Communication – Vital to a Young Business

Starting your own company can be an exhilarating experience. The excitement of creating something of your own and working with people you admire often gets you through each day, even under a heavy workload. But running your own show has its costs.

As the head cheese, it’s your job to make sure your team — big or small — is supported by your infrastructure. The tools your team uses every day should increase effectiveness, not hinder it. The same goes for your processes — how you use your tools.

The way your team communicates is perhaps the most vital aspect of your fledgling enterprise. And as our culture embraces the Internet even more, people from all over the world are collaborating together in ways not previously possible. You need to use a tool that allows remote team members to communicate in ways that meet their needs. You want empowered employees? Make them feel included.

Before you choose a tool, consider the types of communication that your teammates require. Is it merely functional, requiring only information regarding tasks? Or do your people need to socialize as well? Will most of your communicating be one-on-one? Or do your people need to address the team as a whole? If you know the answer to even some of these questions before you choose a tool, you’re ahead of the game.

And while I can’t answer them for you, I thought I’d share a list of communication-based web applications that vary in both complexity and intended usage. Each has their strengths — knowing what your needs are will enable you to choose one that fits for you and your crew. Enjoy.

Focused on Function

The following two apps are focused on the functions your team performs.

Backpack is full of good features.

Backpack

Designed to be an informal team intranet, Backpack contains a lot of functionality. Built upon the premise of creating pages for various types of documentation, Backpack also excels at communication and collaboration due to the messages, comments and Journal features.

Any item on a page can be commented on by the team. Correspondence on the group level can be accomplished via the Message Board (not available on all plans). And finally, the Journal allows team members to set their current status (think Twitter) as well as document work completed throughout the day. Add to these the ability to share files, access shared calendars and set reminders and you’ve got a powerful tool to meet almost any needs your team might have.

Huddle - workspaces for small teams.

Huddle

In a similar vein, Huddle was built to be the one tool for your team. Rather than pages, Huddle is based on the concept of workspaces. A workspace can be focused on a particular project or be used as a working group for a particular subset of team members. Or, it could be used to include all the necessary information for a particular internal process.

To illustrate, you could create a workspace to manage the new design of a site for a client (Project) or use a workspace to document the process your team follows every time they hire and train a new employee. However you put it to use, Huddle also offers collaborative features such as file storage, discussion boards and wikis, as well as document management (versioning and approvals).

Gather Round the Water Cooler

These two great applications are based more on the social needs of your team and communication with one another.

Gather round the fireside.

Campfire

Long heralded as the best way for remote teams to keep in daily contact, Campfire is basically a group chat on steroids. And although it has not received as much attention as the other apps from 37signals — in terms of development and upgrades — it still stands tall when compared to its competitors.

Campfire gives your team to stay in touch via a real time group chat. You have the ability to create multiple rooms as well, which many people use to break out conversations on a particular topic. For example, you may want a general Water Cooler room that is loose and gives your team the freedom to discuss whatever is on their mind. But you may also want a separate room to discuss a particular topic or project.

That alone would make a great tool, but you can also share files right in the chat, which enables you to make edits or updates while talking about it. Imagine how much faster that can be as opposed to sending emails and attached files back and forth. Campfire also archives all your transcripts and files and gives a solid search function to find that exact piece of information that was discussed.

Campfire is a great addition to any team.

The digital water cooler.

Co-op

Built by the team at Iridesco, Co-op also focuses more on socializing than on doing work. And like Campfire, you can create different groups on Co-op for different projects or subjects.

This tool is fairly focused, not offering a large number of features. In Co-op, your team has a place to update their current status, similar to the Journal feature in Backpack. It also gives you the ability to chat, but in more of a Twitter-ish style than a traditional chat. This is referred to as the Workstream. As you knock off tasks or receive updates from clients, just let your team know with a short message.

But Co-op also offers two extra features not seen in these other tools. One is the ability to set an agenda. So you can update your current status — what you are doing now. But you can also set your agenda for the day so your team knows what you plan to be doing.

And lastly, Co-op is built on Harvest, the time tracking tool offered by Iridesco. So you have the ability to track your time right within the Co-op workstream. This can also be helpful for your team.

If you are already using a project management of document storage tool, Co-op can be a nice addition to improve your communication.

A Little of Both

A different way to organize your chatter.

Staction

This is the new kid on the block, only becoming available early in 2009. Staction aims to focus on working together, rather than spending time in email. It was designed to handle both your flow of internal discussion as well as manage your project related tasks. But in a different way.

The interface is somewhat spartan, but don’t let that throw you off. This is a powerful tool. Consisting of two columns, Staction sticks your discussion on one side and your tasks on the other. The power here comes from the ability to categorize – or tag — both types of items. Then you can create saved views which only contain items that meet your criteria.

This give you the ability to keep all your communication in your Full Stream. But if you are disciplined with adding meta data — again, the tags — you can instantly narrow your view down to one project or subject.

This ability to switch between all information and a particular topic from within the same space takes some time to get used to. But once you do, it can enhance the way your team works.

Yammer-time.

Yammer

Last on our list is Yammer. Another relatively new tool, Yammer has a lot of similarities to some of the tools above. It mainly functions as a Twitter-like interface to tell people what you’re currently up to. And, like Twitter, it can be used to carry one one-on-one or group conversations.

With Yammer, your team can also create groups for particular subsets of your overall team or for a specific project or process. Where Yammer is unique is that it allows you to create an org chart. How helpful is that to your team? It would depend a lot on the size.

And lastly, Yammer has desktop tools available rather than the web version. Built on Adobe AIR, this tool allows you to access the functions of the web in a widget style interface. And since AIR apps run on Windows and OS X, you’ve got a tool that your entire team can use.

Overall, Yammer is basically an internal Twitter. And the popularity of Twitter speaks for itself, so there’s a good chance your team will appreciate this tool.

Take Some Time to Find the Right Fit

Depending on size and personalities, one team can vary greatly from the next. Take some time to ponder the needs of your team. And although there are plenty more options out there, chances are one of the tools above will fit in great with your team. If you’re already using a different product that I haven’t mentioned, leave us a comment and tell us about it!