Originally Published at Troop Messenger 

In this fast pacing world, every piece of information is available with a swipe of a finger.

But this same information, when not delivered in the right manner and within appropriate timing, has the potential to cause considerable damages to the largest of the organizations.

And that is why enterprises today understand the importance of business collaboration tools. Famous examples of such a tool are Slack and the counterpart Slack competitors-all of which facilitates instantaneous team communication for an organized workspace and a streamlined workflow.

Slack- The reigning champ of Business Collaboration tools

Slack is an award-winning, wildly popular collaboration and business messaging application that serves corporate teams as an excellent alternative to emails and phone call. The powerful messaging features and the easy-to-use interface is not the only reason for its popularity. There are functionalities like threading, instant messaging for business, pinning, document tracking, and lightning-quick navigation that make this an excellent tool.

As impressive as Slack is in multiple functionality dimensions, this article is not about Slack. The article instead talks about Slack Alternatives —which might have you wondering why bother looking at the alternate options when Slack is so great?

Well, the reasons could be plenty. It could be that Slack has a few features and functionality gaps, or it could be the fact that there are some ‘extra-great' collaboration tools with extraordinary features that can escalate your organization's productivity to a new height. It could also be that there are few Slack Competitors are likely to suit the budget of your team affordably.

Whatever the reason be, there are two things we are very sure of —First, this article has a compilation of best of the collaboration tools of 2019, and Second, you must not miss out on the outstanding features these tools can provide for your workplace organization.

Time to replace Slack with these top 11 Slack Competitors

Troop Messenger

Of course, we’re biased, but hey — it is our blog. Here’s our #1  Slack Competitor 

Troop Messenger is a renowned business messenger application develop to empower communication and collaboration between the team members. As a Slack biggest competitor, it provides organizations and businesses with features like instant messaging, video call, file sharing in an exclusive and secure environment. Much like Slack, the tool connects the users within their organization irrespective of their time zone, location, and makes for a robust online-based workforce. 

Why Choose Troop Messenger Instead of Slack?

• With Troop Messenger, the team members get to avail direct messaging capabilities and also leverage the advanced features like audio or video calls, virtual meetings, screen sharing, and many productivity features that enhance collaboration.

• The software is lightning fast, as it connects the members working within an organization at an excellent speed.

• Troop Messenger is known for the highly secure firewall, which assures privacy to all the messages, conversations, and file exchanges happening between team members. The end-to-end encryption is the reason why no unauthorized party can ever access the data and information shared within the troop messenger application.

• The tool has ‘delete and recall’ feature and multiple domain merging options.

• To save even more time, the tool has a speech to text option, which is again something that can boost productivity at your workplace.

• The troop messenger is strictly individual to your organization. The involvement of no external networks or the third party offers an extraordinary level of security.

• Troop Messenger is an affordable collaboration tool. The free version alone can fit the need of small businesses with 50 users’ access to all the features. The premium version is as low as $1 monthly, per user.

Fleep

Fleep is one of that team collaboration software that combines business chat with collaboration tools that make multi-tasking easier. The tool works across multiple devices and operating systems, and it is arguably one of the most flexible collaboration solutions for businesses today. The app allows users to connect and share files seamlessly.

Why Choose Fleep over Slack:

• One can manage push notifications on both the app and conversation levels.

• It's easy to control the email notifications, choose a specific sound for the alerts, and set up silent mode.

• Fleep has affordable plans for team collaboration. ‘

• Fleep has elegant and very carefully designed interface.

• The paid plan starts at $5 per member per month.

Microsoft Teams

With Microsoft teams, team collaboration doesn't only get simplified, but it also gets protected to an advanced level. With security that is no match to conventional chatting applications, this software has all the potential to transform the way you are operating and managing business necessities. Not only does it facilitate effective communication, but it also allows the users to customize the workspace and collaborate on built-in Office 365 applications.

Why Choose Microsoft Teams over Slack:

• Microsoft Teams team Allows the storage space of 1 TB per organization, and file upload limit of 15 GB.

• Microsoft Teams office 365 package members can use MS teams for Free.

• It has in-built integration of all MS Office tools.

• The supported platform includes all the major operating systems like iOS, android, windows, and JIRA.

Zoho Cliq

This communication software aims at providing businesses with messaging features that go beyond the functionality limit of the conventional chat application. There has to be a solid reason why small and large companies are using Zoho Cliq as an official team communication tool. It supports multiple channels and displays all of it in one window for easy access and monitoring.

Why Choose Zoho Cliq over Slack:

• Zoho Cliq has a wide range of security options that are designed to protect company data and confidential files against security breaches.

• Zoho has a dedicated customer training features that assure a user makes most of their investment.

• The tool allows users to compile multiple channels into one window for easy access and monitoring.

• The UI design and interface allow lightening quick navigation with easy drag and drop file transfer.

• The app allows ten effective integration in the free plan.

• It offers a free plan with file storage of 100 GB per organization and searchable message limit of 10k. The paid plan allows file storage of 100 GB per user with a charge of $0.58 monthly, per user.

Blink

Blink’s product offering goes beyond your average internal communication tool; Blink combines powerful integrations, instant messaging, file storage and more to make the lives of frontline workers easier. No more notice boards in the breakroom and boring paper-based admin forms. Blink is the best way to digitize old processes and for organizations with a distributed workforce to reach and engage their employees on a handy mobile app.

Why Choose Blink Instead of Slack?

• Specifically created for companies with a deskless workforce, Blink is perfect for any company across transit, logistics, facilities management, retail, hospitality, construction and more.

• Featuring enterprise-level security, data on Blink is always encrypted. Additional Blink security capabilities range from remote wipe to non-repudiable audit logs, making it a favourite tool for IT departments and HR alike.

• In addition to enabling two-way communications and giving digitally disconnected workers a voice, rolling out Blink has been shown to decrease employee turnover by 28% while increasing employee satisfaction.

• Blink is mobile first, but a user-friendly desktop app is available for desk-based colleagues in regional offices and the company HQ.

• The admin portal provides internal communications and HR teams with access to engagement analytics, moderation capabilities, identity management, a company directory and more.

Ryver

When it is about Integration, Slack wins the battle with easy to implement 1000+ integrations. But when it is about task and content management, we are not sure if there are tools that are as competent as Ryver. Through this tool, one can create a task out of inbox messages, start a topic thread, set a reminder, add a reaction, and pin it.

Why Choose Ryver over Slack:

• Ryver has an in-built solution for video and audio conversations. And that’s one reason why the call quality is so better.

• Search feature and functionality is very simple in Ryver. Unlike slack where search limit is only up to 10,000 messages, this tool allows an unlimited search. Just type the word you want to look up, and the result will be displayed in a fraction of a second.

Fleep

Fleep is one of that team collaboration software that combines business chat with collaboration tools that make multi-tasking easier. The tool works across multiple devices and operating systems, and it is arguably one of the most flexible collaboration solutions for businesses today. The app allows users to connect and share files seamlessly.

Why Choose Fleep over Slack:

One can manage push notifications on both the app and conversation levels.

It's easy to control the email notifications, choose a specific sound for the alerts, and set up silent mode.

Fleep has affordable plans for team collaboration. ‘

Fleep has elegant and very carefully designed interface.

The paid plan starts at $5 per member per month.

• It facilitates unlimited document sharing and unlimited chat, and both the Starter and Unlimited plan offer a free trial of 14 days.

• Ryver allows the users to manage push notifications on both the app and conversation levels. It's easy to control the email notifications, choose separate tones for the alerts, and set up silent mode too.

• Ryer has not a freemium plan. The premium plan starts at $99 per month, and the enterprise plan starts at $399 per month.

Mattermost

Mattermost, as premium business chat software, is dedicated to providing business with premium collaboration solutions. The hybrid, slack competitors open source, the private cloud allows the paid users to avail a configurable, highly encrypted, and scalable messaging solutions across mobile, web, and PC. 

Why Choose Mattermost over Slack:

• It has exclusive features like brainstorming, task management, discussion boards, discussion threads, push notifications, search, video conferencing, file sharing.

• Mattermost is self-hosted and open source.

• The highly secure network assures no data is ever lost.

• Enterprise E10 starts at $3.35 user per month, and Enterprise E20 starts at $8.50 monthly, per user.

Bitrix24

With Bitrix 24, you get to do effectively connect with your colleagues over the E2E open source platform. The software allows team conferencing through video calls, social networking, and project management. It has an E2E secured and encrypted centralized repository that assures that all media shared between the team members are secured and encrypted from cyber-attacks of all kinds.

Why Choose Bitrix24 over Slack:

• The tool has cool features like a reminder system, document storage, Internet chat integration, mobile access, and lead scoring.

• Collaboration features include social media integration, task management, and segmentation.

• The tool is super customizable with streamlined CRM and multi-pipelines.

• Bitrix24 has visual workflow tracking features.

• The vendor offers excellent community support.

• The standard plan is $99 user per month, and the Professional plan starts at $199/month monthly, per user.

Quip

Quip is simple to use and straightforward application with an avenue of features that streamline the work process of an organization. The application makes for a perfect collaboration system that enables the user to become more efficient in project planning and task management, editing the documents, taking notes, communicating with the team members, and collaborating on team projects.

Why Quip is a great Slack Alternative:

• The real-time messaging features are embedded with full-features spreadsheets.

• The app can be integrated with Google Docs, Google Drive, Evernote, Dropbox, and a lot many third-party applications.

• The documents and media attachments can be easily exported to .doc, .jpg, and PDF version.

• Users can enjoy importing of contacts from Google, Hotmail, Outlook, Yahoo, and Gmail.

• Quip offers paid plan of $30 per month for a team of five members, and $10 per month for each additional member. For large businesses, the plan starts at $25 per month, per member.

Originally Published at Troop Messenger 

Have a thought or an important reminder to set? But no paper or pencil, and no time to pen it down? Fret not, we have got you covered!

