Software & Online Tools for Virtual Team Collaboration

Article by Natasha M. Baker (4,717 pts )
Edited & published by Natasha M. Baker (4,717 pts ) on Feb 19, 2010

There are a number of paid and free team collaboration software to be found online and in store. Learn how to make the most of the tools and software out there to encourage teamwork!

Teamwork

Photo credited to JWL Photography via FlickrTeamwork is work performed by people acting together, with a spirit cooperation under limits of coordination. In today's world, virtual team collaboration is just as imporant, with members of a team telecommuting or working from great distances.

Creating a team environment where everyone is on the same page doesn't necessarily require a great deal of effort - if you have the right software. When it's implemented and used correctly, project management software can alleviate many issues. Software alone cannot save a project, but it can increase team trust, communication, and cooperation.

Keep Track with Collaboration Software

With an interactive and shareable calendar, Wrike can assist is planning team meetings. Wrike is a project management software tool that uses collective intelligence, and allows project team to contribute to management process. Users can create tasks, share them, keep track of the tasks’ progress and control their completion. Wrike also enables users to organize their tasks in projects and activities, then discuss and work on them together.. The main advantage to using Wrike is that it allows managers to decentralize updating and control of overall plans and permit online access to plans that is equal for all selected participants.

Read Ronda Robert's review of Wrike for more detailed information.

A Notebook System Worth Trying

Microsoft OneNote is a comprehensive system intended to reduce information overload, and save time. Office OneNote can help your project management team be more productive, by keeping the information it needs at its fingertips. Accessibility to key information helps to reduce the time teams spend searching for information across e-mail messages, paper notebooks, file folders, and printouts.

A useful feature in OneNote is the ability to take meeting notes. Teams can create a living repository of group decisions and brainstorming sessions that adds continuity and context to subsequent meetings.

In Microsoft One Note - Review, written by Nacie, the benefits and challenges of this powerful tool are detailed.

Use Discussion Forums and Blogs

Two great ways to increase team communication without the headaches that accompany email, are discussion forums and blogs. Both are great tools becuase they are as simple as email to use, but the conversations remain within the project and won't get lost in your inbox.

Deskaway incorporates both a team blog and discussion forum. DeskAway allows all your team members to share all the great stuff that goes on within your team - news, announcements, links, articles and ideas etc. This application is a solid one-stop for all your team's communication tools.

DeskAway has too many features and benefits to list in this article, read more about DeskAway in Deanna's review.

The Software Behind the Team

Every great project management team can be made better by the use of project management software. This article outlined several options from which you can choose. Visit the Bright Hub Project Management Channel for information on many more.

Comment

Feb 22, 2010 9:34 AM
Dana
Team Collaboration is the key to PM success
This is a great article, and we couldn't agree more. We work hard to incorporate team collaboration aspects into our project management solution OnePlace - strong and streamlined communication can greatly impact the success of a business's projects and the business itself.
 
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