Collaboration software tools

Collaboration software tools are the core to business growth and development. It is impossible to imagine the world of business without teamwork and cooperation; otherwise, external relationships with suppliers, customers and investors as well as internal interactions with employees and managers would not exist. Most wiki definitions prove efficiency and effectiveness that such software delivers to companies of all sizes and types. Modern packages and technologies help people not only collaborate more efficiently and effectively, but create a single work environment in which individuals and groups are able to make collaborative efforts and achieve shared goals.

Collaboration software products allow identifying and analyzing key trends and directions of business growth in an organization. Your organization can use such products to establish a framework for managing communications and interactions between staff members. This framework will allow you to turn a group of people into an organized, productive team capable of accomplishing tasks and achieving goals timely. Because of the variety of collaboration software market leaders it may be a complicated question for you to decide on the right solution which meets your requirements as to collaborative team building and business workflow organization. This article aims at assisting you with making decisions on particular features and choosing the right shareware solution.

The key for successful selection is to get a clear understanding of existing shareware products, their major features and options, and then investigate what additional benefits you can gain from acquiring one or another product (for example, you may get free support services when you purchase a product for teamwork). Most companies that develop solutions for group collaboration and file sharing generally work on the following features:

• Group communications and interactions. Users of both freeware and commercial solutions can join into workgroups, participate in collaborative projects, manage teamwork and communicate with other users.
• Real-time mode. All activities of users are undertaken in real time which means a user is able to receive a notification message after some piece of information has been modified. For example, online solutions for project management allow sending e-mail notifications of task changes to all users who are subscribed to receiving notifications.
• File sharing and document management technologies. Users of collaboration software products can share files, define permissions to shared files, and manage documents. For example, SharePoint technology allows storing shared files and documents on Windows Server that defines user permission levels to shared information.
• Access to a centralized database. Most freeware and commercial solutions allow keeping information in centralized databases. Users can log in a centralized database and get access to shared files and documents. For example, SaaS (Software as a Service) allows using web browsers to access remote web servers that store centralized databases. A centralized database means all information on collaborative activities is kept in one place and only authorized users can access this information.

Now it is time to describe what types of collaboration software solutions exist on the market. There are two major "players": freeware and shareware. These "players" or types are not equally used by companies, because some companies look for low-featured freeware solutions (aka open source systems ), while the majority of different companies download and use shareware solutions that have a wide list of powerful features. If you want to manage your groups and teamwork in the best way, you need to acquire powerful collaboration software free shareware.

Considering the mentioned information you can make your choice, and probably this choice will be in favor of desktop based shareware. VIP Task Manager is a shareware solution for task management and team collaboration. It features powerful tools that allow planning, tracking and reporting projects, processes, workflows and tasks. VIP Task Manager is compatible with Windows only (due to technical reasons it is Mac incompatible solution).