Enterprise Collaboration Software: 8 Essential Tools You Need to Use

Enterprise Collaboration Software: 8 Essential Tools You Need to Use process.st/enterprise-collaboration-software March 6, 2020

Thom James Carter March 6, 2020

Collaboration is essential.

It’s the catalyst for hitting those important, internal targets that pave the way for long-term profitability and success.

But collaborating is far easier said than done – and especially for enterprise businesses.

In fact, 86% of employees and executives cite a lack of collaboration as the reason for the failures that have happened in their workplace.

Luckily, there’s a solution: Enterprise collaboration software.

If you’re new to enterprise collaboration software but still want to get your enterprise collaborating like pros, you’ve come to the right place.

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In this incredibly-informative, super-streamlined Process Street article, you’ll learn the definition of enterprise collaboration software, find out the benefits of it, and discover the best software for enterprise-wide collaboration, depending on your needs.

Just make your way through these sections: Let’s dive straight in.

What is enterprise collaboration software (ECS)?

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Enterprise collaboration software (otherwise known as ECS) is an umbrella term for the digital platforms and tools that help employees to communicate and work together more cooperatively.

It’s an umbrella term because what constitutes as ECS is incredibly broad.

For example, Slack is primarily known as an instant messaging platform. But because it helps employees to collaborate via text channels, personal messaging, and video calls, Slack is also known as a piece of enterprise collaboration software.

Similarly, Process Street is most often referred to as state-of-the-art BPM software. But seeing as Process Street users can collaborate with their teams via checklists, helping everyone involved to complete important processes, procedures, and recurring tasks to high standards, Process Street can also be coined as enterprise collaboration software.

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Basically, if a platform or tool helps enterprise teams to collaborate, it can be defined as enterprise collaboration software!

What are the benefits of enterprise collaboration & ECS? At its core, ECS helps facilitate enterprise collaboration.

By being an enterprise that doesn’t just say they’re collaborative but is truly collaborative in practice, your organization can benefit greatly.

Specifically, these benefits include: Impressive list, right?

Seeing as enterprise collaboration software is the grease that eases organizations into collaborating properly and professionally, it’s time to take a look at the best ECS solutions on the market.

The best enterprise collaboration tools: Messaging & meetings At an enterprise-level, your employee roster is sizeable.

For sizeable rosters, tools that facilitate, track, organize, and store conversations are necessary. Plus, being able to have quality conversations with fellow employees – and quickly – is of utmost importance in the modern (read: hectic) workplace.

That’s why, if you’re not already using tools like Slack and Zoom, you should seriously consider doing so.

The best enterprise collaboration tools for messaging: Slack Launched in 2013, Slack (“Searchable Log of All Conversation and Knowledge“) is used by countless enterprise businesses already.

But how does it work?

Groups, teams, or organizations create what’s known as a “workspace”. This workspace is your organization’s hub, where public channels and private channels can be created, and where members of the workspace can message each other directly.

For example, an organization can create specific channels for departments such as engineering, marketing, or customer support, and then only invite the appropriate employees to those channels, meaning teammates see only what they need to.

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What makes Slack nifty – and more than a glorified iMessage app for businesses – is that it integrates with other third-party services, including Dropbox, Google Drive, Trello, and Airtable. Plus, you can use Zapier to hook Slack up with the latest SaaS products that have been developed.

But if Slack isn’t your bag, there are many other tools that work in a similar way, including:

The best enterprise collaboration tools for meetings: Zoom Remember the days of olde where teams would all jump on a Skype call to host important meetings and talks?

Well, Zoom works in a very similar way. But better, due to Zoom’s quality of life features.

At the time of writing, Zoom offers 4 pricing plans – Free, Pro, Business, and Enterprise.

As you’re working as part of an enterprise, let’s take a look at what’s part of the Enterprise package: The ability to host over 500 participants A dedicated Zoom Customer Success Manager Unlimited cloud storage Plus all the features included with the Business plan (SSO, cloud recording transcripts, vanity URL, and more) If Zoom doesn’t take your fancy, check out these alternatives for enterprise audiovisual communication and collaboration:

The best enterprise collaboration tools: Sharing & organizing files As an enterprise, whatever tools you use must not only work well, but also be secure.

That’s why many enterprises opt for trusted brands for sharing and organizing documents, so they’ll have complete confidence that their documents, files, and data will always be secure and private.

Microsoft OneDrive and Google Drive are two of these big-hitters.

The best enterprise collaboration tools for sharing & organizing files #1: Microsoft OneDrive Simply put, OneDrive is a file hosting and synchronization service created by Microsoft.

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It does what it says on the tin: Businesses can store integral files on OneDrive’s cloud-based storage system, which then allows colleagues to dive into those documents and files and get collaborating.

In terms of security, OneDrive offers features such as: Resting and in-transit data encryption Data retention File reporting and auditing File and folder access controls Custom passwords on sharing links Plus, there are many other useful features available from OneDrive, although these are limited depending on the plan you’re paying for.

The best enterprise collaboration tools for sharing & organizing files #2: Google Drive In our post 50 Google Docs Templates for Business Success (With 60+ Process Checklists) , my colleague Jane Courtnell explained how she uses Google Drive every day.

Jane is not alone – far from it. It’s been estimated that around 1 billion others use Google Drive, too.

