Collaborate and Meet

9 Platforms to help you meet and collaborate

1. Microsoft Teams is a free business communication platform. It offers workspace chat, videoconferencing, file storage, and whiteboard collaboration. Teams is replacing other Microsoft-operated business messaging and collaboration platforms, including Skype for Business and Microsoft Classroom
2. Slack is a communication platform which offers many real time chat features, including persistent chat rooms (channels) organized by topic, private groups, and direct messaging. Good for getting lots of different people to contribute to themed discussions
3. Google suite has a range of collaboration tools available for meetings, chat, project management, calendar, email, slides, document sharing, whiteboard collaboration (Jam board) and spreadsheets. Most are available to use free, though they want money for some functions
4. Zoom provides simplified video conferencing and messaging across any device. It is very popular across the world and rapidly became the go-to technology for meetings and conferences in 2020. It’s free for basic meetings but you will need to pay for an account for longer meetings with more people
5. WhatsApp is used by almost all Wales Africa groups, it’s a freeware, cross-platform messaging and voice-over-internet service owned by Facebook. It allows users to send text messages and voice messages, make voice and video calls, and share images, documents, user locations, and other media
6. IMO is popular in large parts of Africa, an instant calling and messaging app similar to WhatsApp with audio and video calls, instant messaging, group chats, document and file sharing
7. Teamwork is on online project management tool which allows users to collaborate on developing projects, viewing timelines and allocating tasks. There is a free version for small projects
8. Evernote is a flexible free application that can be used online and offline and is available on PC, Mac, Android and iPhone/iPad (IOS). Uses include project management, task management, contact lists, stakeholder information, planning training content, mentoring notes, sharing resources, research notes, or keeping track of events and participants
9. Asana is a free tool which allows you to create a project plan and a range of tasks that can be assigned to members of your team. After each task has been completed, it can be checked off, which gives you a clear viewpoint about the way your project is progressing, and the way each team member is contributing to the success of the project. Team members are also free to attach files and leave comments.

What’s best?

• For text-based chat: WhatsApp or IMO
• For video meetings: Zoom or Microsoft Teams 
• For project management: Teamwork or Evernote 
• For discussion groups: Slack or WhatsApp 
• For file storing and sharing: Microsoft Teams or Google Docs