Zoho Connect

Powerful team-collaboration tool with stunning extras and a generous free plan

Comments: Powerful but overwhelming. Several features and tools would make a compelling sidegrade for my team but I'm not sure the learning curve is worth it. Others may have different experiences and requirements.

Pros:

My teams have moved from Yammer to Slack to Flock, with some experimentations with Asana, Trello, Dropbox Paper and probably a half-dozen other ancillary project management/collaboration apps. They all have their strengths. (Yammer was by far the app my varied team took to the quickest, but Flock is popular, too.) The free plan which pretty much has everything a small team/business could need, supports up to 25 users. Cool. Zoho Connect is more than a project management or team collaboration tool, it's an online file cabinet, library, calendar, call tool, integrated chat, docs, presentation tool, manuals, and tons more, with extensive integration with all of Zoho's other apps and tools. Is there a deeper ecosystem? But, see below:

Cons:

All that power has a cost in terms of UX. It's exhausting figuring out where everything is and how to use all of the tools together. The devs have built a fairly easy to use collaboration space but it can be overwhelming and easy to overlook some integrations. I had to squint to see Cliq, the chat app, and Channels, way down on the bottom right. (Still don't know what distinguishes Channels from Groups...) If you need to get up and running fast with a temporary team there are better options, such as all the ones I mentioned. If your company is looking for an all-in-one powerful tool, Zoho Connect is in the top 3 you need to look at. Only 100 GB file storage for an enterprise plan is pretty stingy!

Exactly what small teams need

Comments: I absolutely love the "manuals" feature where you are able to create standard operating procedures with ease and share them with specific colleagues and groups. I also love the video conferencing feature that also allows scheduling. The learning curve is very steep and it's easy to implement in teams.

Pros:

The software is incredibly easy to use, it's very intuitive and it has enough features to make it worthwhile using. What's also great is the integration with other tools like Zoho CRM and Zoho Projects for scraping tasks or Google Calendar for syncing events. It's very simplistic in nature and that's what makes it great. Need a full-fledged project management software? Go use Zoho Projects. Need instant communication? Use Zoho Cliq. Still Zoho Connect serves us as a central hub to manage the different applications and have a neat and easy to understand interface for the most important tasks.

Cons:

There are some quirks I'm not happy with like that you aren't able to edit the forum posts of other members, only your own. Also the mobile app doesn't allow the creation of new forum posts.

Quite OK but not good enough

Comments: We tried to run company policies, employee handbook, technical documentation, operational planning and other things here. But even the content of an employee handbook is testing the limits of Connect.

Pros:

Task Management and Sharing features work quite smoothly and fast. I see improvement for checklist functionality within tasks (give more options of appliances like in Autopilot). Sharing feature is almost perfect.

Cons:

The rigid layout and structure. Manual topics are cut off in the tiny menu bar even for short chapter titles. Nothing here is dynamic or can be configured. Text formats are unchangeable (according to feedback by support on a ticket). Huge headers, tiny paragraphs. Linking, structuring and looking up information within feeds and manuals is not working well. Tagging is almost useless as it is a personal setting only, it should help to flag information for others. I'd like to see options like auto-linking terms (TiddlyWiki) or creating index/sitemaps. Connect is too limited to cover the needs of information even for our small company (<50). But currently it's the only co-lab "web-content/HTML" based tool in the suite. That's why we have to resort to classical word processing format in workdrive, which is even less helpful for interlinked information.

Great communication tool to compete tasks

Comments: The overall experience I have had has been a positive one, where I can jot different things down to each team member and see what I am assigned to as well.

Pros:

I like that I can add certain individuals to a task I need to complete to get their input or have them complete a piece I need to complete my project.

Cons:

I don't like that there can be a bunch of different chats open or in the list all at once. They need to have a task expiration or something. Maybe I don't see where this can be added. User rights maybe.

Zoho connect helps with communication and productivity

Pros:

Zoho Connect concept provides comprehensive coverage throughout the whole journey. For me, I can speak well with a specific group, maintain focus, and then follow-ups with relative ease. It's straightforward to use. It draws everybody together totally fulfills the requirement.

Cons:

There are several subcategories that I am presently researching and want to continue to do so. Other Connection applications may be more appropriate for my final goals in some cases. I am an equal opportunity opportunist when trying out new and different methods of doing things. I'd pull in the additional subcategories and have specific items display for particular people and situations.