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Confluence Alternatives: Top 10 Solutions for Team Collaboration

itgdev — Thu, 17 Feb 2022 19:25:44 +0000

Ever since the onset of the pandemic, collaboration has become the new buzzword in the corporate world. Storing and sharing knowledge efficiently throughout an organization has become the need of the hour. There are multiple versatile tools available online to help you with collaboration management, and Confluence is one of them.

In today’s digital world, the business needs of organizations are constantly evolving, and they vary significantly from one to another. There is an alternative to every software tool, and Confluence is no exception.

In this blog, we’ll explore different Confluence alternatives available for collaboration management and how they fit the bill when it comes to matching your unique requirements.

Why consider a Confluence alternative?

There is no one-size-fits-all solution in the world of technology. Confluence is one of the more widely used team collaboration solutions in the world. However, it isn’t a tool specifically designed for IT professionals. Besides its design and usage, there are also certain functionalities that may not be adequate for users with sophisticated requirements.

Let’s explore these factors.

Is Confluence designed for IT professionals?

Confluence is a tool designed for all organizations with team collaboration needs. Hence, it does not have any features specific to IT professionals. As an IT professional, you need to document the entirety of an IT environment, including hardware, software, passwords, network diagrams, apps and services, licenses, warranties and much more.

You need a tool that allows you to see your entire IT environment in one pane and how everything is related to one another. You must also ensure that all key information is captured with standardized fields and has the necessary permissions/security to ensure only designated users can see the information.

What is Confluence best for?

Confluence allows you to organize your data into various categories and subcategories. This helps you organize and access everything in one place, without much confusion or delay. The collaborative editor feature in Confluence enables real-time editing and allows you to keep all discussions within the document through inline comments.

Confluence also provides better transparency and visibility to all stakeholders throughout a project. Even large organizations with several team members can seamlessly collaborate on a project and ensure easy knowledge management.

What are the disadvantages of Confluence?

Confluence is a great team collaboration tool to share information internally. However, it is not intended for MSPs and internal IT teams. When MSPs and internal IT teams use Confluence, they are likely to face some limitations compared to their competitors who use tools purpose-built for IT needs.

Some of the limitations are as follows:

Unstructured documentation – Confluence is a free format documentation tool that doesn’t have a specific structure for the needs of businesses. While there are categories you can use to create an organizational hierarchy for documentation, MSPs and IT teams that need structured documentation for their SOPs won’t benefit much from Confluence.
Lack of relationship mapping – Another limitation with unstructured documentation is the lack of contextual relationships between documented items. When working with certain documents, you need to access the relevant assets to get the job done quickly. Without this related information mapping, Confluence users have to work a little harder to access relevant data.
Lack of automation – Automation plays a critical role in today’s IT world, and it could give you a much-needed edge over your competitors. Since Confluence lacks structured documentation, it is quite difficult to automate your workflow and make things efficient.
Plugin dependency – Confluence also has very limited native functionalities. To pick up the slack, you may have to depend on various third-party plugins for various tasks. If you cannot find these plugins for specific tasks, you may have to build the applications on your own. That could turn out to be quite complicated if you don’t have a good Java developer in-house.

Top 10 Confluence alternatives to consider

The technology space has plenty of players that provide collaboration management services. Confluence holds a 9.31% market share right next to SharePoint and Microsoft Exchange Server. There are also many other Confluence alternatives in the collaboration management space. Some of these tools even have unique features that can cater to a specific section of the market. Let’s explore some of the popular tools here.

1. IT Glue

IT Glue is a solution designed specifically for IT professionals. Besides being a cloud-based documentation platform, IT Glue comes packed with a range of high-end features. A unique feature of IT Glue is that it supports structured and standardized documentation with the help of out-of-the-box IT templates. Additionally, this supports automation and related documents to make things more efficient for IT professionals.

2. Nuclino

Nuclino is another team collaboration software that can bring all your team’s knowledge, documents and projects in one place. This is an easy-to-use app with a good interface. However, the tool doesn’t have any offline functionalities and lacks read-only support for documents.

3. Notion

Notion is a software tool designed to help organizations coordinate with their team members on deadlines, assignments, projects and more. This tool can help you with a range of tasks, from notetaking to knowledge management.

4. Slack

Slack is a collaboration tool that focuses on communication within the team. It comes packed with a wide variety of features and is a versatile tool when it comes to general collaboration. You can organize your conversations by creating multiple channels, making audio and video chats, and even sharing files.

5. Google Workspace

Formerly known as G Suite, Google Workspace is a versatile collaboration tool. Many organizations from across the world prefer this tool for their collaboration needs. Besides collaboration, users can get access to various tools like Hangouts, Calendar, Drive and more.

