Techtranslated

Collaboration tools are about working together online so that everyone in the team has the same set of files, the same tasks and deadlines, can engage with each other and keep track of what everyone else is working on.

Perhaps the best known tool for working together on projects is Basecamp but there is now a large range of products that do as good a job or better. 

Teamwork Project Manager is similar to Basecamp in look and feel but has a much longer list of features. Basecamp takes the view that large feature sets contribute to clutter and communication is at the heart of project success. Whilst I agree with the simple approach in terms of an interface I find Basecamp a little too simple. TeamworkPM adds a range of features that I'm finding very useful. These include:

• an overall dashboard showing the latest activity across all your projects
• tasks lists (with due dates and tied to milestones)
• milestones
• messaging (really like threaded email all in one place)
• time tracking
• files
• people and companies
• risk register (personally I'd prefer an issues log as I think that's what you track during a project)
• multiple languages (English, French, Polish, Spanish)
  
• notebooks (like write boards)
  

The subscription plans are competitive - I'm currently using the Personal plan which includes 100MB of file storage, unlimited users and all the features excepts for SSL encryption and the risk register.

For small and medium size businesses you can't beat this type of collaboration tool. For larger businesses and the enterprise it's always a challenge to persuade people to look past the perceived security issues and see the benefits of sharing projects across the web. 

Huddle is a UK based collaboration tool that has been around for a while but has recently upgraded it's free package to include 3 huddles (or workspaces), unlimited users and 1GB of space to store your files.

Huddle does not have the richest functionality of the collaboration services - see www.centraldesktop.com - but has a simple, clean interface and with it's new free package will appeal to a lot of people and businesses wanting to try this type of tool.

The main features of Huddle include:

• Huddles! These are workspaces that allow you to keep your projects separated so that all your files and tasks are kept together for that project.
• Filing Cabinet. These are where you can keep your files and you can set up folders (drawers) and track versions of your documents.
• Calendar. Keep up with all your tasks.
• Whiteboards. A text editor to draft and share documents with your team.

It's easy to invite people into your huddles so you can get the best out of the tool - by collaborating.