The thing with thoughts is that they hit you suddenly, irrespective of the time and place. A million-dollar idea can strike your brain while you are tuning to your favourite song, or walking down the street to fetch your morning coffee. We bet it happens to everybody, including you.

At a time like these, do you frantically search for a paper or pen or you wish for a readily available tool that allows you to make quick memo notes? The latter sounds perfect, and that’s why we’ve rounded up thirteen best note-taking apps and summarised their features. 

 
To find an ideal note-taking app with all the above features, we began with over thirty-six contenders and shortlisted our way down to thirteen plus most promising applications.

Evernote: The biggest note-taking app

This app allows users to prioritise and capture ideas, to-do-lists, and projects. It offers capable services such a supporting an extensive range of note types including sketches, checklists, plain text, images, audio memo, and clipped pages.

Available on: Windows, iOS, Web, Android, and macOS.

Pricing: Free plan for individual use. Premium plans start at $2.74 per month.

Microsoft OneNote: The Office user’s Note-taking app

With Microsoft OneNote, you can do a lot more than creating notes and checklists.

This tool is perfect for both professional and personal reasons, given how it allows the users to enjoy multiple features like organisation, collaboration, and sharing. It’s the best note taking the app for Android and Mac users.

 Available on: Windows, iOS, Web, Android, and macOS

 Pricing: Free plan with 5 GB file upload limit. Extra space can be purchased.

Bit.ai  (Document Collaboration Note Taking App)

Bit is a great Microsoft word alternative and the perfect app for team note-taking and documentation. Teams can create notes and documents like to-dos, client materials, project proposals, sales decks, training documents, how-to guides, etc. and collaborate in real-time. They can chat inside of documents, leave in-line comments to leave feedback, make decisions and get everyone on the same page.

Google Keep: The Personal user’s Note-taking app

This is another popular free note-taking app that offers users a tactile and comprehensive note-taking space.

The tool has an advanced array of inbuilt features. Keep by Google is the quickest way to offload thoughts and ideas without losing focus.

 Available on: Android, iOS, Windows, Google Chrome, macOS

 Pricing: Available for free

Simple Note: The affordable note-taking app

Simple Note being the easiest of all note-taking apps delivers a productive way of taking notes, maintaining lists, and penning down ideas.

The tool is clean, light, and free with all components like syncing sharing, and backup.

 Available on:  Windows, iOS, Linux, Web, Android, and macOS

 Pricing: Free  

Slips : The feature-stack Note-taking app

Slips support you to store your instant idea, a quick note, an image, an URL link, etc., just at the touch of a button.

It has power-packed feature-stack of auto text suggestions, organizes text with bullets and number lists, seamless keypad, supports instant image capture, and many more.

It enables the user to write text by choosing the font styles of Bold, Italic and Underlined. With the help of coloured templates, the user can easily pick the choice to make note-making more professional and beautiful.

Zoho Notebook: The most beautiful note-taking app

This is an excellent app for both professional and student, for it provides a wide range of features that allow users to jot down notes, set reminders, create checklists, and sync it all. Not only is it free, but it is ad-free too.

Available on: Windows, iOS, Web, Android, and macOS

Pricing: Free

Quip: The project-focused note-taking app

Quip is not your regular note taking application since it can do a lot more. There’s a reason why it is touted as best note taking the app for Mac users.

The app is a spreadsheet and works processing application that lets you work with others, take notes, create documents, and share spreadsheets on the go.

Available on: Windows, iOS, Web, Android, and macOS

 Pricing: $30 per month for a team of five, and an additional $10 per member.

Dropbox Paper: The Best Collaboration Note-taking app

Dropbox paper is a free note-taking tool from Dropbox which works by bringing creation and collaboration at one place. The tool allows the users to write, edit, review, brainstorm, and manage the task on the go.

Originally Published at Troop Messenger

How do you like the idea of creating an application that will be rebranded by others?

Your client gets to resell it as their own product, but not before they pay you all the charges for production/designing.

If this idea interests you, then this page is where you need to be.

Take a break from your work or anything that you’re doing right now. This blog post needs your undivided attention.

5 minutes will be enough.

Let’s start with the basics.

White Label Application: Why is it gaining momentum?

A white label application or service is designed, created, and manufactured by one company, but it is rebranded and resold by others as their own.

I hope you’ve noticed how during the last couple of years,

there has been a tremendous surge in the number of mobile applications. For every event or service, we need to download a new application. In fact, 62% of the companies, large and small, either have a dedicated application or are in the process of launching one.

Do you think these applications are created from scratch? 

No. Not at all. Here’s the truth behind the majority of mobile applications created today: Most of the apps nowadays are created via a template. These templates are called as ‘White Label Apps.’

Much like Websites powered by Wordpress, where you get to use the pre-built themes and templates, a white-label application is designed by one company so that it can be used by others, with a few changes, obviously.

Still, Confused?

Let me make this clearer with a White label apps example:

• A while label application manufacturer, named as Company A, creates a marketing app and sells it to Company B.

• Company B, having purchased the rights, rebrands this marketing application with their own name and logo.

• Company B can now sell the product to end customers.

Summary:

White label apps enable the resellers to expand their offerings and services without having to produce the apps from scratch. This allows them to scale both their offerings and revenue. The main advantage of this purchase is a smart time-saving. The companies don’t have to create a new application from square one.

White Labeling: Why is it gaining the Hype?

White labeling, without a doubt, is a faster solution to save money and time. It’s a great option for software developers. They can consider white labeling as a technique and a powerful strategy to increase their distribution.

White Labeling benefits for Software Developers:

There are many benefits of selling white labeled products other than cost-saving:

1. Faster Implementation:

Since the remodeling and rebranding of these applications require only a few resources from your clients, the product delivery and implementation is way faster.

2. Reduced Commercial Risk:

When you are into white-labeling, you offer your clients the products/templates that have been tested and offer a proven solution. This way, there is no commercial risk as such.

3. Optimized Product Line:

White Labeling Sellers add value to White label app development & product lines by mixing and matching various offerings of multiple vendors, and in that process, they optimize their offerings.

White Label Product Benefit for Clients: 

With 85% of online buyers reporting that they prefer using smartphones over mobile websites, it’s safe to assume your clients would also want to have a dedicated application for their business.

If you’re still now sure how a white label can bring a positive change for your business, read these points:

1. White label allows you to focus on your company’s core competency.

It’s never a wise thing to stretch your human resources and budget to something that doesn’t fit your business’s core competency.

Prepackaged solutions offered by white label app developers provide such businesses an opportunity to trust experts and channel the resources towards core competencies.

2. It keeps the customers from turning elsewhere for solutions.

The additional months or years it takes for developing your own solutions will most probably have your prospective customers turn elsewhere for solutions. This can be avoided through a pre-packaged solution that meets their needs.

3. White Labeling makes branding extremely easy.

With White labeling, you can brand your products with a couple of clicks and swipes. You don’t need technical help. These solutions are ready-made, fully-integrated, making branding easier.

You don’t have to spend time on research and development. Simply add your identity and branding, and do the business!

Can it get easier than this?

How Do White Label App Work for SaaS Companies?

For this section, I’d suggest taking Troop Messenger as an example. Since we are now offering Troop Messenger as a white label app our clients get complete access to our office communication and collaboration tool, which allows everyone on the board to communicate with internal team members and outside vendors.

As you purchase our pre-packaged, ready-made, and optimized product that has been through hundreds of quality tests and bug fixing, you can expect the following:

• Instant Application Creation: When you purchase Troop Messenger as a white-labeled app, you get a market-ready Android and iOS apps within a week, without having knowledge of technical aspects 

• Customizable Design: Make the application your own, with the app icon (logo), and your branding on the dashboard or screen.

• Easily Scalable: Board as many members on the team. It doesn’t matter whether your team size is of 50 or 5,000, you can scale the numbers as you wish.

• Low Cost: With our white label version, you get to save tons of money and avoid all the up-front fees that you’d normally spend if creating your own app.

• Secure Control: Troop Messenger White Label App cost is low, yet you don’t have to compromise with control. You can easily manage all the data & information without having to worry about data breaches or security.

• Powerful Integrations: Should you feel the need to expand in-app features, you can seamlessly integrate with external applications. 

Few Examples of White Label Apps (SaaS)

Since white-label mobile apps have expanded their usability, they are being used in multiple industries, including SaaS.

Other than Troop Messenger, SendBird and Cometchat are also great white-label apps example.

SendBird: A White Label Chat Solution

This White-Label chat solution offers a fully managed chat infrastructure combined with messaging SDKs. The app’s flexible and powerful chat API enables businesses to launch a messaging platform with maximum effect and minimum effort. 
 

Highlights of SendBird White label app:

• Chat Messaging: All essential features including media sharing, push notification, read receipt, typing indicator, and thumbnail generation.

• Security and Compliance: Advanced security standards and encryption.

• Customer Support: Ticketing, agent interface, and live chat support.

• Moderation and Data: Tools to protect your brand’s integrity and to explore chat data.

CometChat: Ready-to-Use White Label Mobile Chat Application

CometChat App is also a white label app reseller. If you are in need of a customized chat platform for your company, CometChat is worth giving a chance. The app is completely white-labeled. It doesn’t contain any CometChat icon, logo, or name.

Highlights of CometChat White label app:

• Customize the feel and look: With pre-built UI, CometChat saves you all the additional effort. With a couple of clicks, you can change the feel and look to suit your brand.

• Easy to Deploy: It’s surprisingly easy to install your own app and deploy it.

• Speedy-Support: Customer support has been made easy with live chat support.

• Seamless Integrations: One-On-One integrations with over 50+ software

Key TakeAways

Do-It-Yourself sounds cool. And as an entrepreneur, your first instinct might be to try DIYs for your business’s applications & software, alongside other core competencies. After all, entrepreneurship is all about that only.

Sorry, break the bubble. But it’s not applicable in all areas. In most cases, creating a customized solution from square one, in an attempt to exceed the client’s expectations can actually be a setup for failure.

