Business owners often stress about the annual profit numbers, but the injection of creativity for advertising campaigns, new product development and customer service is equally important. If you're running a savvy company, you know business brainstorming is the future of the workplace. Though brainstorming is at the heart of modern business processes, most firms are still living under a rock about how to manage it, and how to get employees to participate.
And for companies where budget constraints often dictate that creating and innovative work stays in-house, brainstorming tools offer a way to jumpstart idea creation and structure collaborative employee input. These tools work on computers and most mobile devices and doesn't require purchase of additional software or paying licensing fees for upgrades.
Asana
Asana is great for company collaboration and meeting deadlines, and it's got ease of use and simplicity that is hard to find in other tools. For businesses that have got a small team, the free offering helps in keeping their overhead low. The tool really shines when several people work on the same projects, and even comment about the same task: pop ups show instantly, and Asana offers a very ‘real-time' feel during collaboration.
It also features interactive checkboxes that allow users to tick off tasks as they are completed, and untick them if a team member has made a mistake. An undo window shows up in case something has been marked in action. Asana users can also see tutorial videos, links to which are present at the bottom of the interface.
Smart Meeting
This tool offers you the best collaboration features in a single service, and it can be used separately or together depending on the needs of your business. A single login and one set of credentials make it easy to get started. One of the features is the audio conference calling service, which is integrated with a suite of professional tools. Employees and management can collaborate on a conference call within minutes. Invited participants can easily join conference/meeting through dial-in.
Start Meeting’s screen share tool lets users record and share sessions. The person who starts the meeting can start or pause at any instance, and pass the meeting to another user, such as the management passing the meeting to a senior level employee to dictate task proceedings to junior employees. Options like pen, eraser, and highlighter make it easy for participants to annotate their presentations.
Zoho
Zoho lets you collaborate, edit Excel and Word documents, and have discussions in real time. It also provides graphical reports for brainstorming funnel stage and forecasting tools to enter projected demand and add or remove from the plan by a factor. While it does not go as far as to providing statistical tools for future demand, it does sum the forecast you've put in for a projected idea.
There's also a workflow manager in Zoho that allows you and the team to define your unique idea process and ensure that opportunities follow the approved process and achieve the right approvals. Zoho, like the above mentioned tools, can be accessed from any web browser, and it also works on all major mobile platforms.
