Sometimes it’s easy for me to forget that our company is the exception not the rule. This is particularly true of our usage of web applications. When I speak to my friends at regular US corporations, for many of them it’s still pretty much an impossibility to introduce a productivity tool to their work environment. The best shot for some is to personally pay for them and try to get some of the money back via reimbursements. We have come a long way from when companies would routinely block all internet access for employees, although I’m sure that still happens, but we still haven’t moved beyond the IT-stranglehold on the employee desktop. OK, so I happen to have a horse in this race, but I think management is only hurting their own prospects by allowing this trend to continue in their company. Surely one of their competitors has no such aversion to using the web within their company, and their usage of these tools could give them an advantage over the long-term.
I’ve pitched to friends the tools that we internally use at Arc before, and have been asked the same question by others, here’s the full list of the web applications we currently are loving:
E-mail and collaboration with Google Apps for Business
Email with GMail – our email is hosted by Google. Why? It’s cheap and secure. GMail is also a great email client (conversation view, in-line chat) and lightening fast search.
Asset Collaboration with Google Docs – we frequently collaborate on something by way of a Google Doc, it’s just an easy way to get a bunch of people looking at the same asset – outside of email.
Calendar with Google Calendar – there are some good features, but overall we’re unimpressed with this product.
Group chat with Campfire – our informal ‘rule’ for the usage of Campfire is that any chat that could be useful to more than just one person should be in Campfire (versus an individual chat). Our usage of Campfire is varied, but common usage centers around a few people discussing a topic or for software deployment nights where are 10+ people are collaborating on a specific effort. All chat transcripts are saved and are searchable.
Group coordination with Yammer – one of the most common questions heard in our 30 person company is "What is [insert name] working on?". We use Yammer to helping raise the level of awareness about what people are specifically working on at any given time. "working from home on our IA Summit presentation, so consider me off today" was my update this morning letting everyone know where I am and whether I’m available. Bonus points: Doug built a bridge from our Yammer account directly to our Arc90 Twitter account, allowing people to pass messages through Yammer directly to Twitter, like so.
Outside communication with Twitter – Twitter is the killer-app-du-jour, but it is a phenomenal way to communicate the goings-on of your company or product(s) with the world at large. If you’re not considering the opportunities created by directly communicating with those outside of your company, be it through Twitter or a blog, you’re missing out.
Idea management and collaboration with Kindling – sure this is a plug, but it’s really an essential tool for Arc90. In fact, I can’t imagine running a business without it (or an equivalent tool). The people working at Arc care tremendously about what’s going on in the company and are motivated to continually try to improve it. Some examples of ideas that came directly out of our use of Kindling: have an internship program, switch to a bottleless water cooler, release Kindling as our first product (), host networking events, have an Arc90 prom (thankfully hasn’t yet happened!) and have a monthly newsletter. We’ve seen ideas big and small, but the increased level of engagement with the company since adopting Kindling internally is undeniable.
Project management with Basecamp – some people at Arc run efforts with Basecamp, but the company hasn’t committed to it as our tool for P.M. It’s a great product though, and also a good one to begin with if you haven’t yet started using web-delivered apps in your business.
If you’re working at a company that doesn’t allow you to adopt tools like these – keep pressing the issue, the market is moving towards this being widely accepted and commonplace. I’m sure that’s very comforting for those currently trapped in SharePoint by their corporate IT department.