The Best Free Online Collaboration Suite

With more and more people working remotely, online collaboration is an essential tool for any self-respecting home-worker.  With a fully featured collaboration and screen sharing application (white boarding),  even the most distanced workers can be just as productive as if they were in the same room.  And as more and more work is off-shored or near-shored,  efficient collaboration can make the difference between project delivery or project doom.

Most people will have tried using Google Apps or Microsoft Office Online for online collaboration,  with mixed levels of success. However,  one of the best alternatives to Google Docs for collaboration and whiteboard application, is the lesser known,  Zoho Productivity and Collaboration suites.

Supporting an huge number of collaboration applications, including free 1-on-1  web conferencing, online document management, online spreadsheets, note takers, online project planning, and web mail,  this could be your one-stop-shop for your collaboration needs.

Perhaps one of the best features of Zoho is the free 1-to-1 conferencing.   Online web conferencing and collaboration is notoriously tricky for remote workers due to firewall constraints, or administrator access to the PC.  With Zoho Web Meetings,  all you need to do is logon,  create a meeting, send an email invitation to the other person,  download a small light-weight app,  and away you go.  You’ll be sharing screens, PowerPoint presentations, and Word documents in no time.   You can also give control to the other party for true collaborative creativity.

Other essential collaboration features of Zoho include a full online Wiki for sharing snippets of information and full document management capabilities. Zoho give you 1GB of space to store and share documents,  with the option to pay for more storage if you need it.

There is also a fairly basic To-list and Track tracker, a word processor and an online presentation tool. Overall,  a fairly comprehensive and free online collaboration suite.

Visit Zoho for the best online collaboration suite.

What do you use for online collaboration and white boarding?