Building your own apps and solutions can lead you to these pitfalls:

• Reinventing the wheels of mistake: creating mistakes the other developers before you have already made and mastered.

• Slowing down your time in the industry: reducing your learning curve while you wasted time outside your core competencies

• Spending too much money on developing solutions and tools that are already there, in great formats, and simultaneously miss out on resources where you need focused attention.

In short, the white label apps can help you avoid all these pitfalls and help you in utilizing your business’s branding to over a product or solution without investing in technology or infrastructure creation around the solution.

Originally Published at Troop Messenger 

Looking for the list of the top, best, and fast-growing SaaS companies in 2020?.

Your search ends here.

You can find all the examples of SaaS facts, statistics, and examples. Read on to know.

Did you know that 73% of businesses plan to launch SaaS products and make all their systems SaaS by 2020?

Swiftly and Smartly, our World is shifting towards ‘Software as a Service’ era. Some of the best saas companies are already there, while most others are likely to follow.

Vendors and businesses are either building new SaaS products or acquiring the existing ones.

Wait for a couple of more years and your workplace will never be the same again.

Believe us or not, a new type of workplace has already emerged: SaaS-powered workplaces that rely less on the office desk, and more on the internet connection.

Compared to a conventional company, a SaaS company is 52% more likely to attract better talent, and in that process, succeed more.

While these statistics may surprise a few people, there’s no denying the fact that the way businesses operate, and the way services are consumed is changing.

What is SaaS and its Definition

Software as a Service (SaaS), is one of the variants of cloud-based services where instead of downloading software in your business network or installing it in your PC to run and update, you instead get to access an application directly from the internet browser.

The software application can comprise anything, from unified communications at the workplace to office software among an extensive list of business applications that are available.

Examples of saas companies

• BigCommerce

• Troop Messenger

• Salesforce

• Google Apps

• Dropbox

• MailChimp

• Hubspot

• ZenDesk

• DocuSign

• Slack

SaaS Solution: Advantages

For consumers:

• The ability to access the software on any device, at any time, anywhere

• Better affordability: Subscription basis pricing plans instead of paying a big lump sum upfront

• Instant software upgrades access

For companies:

• Faster deployment of the solution in the company

• Increase in data security and decrease in software piracy

• Higher reliability because of scalability options and upgrade on-the-go

• Compatibility with different platforms, thus covering a wide audience using Windows, macOS X, Linux, iOS, Android, etc).

SaaS Startups: Facts & Statistics

• By the year 2023, the SaaS products market has been forecasted to have a worth of $60.36 billion, at a CAGR of 9% (Technavio).

• As per a survey, the number of SaaS products in marketing niches in 2017 was 8,500, which was only about 500 marketing tools in 2007 (PriceIntelligently).

• The revenue retention rate of leading SaaS companies is 100% (forentrepreneurs.com).

• 38% of companies are almost running as SaaS companies (bettercloud.com).
  
  

• 73% of businesses are planning to shift as a SaaS company in the next few years (bettercloud.com).

• 86% of businesses that are using SaaS products have reported having experienced higher employee engagement. (BetterCloud)
  
  

What kind of multiples category do we see for saas companies?
 

• Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software

• Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Software

• Accounting Software

• Project Management Software

• Email Marketing Software

• Workplace Collaboration Software

• Workplace Attendance Management Software

Dropbox: Cloud Storage Software (B2B, B2C)

About the company: Dropbox is where you bring together all your content and files. More than 450,000 businesses have trusted this SaaS company for its security infrastructure and consider as one of the largest saas company

USP

• Ability to share photos and files without a USB drive

• Team collaboration from anywhere, at any time. 

What worked for them

• Innovative service and product approach that replaced USB drives and pen drives forever

• Easy installation process

• Dropbox offers a multi-language support

• The app is available on multiple platforms

• Simple design

• User-friendly interface

• High awareness among internet users

Troop Messenger: Team Chat Software (B2B)

About the company: Troop Messenger, as an office chat software provides clients with a virtual workplace that can be accessed anywhere, anytime, and used for a great deal of communication and collaboration. From one-on-one messaging to audio/video, calling, live location tracking to file sharing, and integrations, there’s so much to do with this SaaS product and this is considered as one of the fastest-growing saas company

USP

• High Trust Instant messaging platform designed for security-conscious organizations like Defence, Military, and Government organizations.

• Forkout (Send a single message to multiple users/multiple groups at once)

• Burnout (private chat conversation window)

What worked for them 

• Reaching out to customers that are looking for Slack Alternatives

• Enhancing security with multi-factor authentication.

• Quick response rate

• Reduced storage cost

• Reaching out to customers with successful case studies 

MailChimp: An Email Marketing Tool (B2B, B2C)

About the company: MailChimp is a highly efficient email marketing service provider. Known for its low-cost plans and excellent built-in templates, this SaaS product has helped millions of companies streamline their Email Marketing needs.

USP

• Sending ‘Superior Auto Responders’ is the Unique Selling Point of MailChimp

• Specific strategies of customer retention & acquisition

• MailChimp repeatedly targets their prospective customers by reminding them about the importance of Emails. According to their website, Email averages $52 ROI for every dollar spent.

All in One Marketing Plan

• Personalized behavior-based campaigns

• Creation of marketing content using different audience tools

What worked for them?

This SaaS product Offers 4 flexible pricing plans for different types of businesses. The Free plan with all the basics for startup businesses helped MailChimp make a mark in the industry.

They nailed it further with additional plans like Essentials, Standard, and Premium: All designed to improve the insights for growing businesses in need for more customers

HubSpot CRM: Customer Relationship Management Software (B2B)

About the product: HubSpot’s CRM is designed to offer a sales team a platform to create company profiles and contacts, and neatly organize every detail they need for streamlining communication with the customers. This SaaS product is one of the most biggest integrated CRM available in the market.

USP: Easy blending with all the ongoing sales process is HubSpot CRM’s USP. The tool can be easily integrated with:

• Microsoft
• Google Dynamics
• SugarCRM
• BaseCRM
• Google Chrome
• Salesforce
• Zapier
• Shopify

Specific strategies of customer retention

• Free pricing model with all essential features

• Frequent mapping out of customer experience

• Highlight case studies during their sales and marketing processes.

What worked for them?

• Lead Importing

• Intuitive Interface

• Email and Phone Integration

• Drag and Drop Communicator

Salesforce: A Cloud Computing Service Software (B2B)

About the company: Much like HubSpot CRM, Salesforce is also a SaaS company that has established a mark as a CRM service provider. This CRM allows businesses to use the cloud for establishing a better connection with their potential customers and client and consider as one of the best saas companies to work for
 

Products Example:

• Salesforce Sales Cloud

• Salesforce Community Cloud

• Salesforce Collaboration

• Salesforce Commerce Cloud

• Salesforce Platform

• Salesforce Einstein
  
  

USP: Every SaaS product of Salesforce has different USP, but when viewed as a bigger picture, Salesforce offers a unique experience when it comes to re-shaping a company into an improved and informational organization.

Specific strategies of customer retention

• Salesforce has repeatedly worked to be perfectly clear in their marketing messaging.

• Making Every Employee a Key Player in the customer retention strategy

• Engaging the marketing leaders and Select Journalists

• Using Storytelling technique as a key marketing strategy

Slack: A Workplace Collaboration Tool (B2B)

About the company: Slack is a messaging application that boasts of having onboard companies like BBC, Oracle, IBM, and more. This workplace collaboration tool is a SaaS product, an outcome of innovation coupled with exclusive marketing hacks.
 

USP:

• One of the primary reasons that led to the growth of Slack is that they never compromised or lost on the human touch during their journey towards growth.
  
  
• With Slack, you get a bright, bubbly UI, with great interactions that have helped the company create a personality for their product. Slack, like a SaaS product, provides a distinguished experience that lingers with each login.
  
  

Specific strategies of customer acquisition & retention

• Fair Pricing Policy

• Growth acceleration via thousands of integrations

• Great implementation of customer feedback

What worked for them?

• Slack didn’t build too many features, rather focused on establishing a few of them very well.

• For example, they focused on the three main features: Search, Synchronisation, and File Sharing.

• These three features have given slack a real competitive edge in a market that has witnessed the entry of many tech-giants.

Time Dynamo: Attendance Management Software (B2B)

About the Product: Time Dynamo is a work-force attendance management software designed to ease the efforts needed for employee attendance and recording in a large enterprise.

Tvisha Technologies, an Indian based SaaS company, has developed Time Dynamo, which cuts down on the labor costs through tracking the presence and absence of employees.

USPs

• Biometric Integration

• Attendance Tracking

• Analytics and User Report

• Payroll and HCM Integration

Specific strategies of customer retention

• Re-engagement of customers

• Leveraging of customer feedback

• Over Delivering on the promise

What worked for them?

The SaaS product’s ability to allow real-time attendance has helped it get an identity in the market. The company reached potential clients and frequently reminded them of the importance of a one-stop resolution and a ‘to-go’ software for attendance management.

Atlassian Jira: Software project management tool (B2B)

About the company: Atlassian is a SaaS company with several SaaS products. Atlassian Jira is one of the project management tools that is used by agile teams. This SaaS product is built for software teams that are planning to plan, release and track great software.

USP

• Roadmaps for communicating plans with the stakeholders and employees

• Kanban boards for full visibility

• Easier configuration

What worked for them?

Agile reporting feature has worked in favor of Atlassian Jira since it allows teams to have access to over a dozen of real-time reports and also out-of-the-box and actionable insights into their team’s performance:

• Sprint Report

• Version Report

• Velocity Chart

• Burnup Chart

• Calculative flow diagram

Click2Magic: Customer Live Chat Support Application (B2B)

About the Product: Click2Magic, a SaaS product, is a Live Chat Support Application by Tvisha Technologies, an Indian based SaaS company. Using Click2Magic, you can seamlessly connect with your customers and simultaneously resolve their queries.

