Working with other people: the top 3 free online tools

When you collaborate with others, whether it is your own team or a group of suppliers, being supported by the right software can make the process both simpler and quicker. We have looked at the tools that are available out there and picked out the ones we think are most relevant for self-storage companies. We have put together a list of the top three tools to consider, plus a fourth which beats all the others on integration possibilities.

Evernote – your online notebook

If you carry a notebook around for notes from meetings and store visits, contact names, or for any other reason, chances are you’ve also experienced what life feels like when that notebook goes missing. Without dwelling too much on the pain that this kind of loss can cause, let us just say that Evernote can be the solution. It is a system that allows you to write notes in virtual notebooks, that are available online, either through a website or via an app on your phone. You can have a myriad of notebooks on different topics to help keep yourself organised and you can even share your notebooks with others, who you invite. You choose which notebooks to share, so you can keep some private and others shared. When you type, Evernote automatically saves what you are writing, so you don’t need to worry about losing information if you forget to press the Save button.

Want to give it a try? Access it on evernote.com.

Asana – your project management taken care of

Asana is an online project management tool, with an accompanying app, that covers all the basics of project management. You can create several simultaneous projects on Asana and share these with others, setting up a project work group for each of them. You then make action lists, allocate tasks to different members of your project group, and you even get an email notification of what others are up to, so you can track progress. This system is great for any kind of project that involves external players, whether it’s a marketing campaign or a new store opening, because it gives you one shared space for all project-related tasks. It will cut back on emails and phone calls and make your process quicker and simpler. Apart from the classic project management tasks, Asana can also be used for meeting agendas and goal tracking.

Want to give it a try? Access it on asana.com.

Slack – your sharpest communication tool

If you are working closely with others, you will have experienced that email can be your friend and foe! Lots of emails, bouncing back and forth, with several different topics in one mail. A few weeks later you try to find that reference number, code or other important information that you received and you spend ages digging it up. This is what Slack helps you avoid. Essentially, Slack is a chat or messaging service, that allows you to have conversations going on several different topics at the same time. You create a “channel”, which is a topic for conversation, and then invite the people you want to talk to about it. Any idea, comment or thought on that particular topic is posted in that channel, and if someone wants to add something about a different topic, they choose another, appropriate channel. This allows you to have complex conversations over a long period of time, without losing focus or overview. Slack conversations are saved and archived, so that you can always access them later if you need to.

Want to give it a try? Access it on slack.com.

Supercharge collaboration with an integrated solution

If you are already using these or other tools for communication, project management and information sharing then you may also have run in to the question of wondering what is where; did I ask that question in the chat or in the project space? Where was that phone number that someone posted a few weeks ago? If you’ve reached this stage in online collaborations, it is probably time to start looking at an integrated solution instead. 

For this, we recommend the Atlassian products, which comprise software like JIRA, Confluence, HipChat and more. Our experience with the Atlasssian suite is that it is both affordable, stable and flexible. That is why we have started offering to host it in our private cloud, so you don’t only get the benefit of integration but also the benefit of knowing exactly where your company sensitive information is held and what security is in place to protect it. 

Sounds interesting? Get in touch with us for a chat about whether an integrated Atlasssian solution could benefit your business.