Best collaborative platforms in 2021

Are your employees drowning in emails?

Looking for a solution to modernize your internal communication?

Want to better connect your employees and accelerate their exchanges?

Need to streamline your communication and collaborative work?

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You've come to the right place!

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In recent years, most companies are looking to reinvent the way they work and transform employee experience to make it more enjoyable and productive. This includes setting up an efficient collaborative platform.

We at Talkspirit thought it would be interesting to give you some pointers to help you choose.

Here are the 13 best collaborative platforms and their key strengths (March 2020 edition):

1. Talkspirit
2. Workplace
3. Slack
4. Teams
5. Jamespot
6. Wimi
7. Gladys
8. Azendoo
9. LumApps
10. WhatsApp
11. Confluence
12. Rocket.chat
13. Happeo

Discover each of these solutions and see which one will help your team best meet the challenges of collaboration in the digital age.

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1) Talkspirit

A complete platform to streamline communication and collaborative work on a daily basis in the company.

Image source: Talkspirit

Talkspirit is a collaborative platform 100% made in France for companies (primarily SMEs and middle-market companies)—but also for associations and administrations. It relies on modern social and collaborative functionalities (chat, videoconferencing, groups/communities, chatbots, etc.) to improve the flow of information internally and make working together more pleasant and productive. Clients include Gîtes de France, Infotel, Squad, Groupe Foncia, DHL Express, Eckès Granini, ...

Key features:

• complete all-in-one platform
• easy handling; ergonomics redesigned in early 2020
• centralization of internal resources (directory, organization chart, documents, ...)
• multi-domain accessibility, and even without email, to bring ALL your employees together
• access for your partners, service providers and customers
• responsive customer service & user support (FR and EN) 7/7
• available in eight languages
• GDPR : data hosted in the EU (at OVHcloud)

Limitations / disadvantages:

• Absence of a specific project management module

Price:

• free Essentials plan
• pay plans from €4 per month per user. Rate drops after 500 users. Preferential conditions for associations.
• free trial (15 days)
• free personalized demo

Find out what Talkspirit users have to say.

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2) Workplace

Connect everyone in your organization and simplify communication between teams.

Image source: Workplace

Workplace is an online collaboration platform that uses some of the same features as Talkspirit to help companies work on a daily basis, with a stronger focus on communication between teams. With Workplace, communicate simply within your company thanks to a familiar and intuitive interface. Intended more for large groups (>20,000 employees).

Key features:

• familiar user experience
• machine translation in 46 languages.
• can connect all employees, including blue-collar workers...

Limitations / disadvantages:

• accessible customer support
• publisher subject to the Cloud Act*

Price: from $4 per month per user. Free version and 30-day free trial for the premium version.

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3) Slack

The collaborative application that replaces your email for greater productivity.

Image source: Slack

Slack is a collaborative work platform that brings together the right people, the right information and the right tools to carry out projects. Unlike Talkspirit, Slack is a platform that is particularly oriented towards instant messaging, in pairs or in groups. A simple and pleasant tool that centralizes communication flows and interfaces many collaborative tools.

Key features:

• instant messaging
• reference on the market, especially within the teams of developers
• organization and storage of documents
• numerous integrations of business tools
• intelligent and intuitive content search

Limitations / disadvantages:

• ongoing notifications
• high pricing
• application designed especially for start-ups

Price: starts at €6,25 per month per user, with a free version

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Methodology sheet to download (free): Eight key tips for choosing your collaborative platform

4) Teams

The secure team messaging app integrated with the Microsoft 365 suite.

Image source: Teams

Microsoft Teams is Office 365's secure collaborative platform that facilitates teamwork via Skype video conferencing and instant messaging. A tool for easy, secure collaboration with your colleagues.

Key features:

• access to Office 365 tools/software
• ability to connect a multitude of Microsoft devices
• secure access
• very chatOps & teamwork oriented

Limitations / disadvantages:

• access to limited internal resources (no directory or organization chart)
• no access without email possible
• publisher subject to the Cloud Act
• high pricing

Price: From $10 per month and per user, with a free version and a 30-day free trial of the premium version

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5) Jamespot

To unleash the collaborative potential and collective intelligence of your employees!

Image Source: Jamespot

Jamespot is collaboration software that helps boost team productivity by promoting and simplifying the sharing of information and knowledge to make project management more agile every day.

Key features:

• ready-to-use customizable platform
• modular, with many downloadable internal applications (this can also be a disadvantage)
• ability to set up customized workflows
• 100% France-based publishing, hosting and customer service

Limitations / disadvantages:

• need to download the modules in order to be able to use certain functionalities
• technical support necessary to take full advantage of the platform's flexibility
• analytical function to be developed

Price: from €5 per month and per user, with a free 30-day trial of the premium version.

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6) Wimi

The software for simple and efficient project management!

Wimi is the project management solution that unites employees around essential tools to increase productivity such as: videoconferencing, chat, document sharing or a Gantt chart.

