Businesses of all dimensions generate content everyday. In the matter of content collaboration platforms for business, you may know the usual ones like Google Drive and Dropbox. Many more are available, though, some also combining with your different content tools, along with a pack of business tools.
Audiences are thirsty for content, and brands strive hard to cater to those needs. These are all kinds of content your business may be creating:
- Cross-promotional materials
- Infographics
- Editorials
- Logos
- Podcasts
- Plans and proposals
- Sales decks
- Training materials
- Social media image and videos
Where can you collect, access, update and administer this whole content, though? And unless you’re operating on a team of one, what’s the most effective way for you and your clients or team to collaborate on a project? Content collaboration platforms are a common solution, varying from ones with restricted, focused features to whole-scale tools that can operate nearly every part of your business. In general, the following platforms will improve your content process.
# 1 OneDrive
OneDrive comprises a Microsoft cloud storage service that has multiple file-sharing abilities. OneDrive is convenient since it doesn’t restrict access to just Office 365 users – users can exchange files with anyone who possesses internet access.
Users can create links to content that they then dispatch through email or the OneDrive menu. These links are handy but can raise security issues. To meet these security concerns, Microsoft offers owners the choice to expire links after a specific period of time, as well as to retract links to prevent long-term access.
OneDrive maintains everything in one place. Users can edit documents in real time and obtain instant notifications about modifications even though they aren’t logged in to the website. Apple iOS and Google Android users can also access content through mobile apps.
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# 2 Google Drive
Google Drive is among the components of G Suite, previously termed Google Apps for Work. This cloud platform offers users the capacity to collaborate on documents in real time.
Within a business, employees also require to organize their files for processes to operate effortlessly, and content collaboration platforms can aid companies keep up a smooth workflow.
Google Drive includes a feature termed My Drive in which the files associate directly to the individual. The file owner can then select with whom they exchange it. Meanwhile, the shared drive is owned by a manager who decides the recipients of the content and the levels of access they can obtain.
A Google Drive app is also present for Android and iOS.
# 3 Dropbox
Dropbox constitutes a content collaboration platform that incorporates different tools, like Slack, G Suite and Zoom, and enables users conveniently store and access files without exiting the Dropbox application.
Dropbox allows users to design and store G Suite files and open files in Office 365 and have them instantly saved to Dropbox. Currently, users can save files to Slack, and also begin meetings with Zoom, all within Dropbox.
A Dropbox app is also present for Android and iOS.
# 4 Box
Box constitutes a cloud platform that permits file sharing and collaboration. By a partnership with Adobe, Box is offering users greater PDF tools that contain the capacity to create PDFs, insert electronic signatures to PDFs besides more, allowing users to finish more tasks within Box, instead of switching between browsers.
Like Dropbox, Box also carries integrations with Teams and Slack. Since both Slack and Teams have restricted sharing capacities, Box offers a platform for better sharing and content tracking. These Box incorporations also provide content owners the benefit of managing who has access to specific documents when sharing with Teams and Slack.
A Box app is also present for Android and iOS.
# 5 Confluence
Store all types of content with Confluence, comprising images, documents and PDFs. You can track modifications and versions, and collaborators can deposit feedback on documents by virtue of inline file and page commenting. You can join Confluence to Jira, also, which is nice news for development teams. Combining both the tools permits automatic linking, fast issue creation and exhaustive reports. While Confluence can be employed to collaborate on any kind of document, it’s ideally suited for internal content, such as meeting notes, announcements and project plans.
Confluence can actually be employed by quite any business of any size, though developers may find the Jira integration to be particularly useful. As it’s agile, it’s perfect for teams that need to make quick decisions and that frequently respond to alterations.
# 6 BoostHQ
Arrange all of your company’s content and internal knowledge with BoostHQ. To render your content searchable and simple to retrieve, assign categories, groups and tags. BoostHQ analytics also allows you to see the content which is most popular and the members who are most active.
The employee discussions feature enables all exchange their thoughts and experiences, which you can then incorporate into your internal knowledge base, workflows, etc. Finally, you can design and frequently update a centralized resource library that all can possess access to. It can contain rich media, also, like videos, images and PDFs, apart from text-only documents.
BoostHQ is perfect for teams that deal with plenty of content daily, particularly if they need to follow specific guidelines for building, updating and polishing the whole of the content. For instance, a news website that manages various types of content, like evergreen articles and live reporting, could employ BoostHQ to handle best practices and stylebooks.
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# 7 Bitrix24
Bitrix24 is built as a social networking platform, kind of like a beefed-up Slack. Users build profiles and can instant message each other. An activity stream is also included, and you can exchange and like updates. Teams can also comment on posts and exchange content.
Document exchanging and collaboration are only some of what Bitrix24 offers, however. It also contains tools for:
- Lead capture
- CRM
- Email automation
- Workflow management
- Task and project management
- Time-tracking
Bitrix24 is perfect if you require a content collaboration tool – and pretty much all else – to run your team and projects. It’s also superb for remote teams, whether or not they have plenty of content to collaborate on (though each company has a certain type of content to manage). If you’re not employing any communication or collaboration tools already, you may wish to begin with Bitrix24 to see if it serves your needs before including other tools to the combination.
The following are some of the many advantages of content collaboration platforms:
Geographic flexibility: Sitting in a chair for 8 hours a day is no more the sole way to work. With access to content from practically anywhere and from most any device, work no more needs to just be performed from cube #9. From Jaipur, to Ames, to Paris, Iowa, partners can work on and revise content associatively without the trouble of digging through email routes and many version confusion.
Engagement: Permitting collaboration among teams across the globe aids keep all more engaged and in the loop.
Efficiency: When persons can work collectively without squandering time in the search for content, conversations revolve around generating work, not the logistics surrounding it. Being able to rapidly share information promotes more transparency and more effective resolutions to business problems.
Secure, encrypted file sharing: If your organization encounters complex regulatory requirements or possesses security concerns regarding content (which all organizations must), you’ll wish to ensure your file exchanging and collaboration tools or platform provide security apart from flexibility and access.
Money savings: A McKinsey report mentions that better communication and association through social technologies could lift the productivity of some workers by 20 to 25 percent.
Organizations can employ people where it offers the most economical sense. Rather than centralizing human resources, content and access to it is centalized for greater cost-effectiveness.
A managed file transfer solution, such as GoAnywhere MFT, can keep your access and security permissions safe from the imperfect user. With MFT in position, you can also set powerful controls around the kind of data users can access.
Many collaboration tools present some encryption, but to completely ensure collaboration occurs securely you’ll desire an MFT solution to aid meet the security needs set by HIPAA, PCI DSS, HITECH, besides more. GoAnywhere can instantly encrypt all uploaded documents, present audit trails and reporting, and stop data leaks.
Conclusion
Pretty much each content collaboration platform out there includes version history, cloud storage and commenting ability. The primary differences are in concern to user minimums and maximums, price, and extra features that go above and beyond simple sharing and collaborating. The platform you select will depend on your budget, the size of your crew, your security requirements and whether or not you require different project management and marketing automation tools. Frame an idea of what you need from a content collaboration platform and then discover one that plugs the gaps.
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