6. Microsoft SharePoint

SharePoint is the world’s most widely used intranet platform with a focus on team collaboration. It is a go-to tool for organizations when it comes to storing, organizing, sharing, viewing and accessing information from any device close to you. It is a versatile solution that even lets users create websites to share information and collaborate with their team members.

7. Slite

Slite is another notable collaboration tool that helps teams manage their projects efficiently. Teams can use this tool to collaborate on their projects, share discussions and move forward with other tasks. It comes with templates for various tasks and enables seamless communication among team members.

8. Quip

Quip is a basic productivity tool that allows users to collaborate on various documents. It integrates chat, documents, task lists and spreadsheets into one tool, allowing for quick and easy collaboration. It also makes working simpler and faster by eliminating the unending chain of emails, meetings, conversations and document versions.

9. You Need A Wiki (YNAW)

You Need A Wiki is an application that converts your Google Docs on Google Drive into an easy-to-understand wiki page. By transforming unclear Google papers into a beautiful site, YNAW ensures that you discover information easier.

10. Basecamp

Basecamp is a real-time communication platform that keeps teams on the same page. However, it focuses less on the project management side (e.g., resource planning and long-term scheduling). Basecamp helps teams keep track of priorities and actionable tasks via to-do lists, calendaring, due dates and file sharing.

Collaborate more effectively with IT Glue

IT Glue is a documentation solution renowned for its powerful collaboration abilities. Being a robust solution with versatile applications, it can help you document all aspects of your business and collaborate effectively with your team members. This keeps your entire team in the loop and facilitates timely decision-making.

IT Glue’s SOC 2-compliant documentation platform features an immutable audit trail, multifactor authentication and next-generation password management engine. You can also integrate these features with your documentation.

To learn more about how IT Glue can help you with team collaboration, request a demo.

Request a demo here!

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Document Collaboration: Drive Results With Real-Time Document Editing

itgdev — Wed, 22 Dec 2021 18:03:07 +0000

Collaboration is the need of the hour in today’s business world. Business processes and workflows cannot afford any delays and bottlenecks in today’s environment just because someone does not have access to the right information. The best way to address this issue is through documentation collaboration. Considering the speed at which businesses operate today, collaboration can play a huge role in business productivity, profitability and growth.

In this blog, we’ll discuss how document collaboration works and why it is a critical factor in today’s competitive business world.

What is document collaboration?

Document collaboration came into existence due to the need for real-time access to concurrent work in different places across the globe. It is a process that enables real-time collaborating, editing and sharing of documents between multiple parties who could be in different places around the world.

With the help of modern tools, you can eliminate the collaboration challenges and enable multiple people to work on a single file. This is also known by different names such as documentation collaboration, collaborative editing, collaborative documentation, etc. One of the key aspects of document collaboration is that it eliminates the need for unnecessary paper trials, email chains and overwriting of the original documentation.

How does document collaboration work?

It starts with the creation of a collaborative document, which is typically a file you can create on an online platform. Following this, you need to share this with other stakeholders to edit. The main objective of this collaboration is to have a final version that has input from all relevant stakeholders. The document could be in the form of a Word document, spreadsheet, PDF, videos, etc.

The tools designed to facilitate collaborative work are called groupware. These tools comprise collaborative technology with features like shared workspace, customizable user groups, document management, workflow routing, third-party app integration and more. These features allow for group problem solving and ensure a more intuitive workflow.

What is the purpose of document collaboration?

Document collaboration can change the way you work. The main purpose is to achieve efficiency and make life easier for those working on complicated projects. Imagine working with something like a whiteboard, but better. Here, all members have access to edit and share their thoughts on the project you are working on. It eliminates the need for rewriting and overwriting since changes can be in made real-time and for everyone to see. The advantage is you don’t need any expensive software purchases to perform document collaboration.

Now let’s see how document collaboration tools can significantly simplify the way you work with your peers.

What are document collaboration tools?

In the past, collaboration happened on whiteboards and notebooks. Thankfully, those days are way behind us. We live in an era where online tools allow us to collaborate with our teammates from anywhere, anytime. There is no need for everyone to be present in the same room or even present at the same time.

A document collaboration tool can make this happen by providing access to all members of the team. Besides allowing users to edit the document, the tool also stores all the files within its documentation ecosystem. You don’t have to worry about misplaced documents as long as you have the right document name.

Some examples of document collaboration tools include Google Docs, Microsoft 365, Dropbox, etc. These solutions are universally available and easy to use. IT Glue also comes with a documentation collaboration feature that allows all your technicians to access the required information from anywhere.

What do collaboration tools allow teammates to do?