USP:
Agents get to stay in touch with the customers and resolve queries even when they are not at their desk, i.e., anytime and from anywhere.

What worked for them?

• Help Centre for valuable customers through Mobile and Web Application

• Provide Support even when agents are on the move

• Availability for both iOS and Android devices

GitHub: Software Development Program (B2B, B2C)

About the Company: GitHub is a software development platform. Using GitHub, you can host and review codes, build software, and manage projects alongside 40 million developers. GitHub, as a SaaS product, offers users to take collaboration to the next level with many administrative and security features designed especially for teams.

USP: Bringing together teams to work through problems, share ideas, and learn from each other along the way.

Specific strategies of customer retention

• Building a most important social network for software engineers

• Developing a massive code repository

• Word of Mouth by Superfans

What worked for them?

• Facilitating integration of tools that a user has been using through integrations

• Freemium pricing plans

• Welcoming Open Source

Pluralsight Skills: Technology Skill platform (B2B, B2C)

About the Company:PluralSight is a technology Skill platform that provides web development training, IT certification learning, and on-demand skill training for employees to help their career move forward.

Using this SaaS product, you can upskill your team into a better workflow efficiency and modern roles

USPs
Training modules trusted by companies of different sizes to help them scale their business further.

What worked for them

• Targeting the companies that faced backlash due to unskilled labors

• Making Skill Development a strategic priority

• Safeguarding against the security threats

• Software Dev Teams

• IT OPS teams

Workday: Cloud ERP System for HR, Finance and Planning (B2B)

About the company: Workday is an enterprise-level SaaS company with multiple SaaS products used for financial management, human resource management, and planning. With this tool, employers can oversee time tracking, employee data, expense management, financial accounting, and procurement.

USP

• A single, comprehensive, and all-in-one system for three things: HR, Planning, and Finance.

• Handling of accounting tasks from an analytical perspective, native accounting functions

What worked for them?

• Onboarding popular SaaS companies like TripAdvisor, Netflix, Airbnb, and National Geographic.

• Offering an Easy-to-Interpret Dashboard Visualisation

• Personalizing each employee’s education with interactive materials and tailored lessons

Survey Monkey: Surveying tool (B2B, B2C)

About the Company: Survey Monkey, a SaaS product, helps the companies from different industries get the feedback they need, and seek answers to the questions they’ve been waiting for, and simultaneously ensures prioritising the trust, and sustaining data security.

USP

• Turn feedback into Action

• Easy to measure feedback

• Fully White-labeled Surveys

• Employee Engagement features

• Market Research features for keeping track of industry and market trends

What worked for them?

• Onboarding leading companies like Hp, Box, Lyft, and more.

• Quick Insights of survey results with summaries and automation charts

• Analysis of text responses with Sentiment Analysis and Work Cloud

• Fastest Survey Creation

• Customization with dozens of survey themes

Originally Published at Troop Messenger 

You need a platform to host your enterprise work conversations!

Indeed that’s the only way you bring your teams together to exchange work ideas and discuss more work.

Making your teams rely on personal chat applications at your workplace is no fun when you seriously look for productive outcomes from them. Instead, give them the best self-hosted slack team chat software like Troop Messenger, Flock, Rocket Chat, Mattermost, etc., to stay informed and monitored about all the work routines and updates.

These days, the business entities, corporates, Start-ups, SMEs, large enterprises, etc., are bombarded with many collaboration tool options. And, most of the tools are available in the variants of SaaS and Self-Hosting.

Data is crucial for every industry, but enterprise risk management is true of high priority for large enterprises and Governments. That being said, an instant messaging solution that delivers self-hosting is recommended for such kind of data-specific industries. Let us have a look at the following business collaboration tools that safeguard the internal communication needs of these entities.

Troop Messenger

The work you plan and structure needs to be duly conveyed to your teams to achieve the right work outcomes. Troop Messenger provides you the best team collaboration like never before. It empowers a great user experience with its simple and seamless user interface.

All your work conversations are taken care of with instant messaging, group conversations, voice-video calling, screen sharing, Fork out, Burnout, and more. It extends high-form of security to user’s work/business conversations with strong end-to-end encrypted algorithms.

It has been designed for small teams, SMEs, large enterprises, Governments, security organizations, etc., Besides SaaS, Chat APIs, and custom application development, the self-hosted delivery model has been exclusively developed for large enterprises keeping their data-sensitivity in mind. 

Pros

• Unique collaboration feature-stack
• Cost-Effective
• Great customer support
• Advanced Filters that gives quick search results
• Easy to understand help documentation. 
  
  

Cons

• Does not support migration
• Need to have more Add-Ons

 Pricing

Troop Messenger has a quite economical pricing structure when compared to its competitors. The one who registers the application is given a one-month enterprise free trial. Besides this, the premium pricing plan is charged at $1 per user/per month and Enterprise at $5 per user/per month. It offers a special plan for self-hosting at $5+per user/ per month. 

Rocket chat
 

Rocket Chat is famously known for its open-source team communication. The two delivery models that are available with this tool are; SaaS and Self-Managed. Large Enterprises can hugely benefit from this tool as it extends high security to message-exchanges with two-factor authentication, E2E encryption, SSO and OAuth providers. An exclusive feature of real-time translation translates its UI to over 50 languages that make users feel native. The self-managed version allows users to download the docker image and install the application on their servers.

Pros

• It has an unlimited free plan
• It supports endless customizations that include; Integrations, Plugins, Themes and Powerful APIs
• Easy-to-implement data importers
• Scale as per your needs  

Cons

• Lack of in-depth documentation
• Need better support and sales system

  Pricing

Rocket Chat provides different pricing structures for Self-Managed and Cloud. For Self-Managed, it has come up with the pricing plans of Community @ Free, Pro @ $3/per user/month, and Enterprise @ Tiered pricing. The Bronze, Silver, and Gold pricing plans of the Cloud/SaaS delivery model comes at $2/user/month, $4/user/month and tiered pricing respectively.

Mattermost

Mattermost introduces itself as a ‘High Trust Messaging for the Enterprise’, and it is true. An exceptional self-hosted open source messaging platform that extends secure communication across the industries of all forms and sizes. It can be deployed on a private cloud within the premises of local servers. The organizations which are high on privacy-conscious believe Mattermost as their flexible partner for all internal instant communications. The tool is popular on GitHub, and it provides an extensive level of documentation that helps in docker installation.

Pros

• Build custom workflows
• Enables Dev Ops workflows
• Enterprise-grade scalability and security
• Supports Migration

Cons

• Tedious deployment process
• No in-app voice-video call feature. Need to integrate.

  Pricing

Mattermost comes with two delivery models; cloud and self-hosted. Large Enterprises who look for self-hosting can go with server download that supports both Linux Install and Docker Install. Moving forward, it extends the free 30-day trial of Enterprise Edition(E20). And, the other plans E10 and E20 are priced at $3.25 user/month and $8.50 user/month when billed annually. 

Zulip

Catch upon only important conversations and ignore irrelevant ones, is what Zulip says. Open-Source software that was built by hundreds of developers across the globe. The self-hosted delivery model specifically designed for Large Entities provides an excellent production installation guide that lets users deploy it on their networks. Besides its 90 native integrations, Zulip supports more integrations from Hubot, Zapier, and IFTTT. It has excellent user documentation ranging from product installations guides to stream management.

Pros

• It has a high-quality developer-friendly code.
• Build your integrations with its APIs
• Unique threading approach
• Supports migration

Cons

• Steep learning curve
• Minimalistic features

 Pricing

Zulip cloud and Zulip On-Premise are two different pricing models that it offers. The former comes with Free and Standard Plans at unlimited and $6.67/user/month respectively, and the later comes with the plans of Community Support as Free and Open source forever. The Enterprise pricing variant of the same varies with support required. Users need to contact their sales team.

Matrix.org

Besides a messaging protocol, Matrix is known as a decentralized conversation store. It replicates the sent message over all the servers where user participation is active. An exceptional self-hosted delivery model that provides strong end-to-end encryption via the Olm and Megolm cryptographic ratchets. It helps to build your apps, chat rooms, direct chats, and chatbots, with a simple RESTful HTTP/JSON APIs. 

Pros

• Each server has full level control over users' data.
• Open specification of Matrix standard
• No single points of control or failure
• Supports Bridging

Cons

• Not available on the cloud 

 Pricing

Matrix.org never charges. It's completely free. Its free servers are open to all for public registrations.

Lets Chat

Yours is a small team and want to have a full-scale control over your team collaboration. Then Lets Chat is the right self-hosted tool exclusively made for small teams. It runs on Node.js and MongoDB and deployed easily at your local servers. It supports Docker and Vagrant platform installations. Lets Chat has some interesting features; private/password protected rooms, Image embeds, transcripts/chat history and more.

Pros

• Supports LDAP/Kerberos Authentication
• Supports BYOS (Bring your own server)
• It has multiple chat rooms
• It is Hubot-friendly

Cons

• Not available over the cloud
• It doesn’t support any integrations.

 Pricing

 It’s free(MIT Licensed)

nextcloud

The self-hosted collaboration tool built for protecting the user data through multiple layers of security offers a wide range of products like Nextcloud Files, Nextcloud Talk, Nextcloud Groupware, Nextcloud at home, and industry solutions. Nextcloud says, ‘control is key to data’. To ensure this, it implements the authentication mechanisms of SAML, Kerberos, and LDAP. It’s an open-source application with the code available on GitHub for developers.

Pros

• It has two variants; Nextcloud at home and Nextcloud at Enterprises.
• Adhere with the compliances of HIPPA and GDPR
• Enterprise support
• Direct access to core Nextcloud Engineering.

Cons

• Has fewer issues with deployment on shared hosting
• No detailed manual installation guides. 

 Pricing

Nextcloud offers three pricing plans; Basic, Standard, and Premium. The annual pricing for Basic, Standard, and Premium for 50 users is priced at 1900Euros, 3400Euros, and 4900Euros respectively.

