A lot of businesses are aiming to create platform experiences into both their external product or service delivery as well as internally within the company’s own operations. The reason this initiative has become much more prominently found among the industry is due to 1) the increasing amount of information silos popping up left and right as more and more systems enter a company’s software ecosystem and 2) because of the increasing array of options available to firms of all backgrounds.
In this post, we will quickly cover six different collaboration applications that can help your company streamline its’ business operations. The intended use of these platforms is varied, they can be used for intranets, client portals, online communities, and lightweight learning management systems and so forth.
1. Unily
Unily packs a punch in terms of features as well as clientele. Its’ software is used by companies like Hershey’s and Microsoft. It’s the modern version of an intranet and has well built-out features for collaboration, mobile, analytics, enterprise search, as well as a slew of integrations with third-party products such as Box.
2. Hivebrite
Hivebrite is more focused on creating highly customizable community portals. Their target user base ranges from educational institutions that are looking to create alumni networks to professional networks and nonprofits. You can create customized subscription models from within Hivebrite and monetize your platform without the headache of ironing out the technical details of user sign up and payment processing.
Hivebrite has earned itself rave reviews on both GetApp and Capterra and if you’re looking for something to instill a rich sense of community, and want a lot of easy-to-use features this may be the right choice for you.
3. Onehub
Onehub is a far more focused collaboration platform that specializes in giving teams secure file sharing capabilities. With it, you’re able to configure permissions at a granular level, create workflows for document approvals, view audit trails and version history, and more.
One of the features that stood out to us is the ability to create “Data Rooms”, which is a feature perfect for soliciting bids from multiple parties where you want to have the ability to track all the activity on the proposal from the various bidders but don’t want the various parties to know of each other.
4. Clinked
Clinked’s features are geared around giving your clients an accessible portal for working with you. If your client services require high collaboration with your clients or your clients are very much interested in working with you at a deeper level this may the solution for you. Clinked offers you the ability to create a white-label secure portal and can be a good alternative to Sharepoint.
5. ClientPortal
ClientPortal is a WordPress plugin aimed at providing freelancers and agencies a visually appealing central portal for clients to access information and interact with you. It’s minimalist and doesn’t try to do 100 different things. This could be a good place to start to see if your clients will respond well to a portal tool. You can check out a demo of it here!
6. Mighty Networks
Mighty Networks is one of the most straightforward and intuitive collaboration platforms we’ve tested and it’s a testament to how far such software systems have come along. Mighty enables you to create communities, engage different groups, create courses (in some cases it could even be used as a lightweight stand-alone learning management system), and enable centralized communication and collaboration.
Mighty also has a slew of interesting integrations with tools like Slack, Google Analytics, and Zapier.
Conclusion
There are a number of advantages to making use of a collaboration platform, whether it be for your own company’s internal use or with clients. The above six options are all generally low-cost choices that you can implement without taking a big risk. This software type has recently reached a level of maturity where it can fit into the rhythm of your day-to-day work and help boost productivity.
If you’re interested in learning more regarding online platforms and whether you can take advantage of them feel free to send us an email at solutions@anant.us for a chat!
Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash
