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As businesses are upping their game and offering more unique products and services, centralization is the key factor that can bind teams together. With centralized resources, projects, and tasks, individuals can amplify their own skills and better collaborate toward shared goals.

As you’re turning your attention toward possibilities for online team collaboration software, it doesn’t necessarily mean you have to discard the tools you already have. Rather, the best software platforms integrate apps and tools into a central hub for easy accessibility and ultimate collaborative functionality. While you may be carrying over some of your team’s favorites, an all-in-one platform streamlines your tools overall to reduce wasting time and free up creative potential.

Core Features of Online Team Collaboration Software

Don’t assume that all team software packages offer the necessary project management benefits. You need a good balance of task management, tools for communication and collaboration, and productivity features—all in an intuitive, flexible, and enjoyable workspace. Consider the following features:

• Collaborative Task Management: From a centralized space, you need the ability to optimize workflows, monitor larger projects, and connect team members.
• Chat Features: Communication is the glue that holds collaborative projects together. So, you need handy chat tools that allow you to organize conversations around tasks and help teammates stay connected.
• Flexibility: Especially as more teams are operating remotely and in different time zones, flexibility cannot be overrated. Regardless of the team structure, flexibility gives individuals the freedom to work in ways that promote greater productivity and satisfaction.
• Integrations: Even as you consolidate your collaborative toolbox, you’re still going to want to take advantage of familiar tools that can continue to work well for your team in the future. So, you’ll need an online team collaboration software that has robust integration capabilities.
• Visual Design: Since your team will be spending every day in this workspace, it needs to be welcoming and inspiring. Ideally, it has a universal appeal and it organizes the many tools and features simply and accessibly.
• Ease of Use: Don’t let a new collaboration platform scare your team off before they’ve had a chance to really access the benefits. A powerful tool doesn’t need to be difficult to learn and to master—but some of them have a steeper learning curve than others.

Comparing Your Options for Collaboration Platforms

Considering the important features we’ve discussed—plus the important element of price—we’ve rated some of the best options for you to explore here:

Elevating Your Team’s Collaboration and Productivity 

The best online team collaboration software has the potential to enhance communication and expand flexibility. But collaborative software isn’t just about creating a dynamic team setting; it also highlights individual skill sets and makes team members feel valued. With supported communication and better organization, your team can streamline workflows and free up resources for the most important tasks.

Not to mention, your company can take advantage of these benefits while also meeting a tighter budget—as a single software package can consolidate resources and streamline administration. Even though pricing is important, don’t get hung up on cheap prices. Instead, consider the best software package that will help you reach your goals faster, even as your team becomes more connected.

With Flow, you can improve your workflows and enhance communication between team members. A centralized platform will help you establish a firm foundation for success. Take advantage of our free trial offer today!

With more businesses embracing practices to help team members achieve work-life balance—and many embracing remote or distributed team models—the call for better tools was inevitable. Instituting task management tools that can be accessed online has been a lifesaver for teams that have had to shift how (and where) they work to also keep up with industry changes. The time has come for you to pick up online task management software to optimize your team’s workflow.

New tools, in-and-of-themselves, aren’t always enough to keep the day-to-day tasks running smoothly. Your software needs to offer other features to help keep your team organized and engaged. That’s what we’re highlighting here.

Optimize Workflow with More Than Organizational Tools

There is, of course, a bare minimum of features that your online task management software should provide. If it doesn’t help your team get and stay organized, there’s no point in using it. You’ll only waste money and compound existing problems with more disorganization—adding to the team’s stress. With any modern task management platform you should be able to:

• Add files, photos, and links directly to a task workspace.
• Assign, tag, or subscribe team members who need to have their hands—or eyes—on a task’s progression.
• Create tags for due dates, project names, and team members to make prioritizing tasks easy for everyone on the team.
• Schedule recurring tasks, whether for every Friday or once per quarter.
• Divide tasks into subtasks to make the workload more manageable.

Assuming your software provides this baseline functionality, let’s look at other features that will make your team’s day-to-day experience even better.

Built-In Chat Function for Deepening Connection

There are a variety of tools that support communication in real-time, and many of them integrate well with task management software. But a built-in chat feature provides more ways to connect with team members and to exchange, record, and find task-related information. With an in-task chat option, critical details or updates can be discussed—and kept organized—in one place. Group chats allow wider teams to stay on track and to stay connected, and direct messaging allows for private and spontaneous conversations.

Additionally, if there is an advanced search option, you can find a spreadsheet or client referral in seconds—even if the link was dropped into a chat channel last month and has since gotten buried. By using @mentions, the right people receive notifications—meaning, you don’t have to bombard everyone with updates. So, a built-in chat function gives you more options for organizing tasks. At the same time, the opportunities for team members to connect also increase.

Full Range of Capabilities for Streamlining Projects

Because task workflows are usually part of a bigger client project, team goal, or company vision, your software tool should also act as a project management system. Having a full range of capabilities at your disposal does a couple of things. First, it keeps you from jumping from one tool to another by centralizing operations. This cuts down on costs, time, and frustration. Second, by streamlining access to tasks, projects, and conversations, all business activities become more visible and easier to manage. Imagine:

• Tracking task and project progress easily from a calendar, from your dashboard, or by receiving personalized notifications.
• Customizing your daily operations with Kanban boards, Gantt charts, or to-do lists.
• Generating reports for your team, company, and clients. 
• Integrating with other tools like Google Drive and Zapier.
• Inviting client access to certain aspects of a project while maintaining online security.

This is just a snapshot of what an all-in-one solution can provide your company. So, it’s worth seeking out a platform that will help you streamline everything.

Intuitive Design for Encouraging Collaboration

The look and feel of software often get deemphasized—as if functionality were all that mattered. But design does matter—and not just to teams managing creative projects. If a platform is clunky, confusing to navigate, or takes a long time to learn, people will avoid using it whenever possible. Eventually, it’ll get abandoned all together.

The more intuitive a software solution’s design, the more your team will feel encouraged to learn and play around with it. If mastering the platform takes only a matter of minutes, that’s one more thing taken off your team’s plate—leaving extra brain space for collaboration. Don’t underestimate the power of online task management software that is as easy on the eyes as it is to operate. It’s important that your team feels at home in the software since they’ll be working with it all day—and since the height of their collaborative success depends on it.

Online Task Management Software That’s Designed to Engage

By broadening what you expect from online task management software, you expand what’s possible for your team to achieve. It sounds simple, maybe even unrealistically so. But the advantages of having all the necessary tools accessible from a workspace your team loves are worth the extra attention in this search. An all-in-one platform that serves all of your team’s needs in an enjoyable space is the ultimate goal.

And since the modern “office” is no longer just about getting more done faster, but also about engaging teams so that they can—and want to—do their best, there’s no reason to settle for less. Yes, optimizing workflows is important. Inspiring people to work together with a sense of purpose is next-level.

Flow isn’t just an online task management software. It’s an all-in-one platform designed to keep your team engaged and connected. Sign up to check out Flow for free, and help your team love what they do.