Wire

Modernize the way you collaborate, is what Wire says. It offers uncompromised end-to-end security to protect users' communication and data. Wire adheres to the compliances of ISO, CCPA, GDPR, and SOX. It allows the new users or the migrators to adopt it with different deployment options. Cloud, private and on-premises are three deployment choices available to the users. The wire is 100% open-source and its source code is available on GitHub.

Pros

• It is independently audited
• It provides forward and backward secrecy
• Simple privacy policy
• No phone number required, just register with email id

Cons

• The learning curve is steep
• Occasionally slow

 Pricing

The highly secured team collaboration platform comes in three pricing plans; Wire Pro, Wire Enterprise and Wire Enterprise Technology. All the three plans are charged at 4Euros per user/per month, 8 Euros per user/per month, when billed biennially. The users need to contact their team to understand the Wire Enterprise Technology pricing.

Jitsi

Jitsi is a 100% free multi-platform open-source video conferencing tool that looks good and sounds amazing. The users/developers across the world can use Jitsi or build their own apps using the tools of it. Jitsi has two projects; jitsi Video bridge, and jitsi Meet. Both are open-source and WebRTC compatible that allows users to develop high-quality and scalable video conferences.

Pros

• Jitsi Desktop allows calls, chat, conferencing, file transfer and more
• It is an open-source community
• It encodes/decodes the audio/video flows
• Recording and live streaming for Jitsi Meet

Cons

• Rare issues with the connections

 Pricing

It is 100% free.

 Tox Chat

Another instant messaging application for large corporations and governments. TOX is a free, easy-to-use messaging tool that comes without advertising. It's a people made a tool, that is highly encrypted and distributed. The other features of Tox include; voice, video, screen sharing, file sharing and groups

Pros

• A simple and secure messaging tool
• Encrypted voice calls

Cons

• Your IP is visible to others

 Pricing

No corporate interests and no hidden agendas, it's free.

Signing Off

At the end of the day, it is all about how you safeguard your organization's data. Choose a highly secured on-premise collaboration tool that has no access to any third-party vendors.

Also Read 13 Free & Paid File Sharing Sites to Watch in 2020 like Dropbox, Google Drive, One Drive

Originally Published at Troop Messenger 

Switching to remote work is a trend that dominates. The latest reports indicate doubling the number of remote workers in the recent 10 years. And despite the famous Yahoo ban in 2015 that forced the employees to return to the offices, the trend for remote job opportunities keeps on expanding globally.

Among driving forces facilitating this growth, there are new managerial practices and innovative tech solutions that enable top companies to increase hiring remote teams.

Lack of effective tools, however, might hinder the productivity of your team so making the right choice in terms of software that would empower the team collaboration, will save you from facing numerous challenges.

Below there is a list of 10 ultimate tools you will find useful when working with a remote team.

Troop Messenger 

When searching for more interactive team collaboration, Troop Messenger comes as a leader. It will satisfy any team’s needs due to the simplicity of its implementation in an entrepreneurial environment.   

Working as a fully-fledged business communication platform, Troop Messenger gives you instant access to unlocking a great number of functions: 

• Instant messaging

• Making video calls

• Conducting video conferences

• Sharing files

• Desktop sharing

• Creating complex schedules.

Arranging the work schedule within Troop Messenger will let you keep project info fully organized and, thus, secure all the project performance data.

GoToMeeting 

It is optimal in case you need a tool for arranging online meetings. It works both ways, with customers and team members. The tool provides a high-quality connection and ranges as the most reliable software. With support assisting you 24/7 and instant availability of joining or hosting the meeting options, you can start a meetup, webinar, or a regular call hassle-free.

GoToMeeting is an ultimate communication choice for remote teams. A click on the link across any device will be a signal for activating various options: 

• Sharing the screen

• Making notes over the images

• Recording the conversations

• Settings for adjusting the visibility of participants’ faces

ProProfs

ProProfs Project is not an over the top project management software but has made its name in the market for it's easy to use UI and simple features.

From startups to enterprises, anyone can use this robust project management tool to streamline workflow, boost team communication, and improve team productivity.

ProProfs Project helps you to:

• Create & track projects on one dashboard

• Track time spent on tasks by each team member

• Collaborate with your teams anytime, anywhere

• Create insightful reports in seconds

• Bill your clients automatically

TMetric

When you have to arrange the effective collaboration of your remote team, the first issue you need to address is means of providing accuracy of time calculations. 

TMetric is an effective time tracking tool as it not only enables recording data on your work time in a single-click from any gadget but also has additional functions coming handy for remote work mode:

• Creating an invoice

• Generating various reports (including the ones that will summarize your team performance on the project)

• Setting various pay rates for billable hours

• Offline time tracking

• Tagging projects for facilitating the workflow

• Available on Windows, Mac OS, Linux, Android and iOS

• Integrating with 100+ apps remote teams use in their work.

This Timesheet software help allocate tasks to employees, track time spent, keep track of billable time to charge customers, calculate payroll, create invoices and keep track of expenses. Here's a quick list of 10 different timesheet software solutions and how they can help you manage your team better. 

BlogIn 

BlogIn is a beautifully simple internal blog and knowledge-sharing platform for teams of all sizes. The internal blog acts as a central information hub or a ‘virtual bulletin board’ for the company, allowing all employees to stay in the loop with what’s going on in and around the office.

At the same time, the blog opens a new, transparent, two-way communication channel inside an organization, where everyone can ask a question and get the information they need to make faster and smarter decisions.

The internal blog is intuitive and easy to use, so everyone can quickly get on board, which is one of the reasons why it works so well as the internal communication tool.

• Share internal news and knowledge

• Improve internal communication

• Share files

• Boost company culture

• Enables transparent, two-way communication

Usernap 

"Show, don't tell" - use screenshots and illustrations to communicate issues accurately and quickly. Usersnap's widget can be easily installed on your staging website or use the browser extension to capture anything you see and want to share.

Microsoft, Facebook and many web companies employ Usersnap for issue reporting, QA, user acceptance testing and customer feedback. Visual bug reports and feedback saves you time and makes remote working so easy.

• Browser screen capture and annotations
• Tickets include metadata (screen size, browser version, URL and console logs)
• Assign, label, track and close tickets easily
• Integrates with 30+ tools such as Jira and Asana
• Live commenting
• Unlimited guest access

JotForm

JotForm is an extremely versatile online form builder which is suited for a team of any size. It doesn’t require any development skills as it’s essentially a drag-and-drop form builder. So, your entire team can benefit from it. It has a surprising amount of use cases which you can apply to your business or use it to manage your team.

You can use it to clock in the work hours of your employees, collect feedback, assign tasks, open bug reports and the list goes on, it’s all up to how creative you can get with it.

The best part is that you have a wide variety of customization options for the forms you create. You can prevent things from getting boring for your team and have a sustainable remote team. As there are way too many templates and customization options you can check a form design guide they have prepared.

• Easy to use and implement

• Makes collaboration seamless

• Loads of customization options

• Wide range of use cases

SmartTask

SmartTask is a simple yet powerful task and project management tool, which will help your team be more effective and efficient than ever before.

It brings the organization's tasks at one place thus everyone in a team has a clear overview of the team's progress, who's responsible and has clarity on the deadlines.

The tool enables you with the following features:

• Tasks, Projects and CRM in one tool

• Custom Fields to customize your tasks

• Multiple Projects in one single view with Portfolio feature

• Real-time communication and notifications

• Available on Desktop, Android and IOS

Tameday 

Tameday is the all-in-one workspace for teams and small businesses that are struggling to manage their projects and workloads with various separate tools and email- Bringing everything into one place

Tameday helps you to:

• Get rid of using email for internal communication by using Tameday's built-in chat feature.

• Keep your work and to-dos in one place within Projects,

• Communicate and share files with your team who are working remotely.

• Keep in contact with your clients by allowing them to see how projects are progressing,

• Keep you on track with to-dos, discussions, project due dates and your own personal calendar.

Wrike

Wrike is a perfectly illustrative example of how to integrate a favorite task management tool with time tracking software so that it could enhance your remote team productivity.

Wrike helps prioritize projects easily due to its intuitive design. It keeps all the info on tasks you perform. Additionally, when applying integrations in Wrike, you can:

• Estimate the project resources with precision,

• Adjust timelines for specific tasks,

• Reassign tasks to accommodate urgent requests

• Tailor your tasks to projects goals.

ClickUp 

It is a productivity platform that helps you create tasks and plan your projects. While implementing ClickUp, you have the unique opportunity to organize the scattered tasks into the unbroken workflow. 

With ClickUp, you get the abundance of options pertaining to:

• commenting on tasks,

• advanced task storing,

• agenda creating

• keeping your data as secure as you choose by regulating privacy settings.

Parabol

Parabol is software not bloated with extra functions as its primary goal is to provide your team with ‘free online retrospectives’. This part of project management practice is crucial for further planning and better estimation of the coming projects. This tool provides transparency of team priorities and accountability for task performance.

It is a perfect tool for remote work enabling cross-functional cooperation within a team by synching tasks in a dashboard on a daily basis. With Parabol, you can: 

• plan the day/week,

• mark the milestones upon a task completion (for monitoring the team progress),

• edit org charts

• send retrospectives (‘summary of a meeting’) email to your team

I Done This 

It is a tool suitable for remote teams of any size. It is of particular interest to managers who can monitor top team accomplishments in real-time, and, hence, save tons of time on holding meetings. 

Applying this software, your team gets access inside the app to:

• commenting on their tasks,

• generating word clouds marking the most frequent task components,

• notifications of a reminder email (‘What have you done today?’) for sharing the daily accomplishments

• "visuals," which breakdown accomplished tasks with color coding

Monday 

Suitable for any team size, it is a tool that will let you plan your tasks on a timeline so that nothing will fall between slots, point assignees and, thus, enhance accountability, and collaborate instantly for increased business productivity. 

