Market Research Business Collaboration Tools

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Valentine Aubrey Brooks
8 years ago
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1 Market Research Business Collaboration Tools This document has been designed to provide you with a snapshot of the best business collaboration tools available in the market as of date. We have evaluated a variety of different tools including: BC Social MS SharePoint Yammer Box Teambox Salesforce Chatter Huddle Igloo Through our research we have reduced this list down to 5 tools which we will compare. These five are as follows: BC Social, MS SharePoint, Salesforce Chatter, Box and Huddle. In 2012, Microsoft bought Yammer for $1.2bn in a move to make MS SharePoint more appealing and introduce social capabilities to it. For this reason we do not see it appropriate to include Yammer as MS SharePoint will include Yammer features. Cloud Collaboration platform Teambox formed a partnership with Box towards the end of This move will allow Box to compete against the likes of SharePoint and Salesforce. We decided to remove Teambox from the list as Box is the larger company and incorporates Teambox s features in their packages. Igloo is a web-based platform for collaborating at work. The reason it is not in the final 5 is because it is relatively small and least recognised. Therefore Huddle is a better fit as it is more widely recognised. Page 1 of 5

2 Solution Features Average cost per user per month 8 30 Day Free Trial 5.20 Free for Basic for Plus Free for Basic for enterprise 11 File sharing Cloud storage Total online storage space UNLIMITED 100GB 11GB 1TB for enterprise 1TB Privacy features Universal search Integration with other services Calendaring *only with Chatter Plus Discussion boards Reporting X *only with Chatter Plus X Bookmark/Tag/Rate/Comment After sale support Solution Compatibility Mobile/Tablet access Operating system Browser compatibility Company Information Company turnover 1-10m $10bn $3.05bn $130m $1bn Company size (employees) , Founding year Page 2 of 5

Box is an online file sharing and cloud content management service for businesses. Box has formed a partnership with Teambox, which allows collaboration with other users.

You can easily share any of your files or folders, and even set permissions that dictate what recipients can do with those files, whether they can edit, delete or simply view.

3 Box is an online file sharing and cloud content management service for businesses. Box has formed a partnership with Teambox, which allows collaboration with other users. It provides a service that integrates services such as Dropbox and Google Docs to allow for an easier file sharing experience. When it comes to features, Box is rich in file sharing. You can easily share any of your files or folders, and even set permissions that dictate what recipients can do with those files, whether they can edit, delete or simply view. Box for Business isn t cheap starting at 11 per user per month (for business packages), but you do get a huge amount of space and an extensive set of features. It s not as quick and intuitive to use as competitors such as Huddle and it s not such a natural fit for Windows and Office as SkyDrive a file hosting service part of SharePoint, but if you re looking for a cloudstorage service that can double up as a workflow platform for small teams, then Box really does take some beating. Huddle is a secure online collaboration tool that lets employees work together on projects in real time, despite distance. Designed with the modern workplace in mind, it helps employees easily exchange information with its many different features. It is an ideal business tool for those who need an easy to use online working environment, especially when working remotely. Huddle is a beautifully made online collaboration tool, with an appealing user interface that makes using it a real pleasure. There are no downloads involved, so can be used from any Internet-connected computer. Huddle has superb file management features and outlook integration with plenty of tutorials available. A weakness of Huddle is that its project reporting tools are lacking compared with other tools. It also has no chat features for simultaneous collaboration. Cloud collaboration tool Huddle isn t a full project management suite, but it does offer businesses a focused experience for virtual collaboration. SharePoint is an application developed by Microsoft and can be used for intranet portals, document & file management, collaboration and much more. SharePoint offers a plethora of functionality that allows both admins and users the opportunity to stick with an out of the box yet fully functional product, or customise the software to function in very specific ways to meet your business requirements. SharePoint has always been overly complex. For this product we highly recommend sending your IT staff on training so they can properly administer it, as well as getting your data admins (i.e. the people creating the customisations) trained as well. If you have the right technical staff, this tool can truly become an excellent collaborative portal for you. If you re looking for a service that provides excellent collaboration, customisation and other additional features with the support of Microsoft, then this is the package for you! Page 3 of 5

The tool boasts to improve employee improvement and engagement by 36% and give 43% faster access to information. The network has extensive mobile and tablet support.

