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

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

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.

Its good but not great like all zoho software

We used it for business communication but went back to Slack in the end. It just works better

Pros

As part of the Zoho one suite, it is very affordable.

Cons

Zoho are the ultimate jack of all master of none when it comes to software solutions. Connect just didn't work well and I had to go to other more popular options

Looking for a companion platform to go with your exiting company chat service? Zoho Connect is great

Connect gave us a great platform to utilize with external team members where we could control the conversation and content shared easily

Pros

Live chat, content sharing, and the chat restrictions were all great features to use with our external partners

Cons

Adding new members to particular groups was often a challenge. We'd add them as new users in they system, but had issues with their ability to access the chat once they attempted their first login

Great communication tool to compete tasks

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.