One issue that many teams face is visibility. Without strict guidelines to spell out how individual team members are supposed to interact with others in the group, a manager could wind up with spotty performance that leaves people in the dark and tasks unfinished. Although everyone is responsible for reporting in to the team leader, one essential facet of operating as part of a group is interacting with others to share information and progress as a unit. A failure to do so leads to setbacks that affect overall goals and ultimately jeopardize the project. So if you’re looking for a way to get everyone on your team to adopt a hive-mind mentality, look no further than the Teambox application and it’s many options for transparency.

The only thing required for you to make the most of Teambox is that each team member is equipped with an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch (complete with iOS 4.3 or later). From there it is free to download the app and get started. The platform can also be accessed via computer, but it’s not a bad idea to ensure that everyone on the team has access to pertinent information via mobile means for faster communications and workflow. Although the software is centered around communications, like many of its type, it goes above and beyond competitors by delivering tools for team leaders and members alike to contribute to the progression of a project through their missives. While it’s not exactly a comprehensive project management tool, complete with timelines, milestones, typical file sharing, and so on, it does allow for collaboration in a variety of ways.

For starters, team members can carry on conversations in an environment that Facebook users will be familiar with; the “recent activity” timeline mimics the look and feel of this social networking site’s wall functionality. But there are tons of other ways to share. Cloud sync allows everyone to post, organize, and access files, for one thing. Team leaders can also use the app to assign tasks (along with information such as deadlines) that workers can then track via the tool, posting updates and even emailing finished tasks to their managers. And teams can also access virtual whiteboards that allow them to spitball and share ideas and notes.

Each project added into the app also gets its own timeline, complete with activities, conversation threads, tasks, pages, and people connected to it, making it easy for managers and team members to stay connected and up-to-date with specific projects. This application is not only great for office workers trying to organize and deliver team projects on tight deadlines, but it can also be an incredible tool for the manager dealing with a remote or freelance workforce, keeping everyone on the same page without having to send dozens of emails or take advantage of a toll free service for calling. Although there are all kinds of apps out there geared towards communications, task management, file sharing, and project administration, Teambox meets all of these many needs in an app that is efficient and easy to use. What more could a team of like-minded workers ask for?

Editor’s Note

Thanks to Evan Fischer for this guest post. He is a freelance writer and part-time student at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, California.

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