There is a seemingly endless list of cloud-based project, customer, finance, document, and meeting management platforms available to businesses today. As a co-founder in a start-up web design and inbound marketing agency that operates virtually, it feels like I have played with just about everyone of them.
The entire process of selecting a platform that meets your list of needs is confusing and frustrating. For a period of time, we went with Basecamp from 37 Signals as our project management solution. They offer an amazing interface and intuitive structure, which was great for working or interacting with our clients on various projects.
In the end though, Basecamp proved to be too simple, as it only covered one area of our business. To effectively scale the growth of our agency, we needed something we could customize to the way we run our business. We wanted to bring as much of our activity under one foot as possible. We wanted to add internal communication, lead management, client database, and more.
Enter Podio by Citrix. Podio is a completely different platform to manage a virtual business. Unlike other platforms that rely on a predetermined workflow, Podio gives you the keys to build the platform that meets your unique needs. They offer an open app marketplace where Podio and other organizations share apps that have helped manage their business. Each app is free to tryout, and can be customized to meet your needs.
Each organization is broken into workspaces. Each workspace consists of a series of apps. There is no limit to the number of external users you can invite into a workspace. This makes it great for managing projects with clients.
One of the coolest features we have started using is the GoToMeeting integration. From inside a workspace, you can spin up a meeting and send out invitations to other users within the workspace. Inside the same app, you can share the agenda, attach documents, take notes, and assign any tasks that result from the meeting. Perhaps most exciting thing is that Podio is free for up to five users, and then it costs only $9 per employee, per month after that.
Podio – The Ultimate Management Tool For Virtual Businesses
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Image Credits: [appsrevealed] [Podio]
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