Key features:

• advanced access rights management
• all-in-one project management solution
• extended safety (WIMI armored)
• free and unlimited guest invitations

Limitations / disadvantages:

• no news feed
• access limit to internal resources (directory, organization chart, etc.)
• limited storage from 10 GB to 500 GB, depending on the chosen plan
• high pricing
• a collaboration tool, but unsuitable for frequent information sharing

Price: from €15 per month and per user, with a free 14-day trial period

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Methodology sheet Download our free white paper to discover the eight steps to choose your collaborative platform

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7) Gladys

An all-in-one digital environment for easy collaboration and innovation

Gladys is the all-in-one solution to boost innovation within teams. The software brings together all the tools needed to collaborate in the same place: task management, planning, idea gathering or shared intelligence.

Key features:

• software that supports collaborative innovation and project management
• playful use and relevant presentation
• simple and easy to use interface

Limitations / disadvantages:

• not designed to facilitate the flow of information and conversation
• no organization chart or reporting system

Price: from €8 per month and per user, with a free version and a 30-day free trial of the premium version.

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8) Azendoo

The platform that centralizes work, to manage your daily tasks in teams.

Azendoo is an application that simplifies the management of roles and tasks, and centralizes teamwork within a single tool. Manage your projects and tasks, share your documents and synchronize them with your team.

Key features:

• advanced performance analysis and statistics
• multitude of functionalities for the management of daily tasks
• agile method
• access with or without email

Limitations / disadvantages:

• lack of video-conferencing
• short free trial period (14 days)

Price: from €6.67 per month per user, and a 14-day free trial of the Premium version.

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9) LumApps

A social and accessible intranet solution that facilitates the integration of your Gsuite and Office365 tools.

Image source: LumApps

LumApps is a platform for all your internal and external communications. A holistic social and collaborative intranet that integrates with your business tools and applications (including the Microsoft and Google suite of tools).

Key features:

• available in 15 languages
• officially approved by Google

Limitations / disadvantages:

• no free trial available, pricing only available with a quote
• more oriented towards project management and knowledge management than collaboration

Price: only with a quote

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10) WhatsApp

The free application for the 2 billion users, to exchange instant messages with several people.

WhatsApp is free, available on Android and iOS, and offers the ability to send messages and make calls anywhere in the world simply, quickly, and securely. Primarily indicated for micro businesses, but not recommended for larger companies.

Key features:

• solid reputation
• 100% free of charge
• fast, simple and secure communication
• accessible worldwide
• Business WhatsApp API (customer support & notifications) for companies

Limitations / disadvantages:

• lack of dedicated collaboration features
• focused mainly on instant messaging
• limited computer access
• lack of integration with business tools (therefore risk of loss of control over your data and loss of business data)
• publisher subject to the Cloud Act*

Price: free of charge

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11) Confluence

The tailor-made team workspace

Image source: Confluence

Confluence is a collaborative solution for creating content and structured layouts. You can also react live and collaborate anywhere, thanks to the use of the mobile application.

Key features:

• many functionalities for the online content creation part
• project management oriented, team workspace
• versatility
• integration with other Atlassian tools
• technical robustness
• very active community (500 plugins)

Limitations / disadvantages:

• few team communication and conversation features
• social aspect not sufficiently emphasized
• need for training to use the platform
• short duration of the free trial (7 days)

Price: from $5 per month and per user, with a free version and a seven-day free trial period.

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Methodology sheet Eight steps to choosing your collaborative platform

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12) Rocket.Chat

Your communication simplified by a team chat.

Image source : Rocket.Chat

Like Slack, Rocket.Chat is mainly an instant messenger. Control your communication, manage your data and have your own collaboration tool to improve your team's productivity. The tool replaces email and improves the way you communicate.

Key features:

• attractive price
• self-hosting
• custom emojis
• Intuitive and user-friendly design/UX
• multi-application integration

Limitations / disadvantages:

• non-functional mobile application
• mainly focused on instant messaging
• exclusively usable in English (not available in French)

Price: from $3 per month and per user with a free version.

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13) Happeo

The multilingual intranet for your company

Image source: Happeo

Happeo is a digital workspace and social intranet solution for G-Drive. The perfect mix between an enterprise social network and a collaboration platform, with the presence of an integrated chat, a news feed or a quick access to shared documents.

Key features:

• Google Cloud partner (integration of all Gsuite tools: Sheets, Docs, Slides, Drive)
• Slack integration
• centralization of other productivity tools (directory, page editors, channels...)
• certifications: ISO 27001 & GDPR
• tool dedicated to social collaboration
• data hosted in Europe (Finland & Netherlands)

Limitations / disadvantages:

• no access to or integration with Office365 software or other collaborative tools
• lack of collaboration features
• poor ergonomics

Price: only with a quote

*CloudAct: US federal law on the surveillance of personal data, adopted in 2018, which obliges US service providers to provide the federal authorities with all stored data on request, regardless of the location of the servers (even in the EU) (Source: Wikipedia)

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Now it's up to you :)

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As we've seen, all collaborative platforms are different, both in terms of functionality, aesthetics and ergonomics. Choose the one that will help your employees as much as possible. Many of these platforms offer demos, so don't hesitate!

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