4 Chatter is the enterprise social network that allows teams to take action and sync up like never before. Chatter is built on the Salesforce1 platform and is aimed at encouraging productive collaboration across your business. The tool boasts to improve employee improvement and engagement by 36% and give 43% faster access to information. The network has extensive mobile and tablet support. The basic version of Chatter is free with each Salesforce user license issued up to 500 employees. Functionality on the basic package is limited. It does not include calendaring or reporting features however, these are available in Chatter Plus (cost /user/app/ month). Chatter Plus also allows user customisation, dashboards and integration with 900+ AppExchange apps. Chatter is a business collaboration tool geared towards larger companies already using the Salesforce platform (cost upwards of 500/user/year). Smaller companies are unlikely to need all the functionality Chatter provides and are likely to find better value solutions. BC Social is the business social collaboration platform that engages even your most anti-social colleagues with work view options to suit all work styles. BC Social provides a one-stop interactive platform, where staff can discuss and share knowledge and files from any device, at anytime and anywhere. The tool offers a 30 day free trial, which conveniently integrates with all other business tools, ensuring smooth flow of business as usual if adopted. The tool offers unlimited online storage space and sells at a price of 8 per user, with all external agents being granted access at no cost. Users can log in via LinkedIn, Gmail, Microsoft or Facebook ID s, with no overlap of site contents. It offers most of the expected benefits a social collaboration tool should; search function, file sharing, discussion boards, team building and shared spaces specific to each client. A noted shortcoming compared to others, is its lack of a reporting function. The tool is also fairly new to the market. It combines an intuitive interface with a cloud based enterprise level backend, unleashing true social power in your organization, and engaging your personal business community. Page 4 of 5

5 FINAL VERDICT For an all-round business collaboration tool, we recommend Huddle. Huddle has been quoted as the number one leading SharePoint alternative. Huddle comes at a high cost per user, compared with tools such as SharePoint. However, it provides a larger storage capacity and is more user friendly. This allows it to be implemented more easily to any business environment compared with other tools. The interface is lean: Simple menus, consistent UI, and plentiful tutorials make this software easy to master. Huddle can be accessed anywhere - whether you re using a mobile device or a computer outside of your company s VPN, and regardless of which operating system, browser or network you are using. It is available across multiple mobile and tablet devices, with applications for iphone, ipad, BlackBerry and Android. Huddle allows collaboration across firewalls, enabling people both in and out of the organisation to share data. We analysed various user reviews which suggest that Huddle s real strength lies in its filemanagement features. In addition to supporting folders and subfolders, it provides the options to add comments to files as well as notifications and request for user-specific approvals. Social features make for simpler, more efficient working, and Huddle s cloud model means lower cost of ownership and higher user adoption rates. Huddle has a varied client list comprising businesses both big and small, including Disney, P&G, and Kia Motors. Huddle s fast growing reputation is underpinned by its client list and recent sales figures - in 2012 Huddle saw an 800% increase in sales to enterprise organisations. Part of the appeal, explains CEO and co-founder Alastair Mitchell, is that Huddle builds tools that are fundamentally easier to use than traditional enterprise software and ultimately made with IT departments in mind. Features: Usability: Price: Page 5 of 5

Hosted SharePoint. OneDrive for Business. OneDrive for Business with Hosted SharePoint. Secure UK Cloud Document Management from Your Office Anywhere

Hosted SharePoint. OneDrive for Business. OneDrive for Business with Hosted SharePoint. Secure UK Cloud Document Management from Your Office Anywhere OneDrive for Business with Hosted SharePoint Secure UK Cloud Document Management from Your Office Anywhere Cloud Storage is commonplace but for businesses that want secure UK Cloud based document and records