5 awesome digital tools for content, team communication and productivity

By: Tish Brayman

Today everyone can benefit from tools that will enhance digital capabilities, efficiency and even reduce costs. Employers, employees, managers and executives….

Also, in this tough economy more furloughed employees have had to shift to other revenue sources and can also benefit from a quick roadmap to some extremely awesome software tools!

Meetings, presentations and conferences

Amazon Chime

What does the tool do? 

Meetings and conference software my Amazon. Video, audio, shared presentation tool for professional and remote meetings.

Price: Basic Edition is available at no charge. It allows you to attend meetings, make 1 to 1 video calls, and to use all Amazon Chime chat features. Plus Edition costs $2.50 per user per month.

Pros and Cons

  • Easy, fast setup, intuitive/simple interface, no need to install software on your computer when you are the guest called. Connectivity and call usability is good
  • Small audio issues if computer speaker is used as audio

Another popular competitor: Zoom

Content Management

WordPress

What does the tool do? 

WordPress is a software tool that is designed to assist businesses with creating their own website or blog.  In fact, roughly 20% of the internet is powered by wordpress!

Price: WordPress is a free open source software. Paid managed options available.

Pros and Cons

  • Userfriendly, variety of plugins, SEO, responsive, open source, social media integration, powers 20% of the internet
  • Updates can become outdated if not reviewed and updated often, creating errors and security lapses

Another popular competitor: Wix

Freelancing & Team Building

Upwork

What does the tool do? 

Upwork is an easy way to connect with professionals remotely for a wide variety of business needs. Get everything from graphic designers to legal help all with the click of a button. Helps build a network to earn from your skillset rather than being 100% dependent on an employer in today’s economic climate.

Price: Freelancers pay a % of their earnings to Upwork for software and value add connections to employers. Businesses also pay an added fee based on the amount paid out to freelancers/contractors.

Pros and Cons

  • A wealth of extremely talented individuals to choose from
  • Along with talent, there are also those who aren’t as seasoned in their area, be sure to vet appropriately

Another popular competitor: Freelancer

 

Analytics

Google Analytics

What does the tool do?

Google Analytics gives its users insights on the performance of their business.  The tool gives the users the chance to boost conversions through giving them guidance to what areas need improvement on their website.   

Price: FREE

Pros and Cons

  • Customized reports, tracks website traffic, tracks bounce rates, tracks demographic data of website audience, can set goals 
  • Privacy issues, data sampling can cause inaccurate reports

Another popular competitor: SAS

Team Communication

Slack

What does the tool do? 

Slack is a collaborative tool that has the ability to replace emails to improve efficiency and communication within a company.  Slack provides its users with a workspace to collaborate with coworkers through messaging, phone calls, and sharing files and other media. 

Price: Entry FREE, Standard $6.67/month, Plus $12.50/month

Pros and Cons

  • Easy to use, updated consistently, can add extensions like GoogleDrive, can search your history
  • Notifications sometimes lag and there may be a lot of unused areas of the software not needed for your teams communication.

Another popular competitor: Monday.com

BONUS: Note from our Founder….

About 6 months ago we rolled out our own software for communication between managers, developers and designers.

It’s at support.jarthur.co but it’s for our team and clients only! It doesn’t have a name either (lol). But its been a valuable resource for executing items for our customer base and making sure account management is top notch. It’s a huge value add in our commitment to customer experience.

We have already rolled out several new versions of the software to include developer-to-developer mobile push notifications, data review, time tracking and more. I’m really excited about this as process and management tool as proprietary IP that makes our team as whole much stronger and more valuable in the marketplace.

Our customers have seen reduced turnover and improved communication. It’s a lot of fun to continue to improve. Live Shot below! – Jeff St.Onge