The featured Monday options that you will surely like include the opportunity:

• to update the status on the task,

• to choose a customizable template for your sprints from the impressively big selection,

• Email notifications – get notified by email

Clarizen 

It is a team management solution designed to facilitate remote team collaboration. The software provides instrumental features to unite resources for more productive planning.

Implementing this tool means that your team can apply:

• reporting templates,

• creating their own dashboards,

• tracking tasks of various kinds in real-time

• adjusting the time and resource allocation to current business goals in terms of project profitability

Quip 

It is a productivity suite that unites spreadsheets and documents into the shared folders.

It is perfect in terms of goal settings for your remote team. It facilitates collaboration by sending reminders and instant sharing documents from one place. Your team will not have to dig deep to retrieve the documents.

Quip is accessible across any device so that you and your team can work from any place. Applying Quip, you can create:

• Project plans

• Territory plans

• Checklists

• Meeting notes

• Documentation

You can work over multiple projects: the sidebar is available from any screen in Quip so you can easily access your work, your favorites, and your teammates.

Teamwork

Teamwork Projects is an intuitive, feature-rich project management tool that lets your team reduce the complexity of collaboration.

It allows you to work together with context, transparency, and accountability — and with increased visibility and improved communication, you can keep collaboration at the core of everything you do.

Most Exciting Features 

• Collaborative workspace

• Flexible and feature-rich

• Instant messaging with Embedded Chat

• Portfolio feature to help you oversee multiple projects

• Resource management

LeadGen 

LeadGen App is a lead capture form-builder tool for digital marketers. It helps marketers build custom lead form and test them for best conversion rates. LeadGen App works via form embed code that works on all major landing pages and website editor platforms and via direct link sharing as well. The forms can be integrated to marketing software like CRM and email campaign tools.

LeadGen App also provides an analytics dashboard to check and improve the performance of the forms. Run AB tests to compare conversion rates of different form variations on a single landing page. Maximize your lead generation potential by testing & iterating your forms.

Helpjuice 

No matter where employees are working from, they need to be able to access the information required to do their jobs. Furthermore, simple tasks like keeping on top of the latest company updates or working on a document collaboratively can be difficult for employees working remotely.

This is where Helpjuice’s knowledge base software can help as it allows you to capture, store, and share company knowledge with ease regardless of where your employees are located. Your knowledge base can include HR procedures, training courses, team forums, webinars, and more – all of which ensures your remote team is able to effectively do their jobs.

In terms of document collaboration, Helpjuice offers a clean and simple interface that lets employees quickly create documents and co-edit them while keeping track of previous versions and authors. Additionally, Helpjuice’s commenting feature helps facilitate additional collaboration as it allows authors to select any text within a document and leave a note with any questions or thoughts.

Highlights:

• Create an easy-to-use internal knowledge base with best practices, tips, and onboarding documents
• Allow multiple authors to work on a single article and have each revision recorded.
• Commenting features that include the ability to comment on any text within an article and have those comments emailed to all author collaborators.
• Advanced analytics provides article insights as well as the performance of users/groups to help you better understand what employees are looking for and the most common questions.
• Google-like search helps employees find information quickly
• SaaS-based software so that employees can access information regardless of location or device

Soapbox

Imagine if every team meeting had a shared goal, agenda, notes, and follow-up? Soapbox's shared one-on-one and team meeting agenda software makes it easy to have productive and collaborative meetings. Some key features include:

• Collaborate on shared online agendas
• Meetings notes are integrated with your agenda
• Real-time commenting
• Suggested meeting questions
• Assign and track next-steps
• Post-meeting surveys to rate and track meeting effectiveness
• Integrates with Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google, mobile, Asana, Todoist and more!

Wrapping it up:

A trend for global cooperation and delivering your service internationally are motivating factors for many companies to increase remote hiring. With the tech tools presented in our list, remote team collaboration is unlimited due to enabling uninterrupted workflow, effective communication and full accountability of the work result metrics.

Also read Discord Screen Share and Video call: A Complete, 10-Step Guide

Originally Published at Troop Messenger 

“You can use the free version of Slack for as long as you like and there’s no limit to the number of members who can be invited.”

That’s what Slack’s pricing page reads once you get started. In all their PRs and advertisements', Slack has time and again claimed that their free tier offers an unlimited number of users.

In short, Slack unapologetically mentions that there is no limit. You can add ‘as many people’ as you want to.

But is it really true?

Is Slack Misleading people about its Free ‘Unlimited Plan’?

We came across a couple of Slack users who have reported that there’s a limit with a freemium plan, despite what Slack says.

For Example, David Chen, who wanted to build a massive Slack community of 10K+ users, found that the service starts fizzling out around 5000 users, and poops out completely after onboarding 8,500 users.

Quincy Larson added 8462 users to his Slack channel, and after that, the channel stopped accepting new users.

8462 sure is a great number for a medium-sized community - but it’s a limit, which Slack has disguised so far, and done nothing to disclose.

Users hoping to build a 10k+ community through freemium plans should look for a Slack alternative.

This brings us to our next question:

Should you Pay for Slack?

Slack is a great office collaboration tool, without any doubt. For many businesses operating virtually, Slack has offered benefits they can’t live without.

Slack is where work happens. It has the most user-friendly UI and UX, and it is relatively easier to navigate through.

And then, to top it all, Slack offers 1000s of integrations and apps. In a literal sense, it is a process automation heaven. If you implement enough apps, you’ll be able to complete 95% of your work requirements inside Slack.

That’s cool, right?

But here’s the thing - there are as many as 20+ Slack Alternatives that are offering similar features.

Some of these alternatives are cheaper than Slack while some others are more expensive.

Since most of the Slack alternatives are doing pretty much the same job, it is natural to wonder whether or not it is worth paying for Slack?

And that’s the intent behind writing this article. Sit tight and read as we tear-down slack’s pricing plans, and help you make a better decision:
 

Tearing Down Slack’s Pricing: Freemium Vs Paid Plans

The secret of Slack’s pricing model is very much evident on their pricing page.

Slack Pricing Teardown of Freemium Plan Model :

Ideal For: Individual Use, Small Groups

Pricing: $US0 

When a new customer joins Slack, they have multiple options to choose from. It is free as long as you want a Slack Workspace with an unlimited number of people.

In the free slack pricing plans, you don’t have to pay a penny but you are restricted with limited features. Onboarding your team on Slack for free sounds cool. But this freemium plan has limitations:

1. 10k searchable messages:

This may seem enough for very small teams or members who don’t use team chats that often. But even for small-sized teams, the 10k limit is insufficient.

If you're a team of 10 people, who generate about 2k messages a week, chances are you won’t be able to restore any of the conversations after a month.

Imagine you need to report a document you shared with your colleague for two months, but not being able to refer back to it because you’ve reached the 10k

limit. You’ll have to upgrade to a standard plan to reveal search message history.

2. 1-to-1 video calls:

If your slack workspace works on the freemium plan, forget about conducting team conferences because you cannot do more than 1-to-1 video calls.

You cannot host big meetings or webinars. Now that can be a real bummer!

3. 10 apps & integrations

Integrations make Slack better and more powerful than others. Slack has been constantly adding new tools and with paid plans, you Slack integrates with almost every popular tool.

With Freemium, you’ve access to 10 integrations. If you want to use the 11th app, you’ll have to delete old integration and stay in the limit of 10 apps.

4. Two-factor authentication

Whether you choose a freemium or a paid plan, Slack won’t let it’s users compromise with security. For an added security layer, all Slack users can turn-on 2FA for their Slack account.

This means that if your password is stolen or compromised, you’ll have peace of mind that only you’ll be able to log in again.

Freemium Plan Verdict: If you can compromise with limited searchable messages and limited integrations, Slack can be a great pick for small-sized teams.

Slack Pricing Teardown of Standard Subscription Model

Ideal For: Small and Medium-Sized Businesses

Global Pricing: $US6.67 per active user per month billed annually. Or  $US8 per active user per month billed monthly.       

Pricing (For Indian Customers):  $US2.67 per active user per month billed annually Or $US3.20 per active user per month billed monthly.                               

 If you can spend $US2.67 per active user per month, you can get rid of the above limitations, and enjoy additional features. You can avail benefits like Unlimited message archive, Group calls (up to 15 participants) with screen sharing, Unlimited apps, Guest accounts, and shared channels.

1. Full archive: There’s no 10k messages limit with the Standard plan. Your team’s entire message history is now in one place and the entire conversation is searchable.

2. Unlimited apps: Again, Standard Subscribers of Slack educational pricing can integrate applications beyond the number 10. Integrate Slack with as many as 1000+ tools from different categories and bring all your work into one place. You don’t have to miss out on anything.

3.Google authentication: A standard plan makes it easy for Slack users to log in to their Workspace. Hence, it reduces the password load. Those who use G Suite can have their team members sign in to Slack Workspace using their existing Google sign-on.

4.Guest access: Slack’s Standard pricing plan makes it easy for companies to connect with vendors, retailers, and people from outside the company. Such people can be given guest access and invited to one or multiple Slack channels.

 Additional Benefits of Standard Plan:

• Custom retention policies

• Forward emails into Slack

• Priority support

• Group voice and video calls

• User groups  

• Custom profiles Screen sharing

Slack Pricing Teardown of Plus Subscription Model

Ideal For: Large-Sized Businesses that require advanced admin control

Global Pricing: $US12.50 per active user per month billed annually.

Pricing (For Indian Customers): $US5 per person per month billed annually. Or $US6 per person per month billed monthly. 

Slack has a Plus Plan for large businesses and companies with a requirement of business-level features that can help the teams grow. Apart from all the benefits of a standard subscription, Slack’s Plus users can avail exclusive features like:

Keep a little, keep a lot: With a plus plan, Slack users get the option to customize their archival preferences and message retention. There’s more to control as compared to the standard plan.

Though custom message retention settings, they get a flexible option when it comes to deciding how many messages you want to keep, and how much history you want to delete. There’s also an option to keep a tab of deletion logs and message edit.

