108
—
GW
I
f you’re travelling on business,
being able to work remotely is
a necessity. As long as you’ve
got access to the internet there
are cloud-based collaborative
software tools tomake all this
easy, whatever your profession.
We’ve picked a selection of
collaborative software solutions,
eachwith its own unique selling
point. Many offer free trials, so
why not give thema go?
Project management
Suitable for: project
managers, team leaders
Trello is a free browser-based
programme for tracking
individual and teamprojects.
Create a virtual white board,
comprising individual task cards,
which can be organised into lists,
colour coded and have
attachments added. Invite team
members to join a board, where
you can assign themtasks. Boards
are live and update automatically
every time a task is completed,
enabling you to track progress
using the activity log or via email.
Whether it’s a single to
multiple project or simply
planning and tracking your
team’s schedules, Trello is a
flexible programme for easily
managing a lot of data and can
be optimised for mobile and
tablet browsers, as well as
Android and iPhone apps.
trello.com
WORK TOOLS TO GO
Business travellers increasingly want to work on the move,
and there is now a profusion of great collaboration and work
management software available to help get the job done
File sharing and back-up
Suitable for: freelancers,
creatives, sales, remote workers
Box is a cloud-storage solution
for uploading, backing up and
sharing files. Unlike some other
cloud-storage solutions it can be
used for any type of document –
photo, spreadsheets, video or
presentation. Once uploaded,
files can be shared with internal
and external colleagues simply
by sending a link.
Box for Business offers 1GB
uploads and 1,000GB storage for
£11 (€14) a month per person,
With it you can turn folders into
workspaces, invite multiple
users to contribute and track
changes and post comments.
Box is the only file
management software with apps
developed for all OS’s (Android,
iOS, Windows Phone and
BlackBerry), making it easy to
view share files on the go with
clients or contributors who
aren’t in the same organisation.
box.com
Conferencing & training
Suitable for: trainers, sales
managers, project managers
Join.me is a free screen-
sharing programme that lets
you hold web conferences with
up to 250 teammembers
wherever they are in the world.
Organise a conference and
you’ll be able to share the
contents of your screen with
participants – whether it’s a
sales presentation, training
programme or simply idea
generation – as well as sharing
files and chatting. Join.me is
browser based; use the code
provided and a simple toolbar
to control the meeting.
Join.me Pro costs $149 a year,
but adds audio (including
international conference lines)
individual window sharing,
presenter swap and meeting
scheduling.
Idea generation
Suitable for: creatives,
teachers, team leaders
MindMeister is a web-based
mind-mapping programme,
used for creating online
brainstorming sessions.
Even if you’re not creative,
simple controls make it
incredibly easy to create amind
map, which you can share with
other users, before collaborating
simultaneously in real time.
Unlimited participants can
contribute (indicated by different
colours) and the completedmind
map can be exported using
multiple formats, including
PowerPoint andWord.
MindMeister works on any
desktop browser, so you don’t
need to download any software.
There’s an offline mode and
Android and iOS apps, so it can
also be used remotely.
MindMeister Pro costs £9.99
(
€12.58), with unlimited maps,
custom branding and stats.
Sales management
Suitable for: sales force, sales
manager, marketing manager
Sales Cloud is a sales app with an
emphasis on the social, bringing
together a wealth of useful
information, frommeetings,
tasks, emails and files to overall
sales performance, leads and
accounts.
‘
Chatter’ is a business social
feed to connect the entire team,
providing real-time updates of
marketing lead and new product
details, where you can or post
questions to get answers from
teammembers.
Sales Cloud comes in
different versions. Small
businesses can use Sales
Cloud Group at $15 a month
per person, while Sales
Cloud Professional costs $65 a
month per person but includes
customer relationship
management tools such as real-
time quotes and contracts.
For added flexibility
touch.salesforce.comworks
across all mobile devices.
