Comments on: 5 Questions to Ask When Choosing Enterprise Collaboration Tools http://gigaom.com/collaboration/5-questions-to-ask-when-choosing-enterprise-collaboration-tools/ Sat, 11 Feb 2012 03:10:21 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Angel Grablev http://gigaom.com/collaboration/5-questions-to-ask-when-choosing-enterprise-collaboration-tools/#comment-602549 Tue, 01 Mar 2011 05:30:58 +0000 http://webworkerdaily.com/?p=36373#comment-602549 Those are great points and are hugely beneficial to anybody who is embarking on the job of finding the right tools that fit the company/team.

We launched http://freedcamp.com to help start-ups who may not have enough funding, it offers all the features that the other online collaboration tools offer and then some, all for free. We also have solid funding so we won’t be gone in 6 months as mentioned in the article, and we won’t charge like the tools that started out free and then started charging (activeCollab, ProjectBubble, ApolloHQ and more).

And another great point I would like to add is how hard would it be for your team to adopt the tool. For example I have used some collaboration tools and invoicing that takes hours to learn, which is time wasted not producing something but learning. This is a cost that needs to be considered as well.

]]> By: Abbe, SamePage http://gigaom.com/collaboration/5-questions-to-ask-when-choosing-enterprise-collaboration-tools/#comment-260442 Thu, 05 Aug 2010 21:56:20 +0000 http://webworkerdaily.com/?p=36373#comment-260442 One of our bloggers dug a bit deeper into this topic, fleshing out some other items on the list. Read it at http://wikisunleashed.blogspot.com/2010/08/choosing-enterprise-20-collaboration.html. Anything else we missed?

]]> By: Abbe, SamePage http://gigaom.com/collaboration/5-questions-to-ask-when-choosing-enterprise-collaboration-tools/#comment-260441 Mon, 02 Aug 2010 17:09:35 +0000 http://webworkerdaily.com/?p=36373#comment-260441 Scalability is very important, Todd, and was one of the important questions to ask that I mentioned. SamePage can scale from 5 to 5000 users and more. You should do a free trial of SamePage at https://samepage.spwiki.com/wikiReg/jsp/registration.jsp.

]]> By: Links for August 1 2010 — Eric D. Brown http://gigaom.com/collaboration/5-questions-to-ask-when-choosing-enterprise-collaboration-tools/#comment-260440 Sun, 01 Aug 2010 13:26:33 +0000 http://webworkerdaily.com/?p=36373#comment-260440 [...] 5 Questions to Ask When Choosing Enterprise Collaboration Tools by Thursday Bram on WebWorkerDaily [...]

]]> By: Deborah Fike http://gigaom.com/collaboration/5-questions-to-ask-when-choosing-enterprise-collaboration-tools/#comment-260439 Sat, 31 Jul 2010 16:07:06 +0000 http://webworkerdaily.com/?p=36373#comment-260439 I suggest Todd’s suggestion. I know there are lots of good tools out there. Our company makes Fellowstream, which is a todo list and accountability tool for small businesses, but there are also great knowledge management and invoice systems out there.

]]> By: Todd http://gigaom.com/collaboration/5-questions-to-ask-when-choosing-enterprise-collaboration-tools/#comment-260438 Sat, 31 Jul 2010 02:25:15 +0000 http://webworkerdaily.com/?p=36373#comment-260438 Could we possibly see a follow up to this article with some collaboration tool options? I’d particularly be interested in tools good for small businesses that scale well enough for potential substantial growth of a start-up.

]]> By: Martynas http://gigaom.com/collaboration/5-questions-to-ask-when-choosing-enterprise-collaboration-tools/#comment-260437 Thu, 29 Jul 2010 19:44:15 +0000 http://webworkerdaily.com/?p=36373#comment-260437 These are the right questions to ask, but the one most important to me is – their customer support. Collaboration software market is new and choosing product with good customer support helps a lot.

]]> By: Andy M http://gigaom.com/collaboration/5-questions-to-ask-when-choosing-enterprise-collaboration-tools/#comment-260436 Thu, 29 Jul 2010 05:08:13 +0000 http://webworkerdaily.com/?p=36373#comment-260436 Another question to consider while choosing a collaboration tool is how easy is it to integrate the tool with the existing work environment. Fortunately we were able to find a great tool for collaboration Taroby http://www.taroby.com which fitted perfectly to fulfill the needs of our virtual team.

]]> By: Barbie Adair http://gigaom.com/collaboration/5-questions-to-ask-when-choosing-enterprise-collaboration-tools/#comment-260435 Thu, 29 Jul 2010 04:20:03 +0000 http://webworkerdaily.com/?p=36373#comment-260435 Great advice, thanks! And like you said the other questions you’ll ask depends on your needs. In our case, we felt confident that we have chosen an appropriate tool after we answered the question –what is the problem we are trying to solve?

Too often, we get caught up looking for the newest feature rather than spending the time to understand what we really need which sadly leads to waste of time and money. Expert and non-experts know that carefully analyzing the needs of the organization is the key. But how? We looked for bottlenecks and gaps in our communication, and we realized that our major challenge is keeping track of projects and making sure that everyone’s worked hours are properly logged and computed. Next step is scouting for the tool that is strong in this feature.

We are now using project management software WORKetc (http://www.worketc.com). With its user-friendly document management and Time sheet & milestone billing, two great features which I did not see in other leading brands like Sugar, Zoho, Salesforce and Basecamp – we then realized we got what we are looking for.

]]> By: Abbe, SamePage http://gigaom.com/collaboration/5-questions-to-ask-when-choosing-enterprise-collaboration-tools/#comment-260434 Wed, 28 Jul 2010 20:38:17 +0000 http://webworkerdaily.com/?p=36373#comment-260434 Good suggestions, Thursday, and great name! And I agree with some of the other commenters. Some additions:
1. How well can the solution scale to support a larger user base?
2. How secure is it?
3. How easy is it for a non-technical user, as many? enterprise workers are
4. What is the quality and level of support after you purchase?
5. How do the features match our objectives? It’s important to have some understanding of what you hope to accomplish with your tool so that you can match features to tasks.
6. Can I play with it before I buy? Look for solutions that aren’t afraid to let you trial during the consideration process. This is something we encourage at eTouch SamePage.

]]> By: Deborah Fike http://gigaom.com/collaboration/5-questions-to-ask-when-choosing-enterprise-collaboration-tools/#comment-260433 Wed, 28 Jul 2010 20:25:13 +0000 http://webworkerdaily.com/?p=36373#comment-260433 Free trials are pretty important before you stick to one. Make sure your team has a chance to test drive anything and that it works within the team’s current process. The tool should work for you, not the other way around.

]]> By: IntranetLounge http://gigaom.com/collaboration/5-questions-to-ask-when-choosing-enterprise-collaboration-tools/#comment-260432 Wed, 28 Jul 2010 13:31:21 +0000 http://webworkerdaily.com/?p=36373#comment-260432 5 Questions to Ask When Choosing Enterprise Collaboration Tools…

This article has been submitted to IntranetLounge, a website with a collection of links to the best articles about intranets…

]]> By: Pankaj http://gigaom.com/collaboration/5-questions-to-ask-when-choosing-enterprise-collaboration-tools/#comment-260431 Wed, 28 Jul 2010 11:54:37 +0000 http://webworkerdaily.com/?p=36373#comment-260431 Some very helpful tips. I would add:-

  • Service – Do they offer free training and support
  • How many paid customers do they have (good indicator of stability)
  • Have they documented their security setup

We had done a whitepaper on “SaaS Vendor Selection” that you may be interested in – http://www.hyperoffice.com/saas-reviews-for-smbs/

]]> By: Stephan http://gigaom.com/collaboration/5-questions-to-ask-when-choosing-enterprise-collaboration-tools/#comment-260430 Wed, 28 Jul 2010 11:03:08 +0000 http://webworkerdaily.com/?p=36373#comment-260430 Before choosing a tool, you should not forget to look at existing processes and as Samuel point out existing tools, see what has to be changed to work with new tools (more virtual work?), and then work with the users so they actually adopt the new tool(s).

]]> By: Samuel Driessen http://gigaom.com/collaboration/5-questions-to-ask-when-choosing-enterprise-collaboration-tools/#comment-260429 Wed, 28 Jul 2010 07:36:31 +0000 http://webworkerdaily.com/?p=36373#comment-260429 Nice post! I also ask to other questions:
1. What type of information/data do you want to share? (Not all tools are good in sharing certain types of info.)
2. Does the collaboration tool connect with/have to connect with the primary knowledge worker tools, email, word processor, etc.? (Not all tools do this well.)

]]> By: 5 Questions to Ask When Choosing Enterprise Collaboration Tools | Digital Asset Management http://gigaom.com/collaboration/5-questions-to-ask-when-choosing-enterprise-collaboration-tools/#comment-260428 Wed, 28 Jul 2010 05:41:59 +0000 http://webworkerdaily.com/?p=36373#comment-260428 [...] 5 Questions to Ask When Choosing Enterprise Collaboration Tools. [...]

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