When all your teammates have access to a documentation collaboration tool, they can view, edit, store and share any information within the platform. This helps them coordinate better and have instant access to all information. Since one team member doesn’t have to wait for another team member to access the information stored, it boosts productivity significantly.

For instance, let’s assume you are using IT Glue for your documentation. Once incorporated, your technicians can use the platform anytime and get the information they require to solve a problem. Since IT Glue is integrated with various RMM and PSA tools, you don’t have to jump platforms to access information and provide the required fixes.

What are the benefits of using collaboration tools?

Besides reducing manual paperwork, documentation collaboration can benefit organizations in a number of ways. Some of these benefits include:

Higher productivity
Better structure and organization
Increased collaboration within a team
Higher security for all documents
Lower storage costs for documents

What are document collaboration best practices?

Although document collaboration has a range of benefits, it also presents some challenges to organizations. For instance, easy access to everyone in a team can mean endless edits to files. To circumvent these challenges, we have come up with some documentation collaboration best practices to ensure controlled collaboration. Let’s take a look at them one by one.

Definitive roles

All members with access to documents must have specific roles. This ensures better security and organization. Some of the definitive roles to be included in collaboration are as follows:

Owner — One person in charge of decision-making and one responsible party.
Writers — Those in charge of content creation.
Editors — Those in charge of editing created content and quality control.

Commentators — Those who are able to comment and suggest on documentation, but without writing or editing capabilities.
Readers — Those with viewer access to the document.

Workflow deadlines

You need to set a clear timeframe to get work done on time. With a deadline for drafting and editing, you can prevent endless edits to all your critical documents.

Effective communication

When working towards a common goal with your team members, communication should be of high priority.

Real-time communication — Messaging and real-time communication should be highly encouraged.
Document edits — All edits should have relevant comments for maximum transparency.

Version tracking

Most documentation collaboration tools have a version tracking facility to identify the changes made to a document. Without this, you won’t know who has made the edits and when. This is especially important if your documents are of a sensitive nature.

Access management

Access to critical documents must be provided in a controlled manner. There should be a specific time period after which access to documents should be revoked for all non-owners. You need to do this to avoid errors and unnecessary modifications in the documents.

IT documentation collaboration with IT Glue

IT Glue is an industry-leading documentation tool that is built with collaboration in mind. Its powerful documentation feature allows users to build collaborative documents including security policies, guidelines, procedures, system information and more. You can share these documents with your clients and team members anytime to gather their input.

IT Glue’s SOC 2-compliant documentation platform features an immutable audit trail, multifactor authentication and next-generation password management engine. These features are fully integrated and linked with all your documentation.

To learn more about how IT Glue can help you with documentation collaboration, request a demo.

Request Demo Here!

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MyGlue Use Cases #2: Collaboration

itgdev — Tue, 02 Apr 2019 22:39:59 +0000

One of the most common, and valuable, use cases for MyGlue is to facilitate a greater degree of collaboration between you and your clients.

Documentation that you have in IT Glue can be made available in MyGlue, and in many cases, there’s a pretty good reason to share this. Share it with the client’s executive team. Share it with the client’s in-house IT people, if they have any. By providing key people access to their documentation – or at least some of it – you can work with them to maintain a fully-documented environment, and to ensure that documentation is up to date.

2-Way information flow

In any collaboration, information flows two ways. A good example might be if the client has turnover. Somebody leaves, and someone new arrives. You probably handle the documentation on their computer already, but what if there are certain things they are going to access on their phone? With MyGlue, you can get a two-way flow of information going that provides both parties with greater visibility into IT infrastructure. So instead of that phone being undocumented, anywhere, and therefore a security risk, have them document the phone. Then you’ll have visibility, and be able to follow up if need be.

A new relationship with your clients

One of the coolest things about establishing a collaborative relationship with your clients isn’t even the functional part. Thought leaders in the MSP space preach all the time about trying to get your clients to stop thinking of you as a cost center and start thinking of you as a profit center.

This is how you can do that. By reframing the relationship as one of collaboration, you change how clients think about you, and that makes it a lot harder for somebody to undercut you on price – because it’s not about price anymore.

MyGlue is a powerful collaboration tool, but offers a number of other possibilities for building a strong relationship with your clients as well. We discussed the password use case a few weeks ago, and we’ll be diving into a couple more use cases in the coming weeks. To learn even more about how MSPs are using MyGlue, sign up for a MyGlue Demo or get in touch with your Account Manager.

Yes, sign me up for a demo!

MyGlue is a documentation system for all businesses. Based on the award-winning IT Glue documentation platform, but built to meet the needs of small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). MyGlue allows your clients to document SOPs, passwords, vendor info, contacts, locations and equipment, all in one place, all accessible with a couple of clicks. Fully secure, MyGlue is the business information hub your clients have been waiting for.

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