7 Office Productivity Tools Your Business Must Try
Advances in technology have made it easy for businesses to use computers for repetitive tasks that used to consume a lot of manpower. Companies that leverage technology can produce goods and services at much cheaper rates due to reduced labor costs and increased productivity.
To stay competitive, you must find the right office productivity tools for your business. Each team is unique in the way they communicate and collaborate so a tool may be very useful to one team and useless to another. Management needs to understand a team’s dynamics, challenges, and goals. This helps them invest in the productivity tools that will maximize their team’s performance in your critical success factor.
Keep reading for seven of the best office productivity tools your company must try to improve your team’s efficiency.
1. Slack – The Time Saving Team Messaging Tool
Modern messaging tools can help your team complete a project much faster than if they were to rely on email or face-to-face communication. Slack, one of the best team messaging applications allows you to have organized group chats. Documents and photos can be securely shared, analyzed and decided upon in record time. Team members can also have one to one conversations away from the group.
One of the issues with email is that it is not designed for real-time communication and leads to a lot of wasted time as everyone in the group awaits responses from each other. Slack allows everyone to chime in with their contribution and response like they would in a regular meeting. This leads to discussions being closed faster.
In case you would like to try this office productivity tool you could get the basic version for free. The standard version is $6.67 per user per month and the plus version is $12.50 per user per month.
2. Zoom – The Ultimate Video Conferencing Tool
More and more businesses are allowing their employees to work remotely so video conferencing tools have become a must-have for companies. One of the best conferencing tool in the market is currently Zoom.
Zoom allows screen sharing in high definition, screen recording, and video streaming. It is free for one-to-one meetings, as well as group meetings with a maximum of 100 participants and a 40-minute time limit. This still works well as a great amongst office productivity tools when you’re out of the office.
3. Gmail – The Email Tool Your Business Requires
Email is one of the most widely used business communication tools. Your business needs to have proper email addresses for credibility. While email may not be great for quick group discussions, it is mentioned on the best office productivity tools list for keeping a record of communications with both internal and external clients.
Gmail for G-suite is a great email app because it can provide your company with customized email addresses. You can also get access to Google’s full suite of products including Google Drive, Google Docs and Google Sheets. Gmail for G-suite costs $6 per month.
4. Monday – The Simplest Project Management Tool
Successful project management involves the balanced assignment of work to team members and tracking to ensure that all work is delivered on time. Monday is one of the simplest project management tools on the market. It allows teams to track workflows and easily shows project deadlines, people responsible for tasks and team collaboration.
The tool is customizable and processes can be tailor-made for different departments such as sales, IT, HR, accounts, etc. The basic plan costs $39 a month, while the standard is only $49 a month and the professional one costs $79 a month. For larger enterprises, you can also get a custom-built app whose price will depend on the features required.
5. Google Drive – For Filing And Document Control
Modern businesses cannot afford to lose files or data. They require office productivity tools that can file and back up all their documents in the cloud. Google drive is amongst the best file sharing and document management apps in the market.
It backs up documents as your team works on them so that files can never be lost. It also makes access control very easy so that only people that need to view certain files get access to them.
Google Drive allows your team to collaborate on documents so that everyone can edit one document at the same time. You can also sync your documents across devices such that if your computer crashes you can continue working on a document using your phone. The best thing about google drive is that it is free for up to 15GB.
Be sure to integrate your Google Drive usage with the best document generation tools to make some dynamic software team-ups.
6. Canva– Design Simple Marketing Materials In House
Your team may need to quickly create graphics for presentations or social media marketing. Quality graphics can help you establish credibility with your clientele as well as distinguish you from your competitors. Canva has made it easy for anyone to design amazing graphics using its drag and drop templates.
The basic version of the tool is free however you can buy the professional version at $10 a month or the enterprise version at $30 a month.
7. QuickBooks – The Most Reliable Accounting Software
Accounting is a necessity for all businesses. Applications like QuickBooks allow you to record and track your expenses quickly so that you are always aware of the financial state of your company. QuickBooks has been the leading accounting software for small and medium businesses for many years now. In addition to traditional accounting software, the rise of online accounting platforms has provided businesses with even more accessible and efficient financial management solutions.
They continue to develop and perfect their features. This has helped them remain amongst the most important office productivity tools you require for your business.
QuickBooks allows you to produce financial reports, track income and expenses, and generate invoices. It also lets you manage your payroll. The basic version costs $12 per month while the more advanced versions cost $20, $35 and $75.
Investing In The Right Office Productivity Tools Can Yield Great Returns
No business can remain competitive without investing in the right office productivity tools. Trying to do too many tasks in outdated ways without proper systems could cost your company time and money. Invest in the best tools to put your team on the right track.
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