Back in the year 2001, I was managing a tiny national student magazine with writers spread out from New York to California. As a managing editor, it was my job to make sure people got on their phones during conference calls, and met their deadlines, and turn in their articles on time. We’re talking about busy teenagers with paper deadlines, and exam schedules here. We found an awesome solution called EProject (now http://daptiv.com/) It was the coolest thing ever, we were able to share files, edit each other’s work, leave feedback, and schedule our editorial meetings. Whatever we needed was there, on the Internet.

Fast forward to now, we’re sharing documents seamlessly and almost any solution seems to have a ‘cloud’ part to it. We can even edit each other’s work as we work on the same document, thanks to Google docs. Almost everyone I’ve worked with when it comes to content managing is a Google docs convert. You can’t do much with formatting etc. but you can get your core content up there and edited by your colleagues. Docs has its own limitations, I’ve always wanted to go back to EProjects, in what it could do -- schedule tasks, .

Out with the old.
Microsoft ruled the world when it came to productivity and project management with Share Point. A friend of mine is a huge advocate for it to the point where we would have heated arguments. (Of course me being in the FOSS camp, I'd always think of an alternative to Microsoft.) While I can understand her need to keep departments organized and keep projects going, Share Point is costly, and it takes time to implement. In India that means finding the right techies to implement it, the right way, and managing it seems to be a pain. This same friend has been waiting on her Share Point for over a year. I’ve also seen other projects, in other companies getting stuck just because the person in charge don’t know how to do certain things, needed training, and two other people just to get things rolling. Needless to say, my opinion hasn't been that great after seeing people in action with Share Point, especially in India. It's clunky, inefficient, and get's in the way of getting a job done, combine that with office bureaucracies and people you need to chase, your project is not going to go anywhere.

In with the cloud.
All managers need to have a Birdseye view of projects, track documents, and see where things are stuck. This is best done with the help of technology. I’ve experimented with Google docs, but found it way too limiting, and new features aren’t developed fast enough. My top three alternatives for boosting productivity, managing projects, and keeping in touch with your team are: Yammer, Huddle, and Box.net. They all have online file sharing, Blackberry integration, and free account set ups for you and your team to experiment. These products have evolved over the years (from 2006 onwards) some of them were build as productivity tools, some as social networking tools. They're very similar to each other but have different bells and whistles that you might or might not need. If you’re a small business owner, operating with a team in different locations, or even have telecommuters, I seriously suggest you try out some of them.  

The collaborative future workspace.
We all know that in 2011 we’ll have more mobile workers, and businesses on the cloud. No matter what the critics are saying, we all need to be ready to work smarter, so we can get more things done with less time. Technologies like this is going to be a big boosting factor to all enterprises -- especially for small businesses, who need all the leg up they can get. Having services like these means that we can be in touch with our team without clogging our inbox, know what’s going on, without getting into people’s faces all the time, and get messages across your team in real time. Another thing I love is transparency, you know where a project is stuck and why right away. What are other tools you’d recommend? How are you managing your projects? Is it working out for you, or would you just email files and track things the old fashioned way?

Graphic by: Michigan Municipal League (MML)