Compare Team Conferencing Software

	Collaboration PLUS	RingCentral	Zoho	ClickMeeting	Zoom	GoToMeeting	Webex	Microsoft Teams
Download Software Required	NO	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	NO	YES
Monthly Price per Person	$0.50	$8.00		$25.00	$1.50	$0.08	$13.50	$5.00
Share Files	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES
Record Session	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES
Integrated	YES	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	YES

Tools to communicate with your team

If you don't communicate, you can’t collaborate. From instant messaging to discussion groups and video conferencing tools, there are many options for team collaboration tools:

Collaboration PLUS

Collaboration PLUS contains both video conferencing tools with discussion groups, automatic notifications, calendar of events, policy & document storage. For the price, it rivals all of the more expensive solutions.

Flowdock

Flowdock is a group and private chat platform. Its most interesting feature is its team inbox which aggregates notifications from other channels, like Twitter, Asana and customer support tools. If you do not use those channels within your organization, they may not be of value.

GoToMeeting

GoToMeeting is an online video conferencing software that allows users to schedule meetings and share screens. It’s one of the most popular video tools with millions of users. I does not have group discussion, video sharing, document storage, or event management.

Slack

Slack is a popular and well-crafted platform offering instant messaging, file transfers and powerful message search. It has many features and dozens of integrations with other tools like Trello and Intercom.

WebEx

Cisco’s WebEx provides personalized video meeting rooms where users can to host and join meetings. People can use WebEx for team collaboration, webinars, training and customer support. Because if focuses on video, it is not meant to be a platform to maintain documents and conversations over time.

Communication problems are inherent to companies that run multiple shifts.  If you hear, "We couldn't do XXX because the last shift didn't complete YYY," you have communication problems.  If you see differing processes develop between teams, they are not talking to each other. 

A key to your success is having each shift communicate important issues to the next shift so they improve efficiency and can be successful. Many times shift teams working against eachother. It’s critical that you consistently communicate between teams so they contributes to the whole. Keeping open communication between shifts is critical.  Here are some simple tips to help:

• Overlap shifts for about 15 to 30 minutes.  That time is used to have a shift transition meeting and identify critical issues and successes stories.
• Don't use email to distribute a shift transition information. The emails tend to get lost.  Use a collaboration tool like Collaboration PLUS.  Create a functional group and use a discussion group where information about a shift change is added.  This then places the information a click away and keeps it in one place for future reference.
• Designate a team ‘communicator’ for each shift. This person is then responsible for meeting with the previous and following shifts.  Make sure part of their responsibility is to always add an entry into the group discussion area - even if it is, "had a great shift... great job team!"

With the Collaboration PLUS technology, there’s no reason to have communication disconnects between shifts.

Staying connected with your work-at-home staff is critical.

While they are in one location, it it easy to call a meeting or drop by their desk.  When you decide to implement Work at Home, the communication methodology must be reviewed. 

If you have tried email, you know it gets out of hand easily. 

Problems with Emails for Work-at-Home departments:

• Emails can get lost in an ever increasing inbox
• Re-creating back and forth email threads gets confusing
• Multiple types of email readers and settings are difficult to set up for some users
• Using Google, Yahoo, or other public email servers is a hole in your company's security

The solution is Collaboration PLUS. 

• It keeps the interface standard
• It is NOT public
• Hold video conferences without having to subscribe to a public service (e.g. Zoom)
• Your communications remain private
• Discussions an be shared or private
• Discussion threads are maintained
• Update notifications are sent to email as a reminder
• Share files and videos

Opening a Franchise will test your mettle.

You need all the skills to run a business, manage cash flow, schedule deliveries, build teams.

When you can find a tool to help with a function or task, your bottom line improves.

Collaboration PLUS is a tool accessible from any location and any device.  The purpose is to improve communication with your employees and management teams.

A franchise owner runs into these communication problems; see how Collaboration PLUS is a solution:

Enjoy a flexible schedule. Take breaks at any moment, and eat lunch or a keto snack at any time you want.

Save money. Lunch is expensive if you work in a city or downtown. You can save big time by going to the store and preparing food.

Forget crowds and traffic. No stuffing yourself into a rickety subway.

Custom environment. Set up your noise level — somewhere between silence to being at the front row at a Ted Nugent concert. And if you’re mindful of your workspace ergonomics, you can create a stronger rhythm for your workflows.

Comfy clothes. Wear those sweatpants from college, or the leggings your friends don’t know you own.

It’s easier to make calls. You don’t have to scramble for a conference room or put up with a chatty co-worker.

