There are hundreds of digital tools out there to help make your business run better. Every function, from marketing to administration to project management, has a slew of digital platforms which have the potential to unlock productivity and innovation in your company. Implementing an evolving stack of these tools is one of the keys to being nimble and successful in the digital economy.
Mod Op Strategic Consulting is constantly experimenting with new platforms as well as sitting for product demos. We are always searching for worthwhile tools for our clients and ourselves. Obviously, our stack is unique to our consultancy, but this method of consistently trying new tools and using digital technology to drive growth is applicable to every type of business.
Communication and Collaboration:
- Slack: With malleable messaging functionality, file sharing, and integrations, Slack is an indispensable collaboration tool. It drastically cuts down on internal emails and is essential for maintaining group conversation in the face of fluid schedules.
- Dropbox: Simply the best and safest way to collaborate with large teams and even larger file sets. Their desktop client, which syncs local files with the cloud, further adds efficiency to workflows.
- Join.me: We’ve tried a ton of video conferencing software with varying degrees of success. Join.me is the least worst option.
- Smartsheet: The most malleable project management platform out there. A very shallow learning curve with a ton of layered functionality makes Smartsheet our most essential project management tool.
- Trello: A really robust and pliable collaboration tool. Its simple layout and functionality can be applied to any type of business project from marketing to software development.
- Basecamp: An alternate project management tool to Smartsheet, more rooted in software development.
- Quickbase: An extremely effective and reliable tool for collaborative work around databases and datasets.
Productivity:
- Lastpass: In a time where a single security breach can bankrupt, Lastpass’s password management (both individual and team) adds an extra layer of security without slowing things down.
- Pipedrive: We’ve also tried a bunch of CRMs and sales funnel management solutions, Pipedrive provides just the right amount of structure without going overboard.
- Office 365: By no means a perfect suite, but it’s painless enough.
Administration:
- Docusign: A digital business essential! The speed and ease in which documents can be sent, signed and approved quickens the pace of business immensely.
- Trinet: Straight forward, small to medium sized HR tool.
- Intuit: Equally straight forward, small to medium sized finance and tax tool.
Great Point Solutions:
- Mailchimp: Mailchimp is not a large scale solution quite yet, but for small to medium sized businesses it’s a dream. Data-driven email marketing made quick, easy, and effective.
- Nuvi: Social media analytics and research is another crowded category, we’ve tried a bunch and Nuvi stands out as having the perfect balance of power and ease-of-use.
- SurveyMonkey: Though not formally related, it certainly shares the same DNA as Mailchimp. A quick, attractive, and effective solution for creating every type of survey.
Updated May 18, 2017 – Six month after our original post, we have had a few updates. Here are a couple other tools we’ve been using:
TallyFy. We document our repeatable processes, such as monthly financial close, daily lead generation, weekly email production etc. These processes have ITTT (If This Then That) condition, assignments to multiple staff, vendors and clients, and completion tracking.
Zapier. A handy tool to transfer data or transactions from one solution to another. For example we can transfer data from one spreadsheet to another, tasks from Pipedrive to reminders in Outlook, completed contracts in DropBox to a new TallyFy process.
