The striving to achieve higher productivity in all business aspects is somehow similar to speed racing. While talent and training are crucial for the sportsman to win the first prize, it’s hard to imagine Michael Schumacher break the tape first driving an obsolete racing car, isn’t it? The point is, even if you’ve got the brightest and most skillful staff, using the newest productivity techniques, but your computer hardware and software are obsolete, don’t expect miracles. To be able to do more during the same time, your employees require the software that will not only help do the tasks, but do them faster and more efficiently. We have worked out a list of different types of productivity software for versatile purposes and tastes, so help yourself.
Google Apps for Business
This suite of apps from Google has become an eye-opener and assistant #1 for many businesses. Instead of using the hackneyed means of processing and saving documentation, corporate email, website etc – it provides a very smooth and convenient array of tools to ease and speed up routine operations. Google Docs let create, share and edit documents online and save them on the cloud, accessible from anywhere in the world (similarly, you can use Spreadsheets, Forms, Presentations etc), Google Sites allow creating the site for use within the company in no time. Google Calendar features great capabilities for organizing company or department-wise activities. Apart from these, the package includes corporate mail on Gmail (using custom domain), Google Hangouts, Google Video etc. You can choose from a few pricing options depending on your business size.
Zoho Apps
If the scope of your business calls for more than the essential tools from Google, Zoho is an alternative to consider. First, it provides an impressive range of business apps that are packaged based on the sphere of use: Marketing and Sales, Email & Collaboration, Human Resources, Finance, Business Process etc. Zoho Apps perfectly integrate with Google Apps, so they can become a great addition rather than the substitute in case you’ve been using Google Apps for some time and need more apps as your business moves forward. According to multiple reviews, Zoho Apps are moderately priced, but this is for you to decide.
LibreOffice Productivity Suite
In case you aren’t ready to invest into the essential business tools, LibreOffice might be the right pick. Created under LGPL licence, it is not only distributed for free, but also can be customized to suit your business needs. LibreOffice is compatible with the major OSs like Windows, MacOS, Linux etc. Apart from Writer, Charts and Impress (presentations), that are typical for office software, it also includes Draw (graphic), Math (formulas), Base (databases) as well as lots of extensions to complement the apps. Mind that since the project is free and open source, you’ll have to rely mostly on the community support.
OfficeSuite Pro + PDF
This is actually not a suite of business apps, but it is a very useful app for anyone who needs mobile access to their Microsoft Office docs from their Android device. It will let your employees view, edit and share their Word, Excel, Powerpoint, PDF docs as well as manage files remotely, which means a serious contribution into productivity improvement. No wonder OfficeSuite Pro claims to be the most downloaded office app on Google Play.
Yaware.TimeTracker Productivity Software
As the name implies, this software is indispensable if you’re looking not only to save your employees time, but also keep a close eye on their activity at work and improve their time-management skills.
Yaware.TimeTracker is an automatic application supporting the major operating systems (Windows, MacOS, Linux, Android etc) that is installed on employee computers and records the following information:
- exact time the work was started and finished;
- total hours worked;
- all websites visited and software used + time for each;
- breaks taken + duration.
Moreover, this app categorizes all resources used as productive/unproductive/neutral and evaluates the productivity of each employee. Thanks to its powerful reporting functionality, an employer has the complete information on any staff member/team/department or the whole company in a convenient visualised form. It seriously saves time for control and provides objective data that is available from any spot on Earth since it is saved in the cloud.
Yaware is a great tool for monitoring the work of freelancers or distance employees, as well as allows implementing flexible schedule in the company.
Being able to access their personal stats, employees can detect the “time-eater” activities or distractions that hinder their productivity growth, plus learn to manage and plan their time more effectively.
Bottom line
Hopefully, this list has been useful to you and has shown the way to improving your business. In case you’re interested in a decent time tracker software to boost your employees’ productivity, Yaware.TimeTracker offers a 14-day free trial for unlimited number of users at its full capacity. Simply register your account and start your test drive with no delay!