1. Data exports: Data export feature is great for companies who have got legal obligations to archive messages, or businesses operating in a regulated industry.

Team admins of leaders, on Slack Plus Plan, can request access to the entire team’s message history. The history can be either direct messages between team members or conversation in the private channels.

2. SSO and provisioning: With Plus plan, you get to Integrate Slack workspace with your existing SAML 2.0 identity provider. This is suitable for companies that wish to ensure secure access to their team.

Apart from SAML, Plus members also have a built-in connection to many SSO providers. There is also an option to use a custom or own SAML solution.

3. 99.99% uptime: With 99.99% uptime, Slack is operational irrespective of the time zone. For the plus subscribers, Slack assures providing a guaranteed uptime, an industry-leading standard of server availability, and a financially backed service level agreement (SLA).

4. 24/7 support: With the standard plan, you get priority support, which means your queries will be catered before the queries made by freemium subscribers.

And with the Plus plan, you can reach the support team anytime, and have access to 24/7 coverage and guaranteed response, in the shortest time possible, from their customer experience team.

Slack Pricing Teardown of Enterprise-Grade Model

Ideal For: Very Large Sized Businesses that require advanced admin control Businesses operating in highly regulated industries Enterprises requiring unlimited workspace with a centralized control

 Pricing: There’s no standard or flat rate for slack enterprise grid pricing. It depends on the specific requirements and other factors. You’d need to contact the Slack Sales team to get an estimate.

1. Scale with unlimited workspaces

Considering the nature of large enterprises, a single Slack workspace might be insufficient.

Hence, Slack for business pricing is specially designed to provide multiple teams of an organization with a focused and separate place to work.

Unlimited workspaces in Slack provide teams and their members access to the people, appropriate information and apps which matter the most to their projects.

2. Build bridges between teams

With an Enterprise plan, businesses can centralized control to create communication structures. The structure mirrors the way your organization works.

Channels from different workspaces can be shared when needed, and you can also collaborate with outside vendors whenever required.

3. Find information across your company

As an admin of all workspaces of your organization, you can also enable members of any team or selected workspace to find the data, content, information, and people they need to get work done with.

You can provide them with access to direct messaging, organization-wide search, and announcement channels.

4. Fine-tune your security settings

From a single view and centralized control, the chief administrators of all workspaces can manage security, structure, policy, and compliance for the whole organization.

The same can be done for specific workspaces. In short, the organization admin has complete control of the security and compliance of any or all workspaces.

And If you are looking for a cheaper Slack Alternative…
Like I mentioned earlier, there are as many as 20+ Slack Alternatives that are offering similar features.

Some of these alternatives are cheaper than Slack while some others are more expensive. One of the best Slack Alternatives I can recommend is Microsoft Teams and Troop Messenger.

Conclusion:

If you’re looking for a cheaper team communication tool that helps you automate your workflow as well, then Troop Messenger can be a decent choice.

By the way, you can try out Troop Messenger right now. For free! Just sign up and you get to Experience a 30-Day Enterprise Free Trial.

Final Words:

Slack pricing tiers aren't the best, but with the features and extensive integration it has got to offer, it’d be unfair to say it’s not worth it.

The real power of Slack lies in its integrations and apps. With Slack, you can do so much more. If your work requires team collaboration, you should pay for Slack, because eventually there’s so much for you and your team.

Slack and its integrations will save your team time and increase productivity. So if you are looking to improve the time efficiency and productivity of your team, Slack is the right tool.

And if you’re looking for a communication tool, then you can opt for Troop Messenger, and avail similar benefits.

Originally Published at Troop Messenger 

If you play PC games online, it’s safe to assume that you are familiar with Discord.

If not, this article can be a great resource because Discord has some of the best screen-sharing features, which can benefit both gamers and non-gamers.

You and up to 9 friends can simultaneously screen share on the discord server. At one time, 10 Discord users can conduct a live video chat, while they all are sharing their desktop screens, simultaneously.

Discord Screen Share feature has made Discord an incredibly powerful software for virtual collaboration, especially for teams that require online meetings and video calling from remote locations.

Discord has literally changed the way video conferences work. It’s peak concurrent users recently topped at 8.2 million.

 
Since Discord is spreading its wings as a real competitor of business communication and collaboration tools, we’ve got quite a few queries on ‘How to share screen on discord.’

In this article, we are going to show you 10 Easy-to-follow steps to configuring and using video calling and screen sharing feature of Discord:

What is Discord Application?

Discord is inarguably one of the most commonly used communication tools for online streaming and gaming.

Essentially, it’s a Skype Alternative for gamers, that is specifically designed to help the gamers coordinate and communicate through private servers which allow users to voice-chat and text with other people.

Discord application primarily functions with mobile and desktop platforms, and combines the features of:

• A message board
• A chat room
• A VoIP chatting system

Discord’s popularity has increased over the past few years and the app has over 250 million registered users.

Discord Screen Share

One of the most powerful features of Discord is Screen Sharing, which was added in August 2017. The screen sharing feature allows users on the Discord chat server to view and interact with your screen.

Alongside the screen sharing, you can also conduct video calling, simultaneously, on the chat servers that is a great in-built feature of Discord. The users do not need to install another software, a discord screen share extension or integrate a third-party application

Screen Sharing & Video Camera Features: On Desktop

If you are using Discord on PC, you can avail the following features:

1. Share Sound:
While you are sharing your discord or computer screen on Discord Server, you can also opt-out of sound sharing. This feature helps a great deal when you’re in a public place, and you want to cut down on the background noise to avoid disturbance.

You can opt-in or opt-out of sound sharing by toggling the sound icon between Off and On.

2. Swap from Screen Share to Video:
An icon located at the bottom of the video screen enables Discord users to swap from a screen share to only video calling, and vice versa.

At anytime during the conversation, you can swap between the two. When swapping your computer screen, you can opt for which monitor screen to share. You can also opt for sharing only a specific application window.

3. Video Marquee
Discord Users who wish to see only a specific video and opt-out of seeing others can make use of the Video Marquee feature.

For this, you’d need to click on the user’s avatar, which will make the video to pop-out among others.

Screen Sharing & Video Camera Features: On Smartphone

If you are using Discord on your smartphone, you can avail the following features :

Unfortunately, the screen sharing feature is not available for Discord Smartphone users. So, you cannot avail of discord screen share for mobile.

Toggle Mute:

Should you wish to tune-out of the background or surrounding noise, the Toggle Mute feature can be a savior.

In the smartphone version of Discord, a user when on a video call, can mute their phone’s mic to prevent the outgoing sound on a chat server.

Tune Camera:

While making a video call through Discord mobile app, you can tune your camera, start and stop it from functioning at any time.

Similarly, there’s also an option to switch from front to back camera, and vice versa.

Audio Output (only for iOS):
This is an exclusive feature for Discord’s iPhone application. Audio Output is located on the top-right corner, next to the Switch Camera icon.

Using this, you can swap the audio output between your wireless headset or iPhone’s default speaker.

Step-by-Step Guide For Video Calling With Some Hacks

In this section, you’ll learn about the different ways to share your computer screen with another discord user.

To initiate video calling and screen sharing, install the Discord Application in your device, and configure video and audio hardware on Discord client.

a) Camera Settings

Step 1: Find the ‘Setting’ icon at the bottom left side of your screen, and click on the settings.

Step 2: To adjust your Video and Voice chat settings, look for the ‘Voice and Video’ Option under the ‘App Settings’ category on the left-hand menu.

Step 3: Should you wish to change the video settings, scroll down to find ‘Video Settings’ and opt for ‘Video Camera Hardware’. You can also do a test video.

b) Connecting with Users

Step 4: On the top-left panel, find Discord icon, and navigate to ‘Homepage.’ Click on the ‘Friends’ icon to open the list of friends on your discord server.

Step 5: Hover over the user’s name, and opt for Video calling.

Step 6: Click on the Video icon to enable a video conference with the user

Step-by-Step Guide For Discord Screen Sharing With Some Hacks

For discord screen share in the server, you’d need to initiate a Video call using the steps defined above.

Let’s proceed to Step 6 and see how you can enable screen sharing via Discord, and peek into your friend’s desktop.

Step 7: As the video calling is in process, look for a screen sharing icon present on the bottom of your screen. You can identify a screen-sharing icon that resembles a computer display with an arrow at the center.

Step 8: Click on this icon to enable screen sharing of your PC, and opt between sharing ‘Your Entire Screen’ or ‘Application Window.’

Step 9: You can further interchange share screen discord and video calling features by clicking on the same icon.

Step 10: To Stop sharing the screen, you can hover back to the ‘screen share’ icon and opt for ‘More Screen Share Options,’ and ‘Turn Off Screen Sharing.’

Discord Frequently Asked Questions

Q1. What to do when screen sharing doesn’t work?

Discord sure is a great tool to enable screen sharing and video calling, but the screen sharing feature has been reported to have some bugs.

‘Discord screen share black screen’ bugs are common and reported by multiple discord users on the server.

Many Discord users have reported this issue, where the screen either freezes or turns black. It can be rectified within a few seconds. Here’s how:

• The first option is to restart the PC. Open the Discord application again. Restart the Video Call and Screen Sharing.

• The second option is to look for GPU, because in some cases, the screen turns black because of automatic switching of GPU. For this, update the GPU driver to latest version and restart the application.

• Clear all the junk files and cache of Discord application, so you do not face any difficulty while sharing a screen with someone.

• If the issue still persists or you notice discord screen share flickering, it’s safe to assume that the application has been corrupted, so the next step would be uninstalling the application completely, and reinstalling it.

Q2. Discord Screen Share Audio Not Working

Another commonly asked FAQ about Discord Screen Sharing is about Discord Screen Share Audio. Disable audio is a bug encountered by users during screen sharing or video calling on the chat server.

We’ve received queries about discord screen share audio not working.

