Collaboration tools

There are a variety of user collaboration solutions Wikipedia suggests that you can find in Internet, so it can be an arduous task for you to select solutions that meet your needs in the best way. The idea of this collaboration tools review is to provide you with information about those special solutions, so you could make the right choice in favor of one or another solution. At the end of the review, examples are given below.

What are collaboration tools?

In a general sense, they are ways of cooperation and teamwork between people. They refer to something that helps us collaborate and communicate with each other. User collaboration packages can be paper notebooks and organizers, as well as standalone software solutions that allow creating paperless (electronic) diaries and sharing files between users over a network. A virtual work environment created and maintained by that software allows organizing telework and building virtual teams. Those tools for virtual teams are widely used today to manage outsourced projects.

What are the features?

Here are the most important features of collaborative software:

• Communicating and collaborating: multiple users can communicate (chatting and commenting) and collaborate (exchanging ideas and doing jobs) with each other contributing to group effort (e.g. projects).
• Information sharing: any information (incl. documents and files) can be shared between multiple users and stored in a centralized database.
• Task management: many people use collaboration tools software to organize workday and daily tasks by creating todo lists, schedules and agendas.
• Emailing: users are able to send each other letters and tasks by email (ex.: MS Outlook software based on SharePoint technology).

What are kinds and examples for business ?

All collaboration tools can be divided into several kinds, including the following ones:

• Online solutions: users can access information stored on web servers by using Internet browsers (ex.: collaboration tools Google solution).

• Collaboration tools client-server solutions: users can access a database stored on a local/remote server over LAN and Internet. Client-server solutions give maximized the benefits, and often they’re considered as the best solutions for business (ex.: VIP Task Manager Professional).
• Open source (free) solutions can be both online and client-server solutions. Though this kind is absolutely free for downloading and using, most free services are not applicable to business because their insufficient functionality may give poor chances to succeed.
• Collaboration tools for different operating systems include packages MacOS and Windows OS. Examples are MS Office and Things.

Being effective client-server software, VIP Task Manager gives you powerful functionality to manage tasks, jobs and activities related to organization and management of your business. At the end of this comparison you can find a link for downloading a trial copy of VIP Task Manager Pro. The trial copy can be used within 30 days for free.