Why? Well, take a look at Google Drive’s description on the Play store:

“Google Drive is a safe place for all your files and puts them within reach from any smartphone, tablet, or computer. Files in Drive – like your videos, photos, and documents – are backed up safely so you can’t lose them. Once there, you can easily invite others to view, edit, or leave comments on any of your files or folders.” – Google Play, Google Drive on Google Play It’s the last part – “easily invite others to view, edit, or leave comments on any of your files or folders” – that solidifies Google Drive as a file storage and synchronization service and a piece of enterprise collaboration software.

All in all, OneDrive and Google Drive are very alike. So the software your enterprise chooses should come down to the ecosystem you’re already a part of.

However, you could opt for other enterprise collaboration tools for sharing and organizing files, such as: 5/9

The best enterprise collaboration tools: Project management Project management is succinctly defined by Ari Meisel as the following:

“Project management is managing a lot of tasks that are going to help you achieve your goal.” – Ari Meisel, Project Management vs Process Management Seeing as enterprises need to complete project after project across every single department and team, an enterprise needs a sturdy software solution for collaborative project management.

That’s why, in this section, I’ll present you with two stellar options: Airtable and Trello.

The best enterprise collaborations tools for project management #1: Airtable Are your employees fans of spreadsheets?

What about databases?

If so, then imagine their glee when you introduce them to Airtable, a spreadsheet-database hybrid!

Now, what you can do with Airtable is broad, as the app is inherently flexible. But oftentimes it’s used for project management.

So how, exactly, does it work?

First, you create your workspace. Essentially, this is where everything you and your teammates add to Airtable will be.

Then, you create your bases. Similar to Slack channels, you may want to have separate bases for each department or team.

Once that’s done, you set up the tables, which are similar to tabs in a Google Sheet. From there, you build out your records, which contain any kind of information you deem worthy of documenting.

After adjusting it all to your liking, you can then have your enterprise teams input, keep track of, and update important information, ensuring that projects get completed in a cooperative, collaborative way.

This is Airtable in a nutshell.

While it may seem a little confusing at first, it certainly gets easier with each use.

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Airtable is already used by the likes of WeWork, Formlabs, Zenefits, and Process Street – will your enterprise’s name be added to that list?

The best enterprise collaborations tools for project management #2: Trello Maybe your employees aren’t fans of spreadsheets or databases.

But if they like Kanban-style apps, then Trello is the project management for your enterprise.

Trello can be summarized as a digital whiteboard where cards are organized into lists.

Let’s take the example of a content marketing team.

They can have a list for post ideas, one for posts that are being actively worked on, one for posts that need reviewing, and another for published posts that need to be promoted by the content promotion team.

As a card for the post itself is created, it can then move to each appropriate list during its lifecycle. This makes things easier not only for the writer in charge of writing the post, but also for their teammates, too, as everyone can be and stay on the same page.

But if Trello hasn’t piqued your curiosity, other enterprise collaboration software for project management include:

The best enterprise collaboration tools: Managing processes For Ari Meisel, project management answers the question:

“What needs to get done in order to get where we want to be?” – Ari Meisel, Project Management vs Process Management Meanwhile, process management answers:

“How do things need to get done in order to get where we want to be?” – Ari Meisel, Project Management vs Process Management So when it comes to business process management, not having the right business software could very well stop your enterprise from getting to where it wants to be.

That’s why Process Street was created – to make recurring work fun, fast, and faultless for teams everywhere.

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So, how does Process Street work and help with enterprise collaboration?

When you document workflows, business processes, and important procedures as templates, you and the rest of your enterprise can launch an infinite number of checklists so recurring processes can be completed to your enterprise’s high standards. To boot, it also keeps pesky human error at bay!

Now, with incredible workflow features like: Process Street makes documenting, tracking, and completing your processes far more streamlined, and it also facilitates true team collaboration.

Check out the webinar below to explore some of these features in-depth.

This would be the place where I list other pieces of enterprise collaboration software for process management, but in this instance, I don’t need to.

Why? Because Process Street has everything an enterprise would want in a collaborative BPM tool.

Collaborate properly as an enterprise with Process Street!

If I captured your interest in the section above, then wait until you read what’s coming up next…

Anyone and everyone can sign up for a Process Street free trial.

Once you’ve made an account, you can then either create your own checklist templates, or make use of the ready-made, ready-to-go templates in Process Street’s extensive template library.

For instance, as an enterprise, you’re constantly onboarding new talent. So the employees can get off to the best start, the onboarding process has to be thorough and collaborative.

To make it easier for you and the employees being onboarded – and so onboarding mistakes aren’t made – jump straight into our employee onboarding checklist!

Click here to get the employee onboarding checklist.

Similarly, so you and your employees know how they’re performing at the workplace, you’ll be conducting frequent performance appraisals and reviews. As this is another collaborative process that can be facilitated and completed painlessly with checklists, why not add the below template to your Process Street account?

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Click here to get the performance review template.

Below, you’ll find even more templates to dive into.

From marketing to engineering and IT, and customer service to general business-related recurring processes, our stellar templates will help your enterprise collaborate like pros.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of available templates – just a few to whet your appetite!

General business-related templates: Marketing-related templates: Engineering and IT-related templates: Customer service-related templates: There you have it.

In this post, I’ve told you the best enterprise collaboration software on the market, explained the nifty checklist app known as Process Street, and have even provided you with a plethora of incredible, free templates!

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