Our team collaboration and communication patterns have undergone a sea change in the last year, and 2021 will witness several companies reaching a new level of collaboration maturity. An important part of this process is choosing the best team collaboration software app for your organisation, addressing your industry’s specific use cases as well as satisfying generic productivity requirements.
Before we deep dive into the best team collaboration software apps that belong on your shortlist for 2021, let’s look at a few trends on the road ahead.
What Does the Team Collaboration Software Market Have In Store for 2021?
In the last four quarters, the team collaboration software market gained a massive leg up due to the pandemic. Valued at just $13.44 billion in 2019, team collaboration software will be worth almost $36 billion globally by 2027. While this means plenty of options at every pricing segment and industry use case, it also makes your decision of selecting the best team collaboration software app more difficult. There are three reasons why this decision requires careful and judicious assessment in 2021:
- Traditionally, team collaboration and in-person presence were inextricably linked. According to a PwC survey, 87% of employees cited “team collaboration” as a top reason for being present on-site. The software app you choose must be able to recreate a similar experience remotely
- Team collaboration patterns are among the first things to change when going remote, more than even productivity. According to Buffer’s remote work survey, 41% of employees felt their collaboration and communication patterns were the #1 work aspect to change last year
- Collaborative tasks typically take the biggest productivity hit. BCG found that collaborative tasks are now less productive or efficient than before COVID-19, at a rate much higher than individual or managerial tasks. Team collaboration software apps are essential to addressing this challenge
Keeping these drivers in mind, let us now consider the best software apps in this segment and how they could improve team collaboration at your organisation.
The Top 7 Collaboration Software for Teams in 2021
- Microsoft Teams – The best all-rounder for enterprises
Teams has rapidly garnered a spot among the leading collaboration apps available today, in just 4 years of existence. It has over 115 million daily active users and is best suited for large enterprise use cases. You can hold large-scale collaboration sessions such as online classes or company town halls, you can link your existing PSTN infrastructure or opt for Microsoft’s own cloud-based telephony, and you can enjoy a rich suite of analytics and integration services.
It also helps that Microsoft Teams has a familiar UI with an easy learning curve (although you might require some admin effort during setup), and has a free version.
- Zoom – The best software for video collaboration
In many ways, you could call 2020 the year of Zoom, with adoptions skyrocketing to cross the 300 million daily meeting participant mark in April. The platform can support up to 1000 participants in a single meeting with the Large Meetings add-on, and the UX remains among the simplest in the industry. Joining a meeting is as simple as clicking on an invitation link, and like Teams, there is a free version as well. Zoom’s value proposition doesn’t end at meetings alone. It also has a powerful Chat functionality which is a close competitor to Teams and Slack in terms of chat-based team collaboration.
- Cisco Webex Teams – The best team collaboration solution with a hardware focus
Webex Teams is an incredibly scalable answer to your team collaboration needs from Cisco. As a standalone platform, it supports multi-channel communication and collaboration, through chat, video, whiteboard, file sharing and more, with segregated Spaces for discussions on a common topic.
But the true potential of Cisco Webex Teams lies in the additional hardware offerings from the company, ranging from room kits to cameras, digital whiteboards, and an innovative collaboration display. With hybrid work being a predominant model in 2021, hardware-focused remote team collaboration could be an area of burgeoning interest.
- Google Workspace – The best set of standalone, integrated tools
Like Microsoft, Google offers one of the easiest learning curves – but its biggest USP is its standalone app-based model. You could pick and choose from chat, calendars, meetings, documents management, storage, email, intranet, and more, depending on your requirements. While there is no free option for business users, Google Workspace is among the best alternatives if robust storage and speedy implementation are at the top of your agenda.
- Slack – Still the best collaboration software to replace email
Launched in 2013, Slack was an early mover in the now-crowded team collaboration software segment and continues to be a market leader. Apart from in-app video calling, channels, private chat, and automated workflows, its pre-built integration library is one of the biggest reasons to implement Slack. To date, Slack has added over 2500 integrations to its library, which means it will fit seamlessly into most enterprise tech stacks. Slack also has a full-featured free edition, complete with 5GB of storage, 10 integrations, and up to 10,000 stored messages.
- Workplace from Facebook – The best software for social collaboration
Workplace takes a social approach to team communication and collaboration, recreating the familiar UI/UX of the consumer-grade edition. Your favourite capabilities like chat, group channels, calls, and video are organised into groups, private chat conversations, and user profile pages. The auto-translate capability from Facebook is available in Workplace as well, making it ideal for distributed and diverse teams.
- Avaya Spaces – The best software for enterprise telephony
Globally recognised as a contact centre and telephony solutions provider, Avaya introduced Spaces as a UCaaS offering.
The software is backed by Avaya’s proven telephony infrastructure that includes integrated web RTC, and cross-organisation calling. In terms of video, Avaya Spaces supports up to 1000 participants per meeting for an unlimited period of time. Importantly, Avaya has a patented technology for video performance boost in low bandwidth conditions – a must-have for remote team collaboration today.
These are the best team collaboration software apps to tackle the challenges of 2021 head-on. For more discussions and recommendations, check out our roundup of Slack alternatives and Microsoft Teams alternatives for 2021.
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