Weekend to-do’s. That Mt. Everest laundry pile waiting for you?

No office distractions. Avoid co-workers debating the merits of cryptocurrency, sirens wailing outside your window, the AC kicking in as you hide your icicle tears.

Zero commuting.

More time with loved ones. Take care of a sick significant other at home.

Many people are finding that there isn’t enough time in the day to answer every email.  Email is one of the greatest culprits of stress in the workplace.

Email was designed decades ago with users in mind who weren’t nearly as connected as we are now.

Email is not always the most effective, fast, and reliable form of communication.  Most everyone has a cluttered inbox with menial updates that you’ve been copied into.  The most important emails become lost in the mess.

It might be time to consider your other options. Ultimately, it comes down to this: your form of communication should depend almost entirely on what it is that you’re trying to communicate.

Collaboration PLUS is an ‘enterprise social networking service’, designed to help employees ‘collaborate across departments, locations, and shifts.  The collaboration tool is used in over 100,000 websites both private and public. You can set up groups for individual topics or projects, and use these groups to share files and facilitate collaboration.  Collaboration PLUS is good for: Collaboration, file-sharing, messaging specific groups of colleagues.

Workplace communication is essential to teamwork. Not only does it build and maintain relationships, but workplace communication also facilitates innovation. Employees who feel comfortable about communicating tend to have ideas accepted at an exceptional rate. Without workplace communication, there will be several problems.

Failure to Disperse Communications

Dispersing workplace communications often relies on a chain of employees sharing the information with others. In some cases, the relay of information is interrupted, leaving certain employees out of the loop. The breakdown in communication may lead to wasted time, missed meetings, duplication of work, or other disruptions of the workflow.

Communication Barriers

Differences in background or experience cause barriers between some employees. Without some common ground, employees may find relating to or understand what other staff members are talking about difficult. Cultural differences may also cause difficulties in non-verbal communications, causing mixed messages.

Today, teams that were together in an office are learning to work together from home. If you are new to remote work, Collaboration PLUS is here to make it easy. Stay connected with your teammates and stay happy, healthy, and productive.

In person, people are automatically engaged when they see your face. Sharing video conference can initially be intimidating, but you will soon get comfortable sharing video and engaging, remote discussions.

The Team Huddle: Just like ad-hoc in-person team meetings you can get everyone who together with a Video Conference. No special software is needed - just a video camera and a microphone.

Let’s Party! Being remote doesn’t mean you need to change your culture. While you may not have bagels to share – you can still celebrate those moments; birthdays, delivering a project or achieving a goal – virtually!

Documents are an essential component of any enterprise. Managing business information, sometimes from several sources, can be a challenging task.

Here are 5 benefits of document management systems, including:

1. Better Collaboration
2. Easier Retrieval
3. Reduced Storage Space
4. Enhanced Security
5. Improved Regulatory Compliance

Facebook provides private groups.

Does Facebook do this out of the kindness of their hearts?  Or does Facebook see private groups as another opportunity to collect information on you and your employees?


We know your data will be aggregated and used by Facebook.  When you sign up for an account, you must agree to the company’s data policy. It plainly states that its data collection “includes information about the websites and apps you visit, your use of our services on those websites and apps, as well as information the developer or publisher of the app or website provides to you or us.”

In 2016, a Missouri man with metastatic cancer sued Facebook. The suit, which sought class-action status, accused the tech giant of violating the man’s privacy by tracking his activities on cancer center websites outside the social network — and collecting details about his possible treatment options — without his permission.  Facebook won the case because (1) the man agreed to the data policy and (2) they had more lawyers.

Bobi is the co-founder of the Southwest Institute for Emotional Intelligence. She is a recognized speaker, author, trainer and successful entrepreneur specializing in leadership development. She has trained large and fast-growing organizations on the skills of emotional intelligence (EI). Through these breakthrough concepts, she continues to educate and inspire teams ready to move to the next level of performance.

Their teams work with the Collaboration PLUS tools to help deploy her training to her clients. 


Visit her online training site at SWIEItraining.com

With Google, you can place an ad request with that targets women living in urban areas in Florida aged 30-40 who are pregnant and whose family incomes are above $75,000.

Google’s algorithms run through the data and if you fit the request, those ads begin appearing on the websites you visit.

No human being at Google or at the advertising company knows any of those facts about you individually. None of that is explicitly written down anywhere so you can see it. All of that can be inferred from your posts, your photos, your purchases, your movements, your web browsing, and everything else in the digital trail we leave behind. Google, Facebook and the others have algorithms that draw conclusions about each of us every day, partially for advertising and partially to improve its services to us.