Best Virtual Collaboration Tools

chillibreeze writer — Jayapradha Rajprasath

Pursuit of knowledge is human endeavor. Internet offers a wealth of information and people rely a lot on it for their business. Virtual collaborative tools help people to collaborate with their peers for work and social networking purposes. Some of the tools about to be discussed in this article help global work force to function seamlessly with critical projects across geographies. Security and scalability are few technical hurdles that should be addressed while handling virtual collaboration tools. Instant messaging, online data storage and video conferencing are some of the methods that help globally spread teams to succeed.

Drop Box lets users to store their files in laptops, mobile, desktops and on their secure Dropbox website. The tool uses AES-256 encryption standard providing significant protection against security issues. The files are placed in a public folder and only people with access to link will be able to open it. Data loss is avoided as the tool keeps redundant backup of data. Any change made to files on the Dropbox folder are automatically synced across all machines, laptops and mobile devices which make collaboration a breeze at work. Moreover Dropbox also provides version control avoiding commotions caused when changes to file are made by multiple users. This online storage and data backup mechanism allows users to store critical files in home or office computers which acts as lifesaver for meeting deadlines when traveling.

Basecamp, a web based project management tool developed by 37 Signals has helped over 5 million people in completing 4 million projects. Communication is the key to successful completion of a project. Basecamp helps project teams to collaborate efficiently keeping all communications centralized, storing files in common place and tracking project milestones for effective management. This proprietary tool is compatible with most mobile devices, supports multiple languages and overcomes the barrier of having a global workforce. Basecamp provides version control, project scheduling, time tracking, and alerts with e-mail notification when a new file is added to the centralized folder.

Zoho is a suite of online application which provides group chat, private community discussions, secure web mail hosting and online project management software. Zoho Projects support milestone management; bug tracking and web conferencing with embed facilities to reach larger audiences. Zoho Docs enables project teams to maintain a repository of documents with a strong document version control using locking mechanism preventing overwriting to files.

Some of the best virtual collaboration tools discussed enhances business performance by improving work quality of global workforce. This is achieved thorough efficient collaboration over safe and secure mechanisms. The efficient file syncing and centralized data storage minimizes downtime and maximizes business productivity.

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Chillibreeze's disclaimer: This is a contributed article and was published on Chillibreeze in November, 2011. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the views of Chillibreeze as a company. Chillibreeze has a strict anti-plagiarism policy. Please contact us to report any copyright issues related to this article. The relevance of the facts and figures cited (if any) could change after a period of time.

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—About our writer:

JayaPradha has done her master’s degree in Information Systems and has worked as an IT Analyst for a renowned company. Currently based in the US, she has experience in technical writing and web content writing. She has written several short stories for kids, enjoys traveling and music.

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