With the latest updated, this bug has reportedly been fixed, but if you still face a similar issue, here’s how you can resolve it:

• Usually, the audio issues can be resolved by confirming whether or not the Sound button is toggled ON.

• When sharing screen opt for a particular ‘Application Window’ instead of ‘Entire Screen.’ This helps a great deal with avoiding sound issues.

• Clear all the junk files and cache of Discord application, so you do not face any difficulty while sharing a screen with someone.

• If the issue still persists and discord screen share has no audio, it’s safe to assume that the application has been corrupted, so the next step would be uninstalling the application completely, and reinstalling it.

Final Words

Discord, undoubtedly, has emerged as one of the highly popular and top performing chat applications for gamers.

While it has earned it’s identity for text and voice calling features, Discord Screen sharing is definitely a good addition.

Using Discord, gamers can interact and learn a great deal from each other via features like VoIP audio and Video calling and Screen Sharing.

By following the 10-steps mentioned in this article, you can easily set up a video call with another discord user and share screen with them.

In case you’ve got more query about Discord features and functionalities, let us know in the comments section below, and we will scratch our next article on that topic.

Originally Published at Troop Messenger 

Storage Almost Full!

‘To Ensure normal use, please delete files to free up internal storage space.’

I am sure you receive a ‘storage full’ warning once in a while unless your device is equipped with a cloud file-sharing system.

Receiving these storage warnings can be frustrating, especially when you’ve important files that you cannot risk losing.

That’s where File Sharing Sites come into the picture. With these storage systems, you can transfer large-sized files conveniently, simplify server upkeep, and easily collaborate on-the-go.

Cloud File sharing, apart from individual users, has also become a key function in Enterprise use, which explains why:

• 39% of cloud business data is used for file-sharing purposes.
• 34% of uploaded data have sensitive and confidential information that includes personally identifiable information.
• An average company shares documents and files with over 800 different online domains.

What is File Sharing with pros and cons

With File Sharing Software, users can have controlled and centralized visibility of files at different stages of the data lifecycle, which helps with finding, protecting, editing, sharing, and managing sensitive data at any point in time.

Pros of File Sharing

• Transfer small & large files over a secure network connection.
• Easily collaborate with multiple people across the globe.
• No need to maintain a central online file server

Cons of File Sharing

• Bandwidth requirement is often costly.
• Hard to trace revisions once the file has been shared publicly.
• Higher risk of acquiring malware or ransomware from a remote file

Types of File Sharing:

• File transfer protocol programs (FTP):
  Example: Cyberduck, Mozilla Firefox

• Peer-to-peer networks:
  Example: Skype, Slack, Troop Messenger

• Removable storage media
  Example: Memory sticks, memory cards, optical discs, and removable hard disks

• Online file-sharing services
  Example: Box, OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud Drive, Tresorit

How to Select Your Platform: 

Choosing an appropriate File sharing Platform is all about understanding the storage, sharing, and synchronization needs of your enterprise.

You’d need a thorough understanding of all the key features, pros, and cons of each file-sharing software to make a final selection.

In this article, we’ve done the same. Consider this article a directory of top shortlisted file sharing sites. Go through the pros, cons, and pricing, of each tool and select your ideal platform, keeping in mind the following features:

• Security and Encryption
• Compatibility on different OS and Devices
• Storage Limitations
• Pricing

Box

Box was literally the first-ever cloud-based media storage service and file-sharing sites to grab the attention. Box allowed it’s users to centralize all their data. It also offered easy collaboration on documents shared.

It is now known as secure content management and business collaboration tool.

Pros:

• Meets compliance requirement
• Integrated with an enterprise security system
• Allows Workflow Configuration
• Work at unprecedented Speed

Cons

• Starter plans have very limited features
• File previewing from computers and devices is complex

Pricing:

• Individual Plans: Starts at INR 785 per month
• Business Plans: Starts at INR 389 per user per month
• Business Plus: Starts at INR 1881 per user per month

Ideal For:

Enterprises and Large-Scale companies that require organisation of huge data systems across different locations.

2. DropBox

DropBox offers a lot more than secure file storage. Dropbox, as a file-sharing website, has established its identity as a state-of-the-art workspace where teams, content, and tools come together to collaborate.

Dropbox allows creation, storage, and sharing of cloud content from Google Docs, Slides, Sheets, MS Office files, alongside traditional files.

Pros:

• Large network and number of users
• Secure sharing of files and documents
• Integrated desktop experience
• Files transferred across devices are always encrypted
• Team collaboration, anywhere, at anytime
• Easy Integration with tools like Slack and Zoom
• Integrations with over 100,000 third party applications

Cons:

• New collaboration features and solutions are confusing
• Personal plan offers only 2GB space for Dropbox Transfer

Pricing:

• Standard: 5 TB of secure space:$15 / user/month, starting at 3 users
• Advanced: Unlimited Space: $25 / user/month, starting at 3 users

Ideal For:

• Medium and Small-scale companies which do not need advanced features
• Users who are looking for a secure space to back up their critical data
• P2P file sharing

3. Google Drive

Google Drive’s Enterprise Plan offers a simple and secure way for businesses and teams to work together and collaborate over a project in the cloud.

Drive was unarguably the first companies that brought together document collaboration and cloud. It’s Google Docs Suite made it a huge success.

This file-sharing program boosts collaboration with features that allow users to request approval, track revisions, and assign tasks.

Google Drive is 50% faster when it comes to finding files. Search features use AI to understand the need and surface only relevant content.
 

Pros:

• Google Docs, Sheets, Slides and more
• Enterprise Grade Security
• Enterprise-Grade Management tools
• Can be accessed via desktop, mobile, web
• 24/7 email and phone support
• Compatible with more than 100 file types
• Organize Automatically

Cons:

• For Collaboration across Google Drive files, a Google Account is compulsory
• Sharing Settings can be complex at times

Pricing:

$8 per active user per month

Ideal For:

• People having a Gmail account
• Small and Medium organizations
• Peer to Peer File Sharing

Originally Published at Troop Messenger .

Business enterprises always find better ways for team communication and collaboration. Instead of writing heavy emails daily, chat simplifies team conversations and organizes team tasks more efficiently. Many office chat apps for teams ensures a wide range of collaborative features for quick communication.

He couldn’t have been more precise because time and again teamwork has proved to increase the efficiency of projects by distributing the workload so that great results are achieved on time and with quality. However, hiring skilled resources is just the beginning of building a good team.

Once a team is created, an organization needs to provide the teams with the platforms and resources to make their collaboration continuous. Besides providing good equipment and facility, there has to be a forum or medium where ideas can be exchanged and peer reviews can be sought. And that is exactly where Best Business Communication Platforms need to be deployed. Team chat apps are carved out to provide functionalities essential for communication in team projects.

However, choosing the right team chat app among the hoard of such apps can be a tedious task involving a lot of time.

Therefore, to save time–the most precious possession these days–we’ll provide an overview of some of the best office chat software that businesses should deploy for better communication in team projects.

Troop Messenger  (The Office user’s Team Chat App)

Attain optimum communication at your workplace with the new instant messaging collaboration application-The Troop Messenger. The design idea of Troop Messenger is to collaborate, share, and communicate new thoughts among fellow employees of every organization. Small, medium, large or any size of organizations can give a sure try of Troop Messenger for their endless office chat communication and collaboration.

Tech Times, Newyork, had listed Troop Messenger as one of the best Instant Messenger For Businesses In 2019.

Troop Messenger is a cross-platform application, as it is available on iOS, Android, Mac, Linux, and Windows. The best part is that it is available in three pricing plans. Its sign-up process is completely hassled free. Anyone can download it for free and start their hands on the application.

It facilitates highly workable features to support the office chat experience of the user by offering highly secured end-to-end chat encryption. Its bouquet of features includes Screen share, Burnout, Forkout, Video calling, Favourite contacts, Groups, etc.,

Flock ( The Affordable Team Chat App)

Flock is an all-in-one messaging and collaboration tool built especially for small businesses. The Goal is to help businesses communicate better so they can build a culture of transparency and speed within teams.

With Flock, teams can exchange messages, share files, video-conference, manage tasks, and centralize access to a variety of business tools and services. It brings people together and provides an easy and secure place for them to get work done, from anywhere.

Flock is used by over 32,000 businesses of all sizes around the world. We have a strong presence in all English speaking markets globally - the United States, India, the UK, Canada, Australia, and mainland Europe lead with the greatest share of our user-base.

Flock offers applications within every business function and organization size. Flock finds rapid adoption by teams in non-technical business functions as well, owing to its simple user interface and easy learning curve.

ezTalks ( The Reliable Team Chat App)

There is no doubt that ezTalks meetings is one of the most popular chat apps, which helps to increase real-time interactions and improve collaboration with your partners, your friends, customers and so on. It presents a way to cut the cost and chat effectively.

Free & Easy
Anyone can download it for free and it is completely easy-to-use.

Flexible
ezTalks is compatible with Windows, Mac, Android, iOS devices and browsers.

Reliable
It is a reliable platform with highly secured end-to-end encryption so that you can talk freely.

Seamless
ezTalks not only provides high-quality video and audio chat but also offers free instant messaging service with text or emojis in private or in public over the internet seamlessly.

Interactive
When chatting, you can also share a screen or a whiteboard to engage those you’re chatting with. It is also feasible to record the whole or partial chatting sessions for reference or sharing.

All these aim to create a memorable and amazing chat experience to each user. As for the paid version, it only costs $10/mo/host for up to 100 participants. Alternatively, you can start a 100-participant chat free-plan in 30 seconds. Sign up free NOW!

Basecamp (The Project-focused Team Chat App)

The campfire was merged with Basecamp sometime back but continues to offer some of the best features for team projects.

It is considered as a group chat tool for Internet-based companies by allowing managers to assign tasks, group notes, and download files.

Besides, it also offers regular chat features such as group chat and conference calls.

It is priced at only $99 a month, and whether one has a team of 5 or 50, that price doesn’t change.