3 Quintessential Aspects of Collaborative Tools for Startups

For start ups today, the purveying axiom remains the same since antiquity – how do startups do more with less. With growing mobility and now this nebulous cloud phenomenon, it seems that startups may be getting a leg up. In fact, collaboration between coworkers and departments – on-site and off – has never been easier than it is today.

While one can get lost in the thousands of apps, workflow dashboards and cloud-based tools for startups on the market, it seems that three characteristics remain the same across all fan-favorites: Usability, Availability and the ability of Real-Time. Here is a breakdown of the 3 key factors you should think about when choosing collaborative tools, apps or cloud-based workflow aides:

Must have’s for collaborative tools

1) Usability: We all have found wonderful tools out there to help us collaborate better, to track
projects and to keep everyone on the same page. With more of the workforce acclimated to the digital and computer world, most of the time these tools are fairly self-explanatory. Employees can learn a tool or app fairly quickly – particularly if they have used similar apps, software or tools in the past.

Yet, most of the issues with workflow and collaboration tools revolve around complexity too many menus, too many functions and just too much to worry about. In that respect, don’t be afraid of the tool-box approach – picking the right tool for the job rather than turning a screwdriver into a hammer.

Usability was one reason Creately became so popular with users. Contextual menu’s for less cluttered work space, Google image search integration, one click access to templates, 1-click create and connect of objects are just some of the features which makes Creately very easy to use.

2) Availability: With more of the actual work across today’s startups done from home, opposite coasts or off-site location, availability of these tools has become particularly important. What good is a collaboration tool if it can only be used in singular space and time? Where’s in the past – before the digital age – all collaboration pended on space and time constrictions, today’s business world does not wait.

Today’s startups depend on instantaneous access and deployment of information – whether to customers, coworkers or the digital space. In the past it may have been perfectly fine for a process or project to wait on the analog collaboration, today’s digital world takes no prisoners.So, think about how your collaboration tool can be accessed, how it will link vital processes and how you can spend less time finicking with access issues and just GET THINGS DONE.

Creately uses Amazon web services to ensure their web application is readily available to our users. Also they are the only web based diagram application to provide a desktop version of their software so users have offline access. With Creately you always have access to your diagrams.

3) Real-Time: The final component of raved-about collaborative tools, apps and software is the ability for real-time collaboration. Whether it’s collaboration for a creative process, decision making and meetings or even hard-data driven teamwork – real-time is essential.

Creately supports real-time collaboration so teams can be more efficient and productive. With real-time you can see each others changes instantly which leads to faster decisions and less confusions.

Just as in the case of availability, real-time collaboration aides, apps and cloud-based tools free us all from the primitive-past – allowing us to successfully move beyond the day-to-day wait on project or process completion. Obviously, if you have the choice between a tool that works in real-time and one that does not, use your millennial judgment and go for the gold.

This is a guest post by Zach Kremian, who writes about collaboration tools for Marketing Weekly.com. Check it out for more
information on cloud-based collaboration for startups and beyond. If you think you have great idea to share with our users contact us and with the topics.