Those of you who have ever found yourself wishing you could merge the simplicity of a social networking tool like Facebook with the needs of business now…
About the Author
Navneet Alang is a Toronto-based technology and culture writer whose work has appeared in The Atlantic, The New Republic and The Globe and Mail. Between 2010 and 2011 he wrote technology commentary for TECHi on Apple, cloud video and the future of the desktop computer.
Those of you who have ever found yourself wishing you could merge the simplicity of a social networking tool like Facebook with the needs of business now have one more option with Teamlab, a robust and impressive online collaboration and project management tool from Ascensio Systems.
Similar in many ways to ubiquitous software Basecamp, Teamlab is a free, web-based system that allows you to manage projects and communicate with other employees using a simple, well-designed interface. The newest version of Teamlab adds a couple of main features, and is now broken down into 3 main parts: TM Community, TM Projects, and TM Chat.
TM Community, unsurprisngly, allows users to quickly access what other employees are up to through blog posts, events, sharing links and even seeing upcoming birthdays. The interface is clean and simple and should be easy for almost anyone to use, which is a significant plus given how easily employees can be stymied by new, complexsoftware.
TM Projects is quite robust as a project management solution. It not only allows you to creates milestones and person-specific tasks, but also lets you generate reports at any point in the project. It also allows you to import projects from popular program Basecamp.
Finally, TM Talk is a web-based IM client. Though many corporate IM solutions exist, the benefit here is that it all takes place in the browser rather than having to manage MSN or GTalk. However, TM Talk can be integrated into other IM clients.
The service seems impressive overall, with an emphasis on usability and ease-of-use that's sure to appeal especially to small businesses and startups looking for a free, open-source solution to their communication and project management needs.
As for why the service is free, Nadezhda Shipova, Ascensio's PR Manager explains:
"We know that there are several industry leaders on the enterprise software market and it is extremely difficult to gain trust, adoption and loyalty among corporate clients for a new market player. In an effort to pass through this barrier, we give away TeamLab platform with no less functionality than its famous competitors have."
That certainly sounds like a smart plan to build a broad userbase. And in addition to a great 'price', the well-designed user interface and simplicity of the product makes it an ideal candidate for anyone looking for a product to help make their business more efficient and get their employees connecting with each other.
Visit TeamLab
About the Author
Navneet Alang is a Toronto-based technology and culture writer whose work has appeared in The Atlantic, The New Republic and The Globe and Mail. Between 2010 and 2011 he wrote technology commentary for TECHi on Apple, cloud video and the future of the desktop computer.
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