 2-3 projects and mails are piling over on inbox-tracking them would be like finding needle in a hay stack. Wrike makes life easier for you. If those emails are tracked with Wrike, you can easily get up-to-date information. You can assign each task to another person by simply entering an e-mail address in the “Also shared with” box. Wrike sends an e-mail inviting the person to sign up and log in to the project’s site.
Wrike’s e-mail integration works both ways. You can add a Wrike.com address to any e-mail message. The service will then create a task for you in your personal Wrike workspace. If you specify a due date in the subject of the e-mail, it will include the task in the TimeLine view. In Wrike, folders combine the power of tags and hierarchies. So you can organize tasks hierarchically, just like you organize files on the hard drive. You can build as many hierarchies as you want, and they may overlap. With Wrike’s handy user interface, it’s really easy to control all this power.
All the tools are available for free (even on trial/free version). Wrike offers a great deal of flexibility to many different business needs, and even can be used as a basic customer support tool. The free version will let you work on 20 tasks and comes with little generous 10MB file space.
Apart from two way email integration and timeline features, other aspects of wrike didn’t quite reach up to the mark for a full scale collaboration tool. But considering the price and remarkable email integration, it’s definitely worth giving a shot.
CentralDesktop
These guys are definitely one of a kind I came across so far. I don’t recall exactly who referred me to this, but definitely someone thru email or contact, so I apologise for not remembering the name and thank for providing such a nice link.
Most of the online collaboration tools we have seen so far either too simple to perform complex tasks or too complicated to perform easy tasks, but this one (a hosted solution which uses a desktop client for communication by the way) comes with a simple user interface suitable for both small scale and business users.
Every single page is easily editable, and adding new pages is a snap. Page formatting commands are lined up at the top of every editing window, so that users won’t need to know any special markup tags. You can add images or documents to your pages. Central Desktop’s search engine will index the contents of attached text, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and PDF files, so that you can easily search on content even when you don’t know file’s name.
Most probably the coolest feature is “a turnkey Intranet” for its enterprise subscribers. Key features of the turnkey intranet include easy setup a directory or calendar, password protection for documents, Office 2007 document index support, workspace archiving, an auto-save feature while editing documents, and a dynamic interface that displays personalized data for each user.
Central Desktop is purely a hosted solution, using 128-bit SSL security and running only on standard ports to address security concerns. The free version will provide only 2 workspaces and maximum of 5 members and definitely no SSL or branding. The pricing plan, might even discourage a lot of small business owners, which I have to say isn’t too practical pricing (on the other hand their web meeting plan pricing is seriously cool).