Gmail

Gmail is the free webmail, POP3, and IMAP email service provided by Google, which is integrated into its suite of web apps. Gmail is available to anyone who signs up for a Google account. Gmail is highly considered to be one of the best Web-based email accounts to have. Unlike its competitors, Gmail has a minimalistic, ad free homepage that is great to look at. As soon as you sign in, you can immediately see your inbox, the left bar shows your email folders and contacts. The service can also be linked to Google Chat. If you are signed in, your online contacts will also appear here, and you can chat to them without leaving the confines of Gmail. Key features include: Mass storage: 7 GB of free storage space available. Less spam: Gmail blocks spam before it gets to your inbox. Built-in chat: supported chat directly in Gmail or talk face to face with voice and video chat. Mobile access: Gmail mobile is available across many platforms. Gmail is fast and reliable and uses excellent spam filters to keep your inbox clean. The settings are easy to use and are highly customizable. You can adjust keyboard shortcuts, allow/ deny automatic images, set signatures and out-of-office auto reply. If you don’t like the original flavor, you can also customize a theme that suits you better too. Overall, Gmail provides a great webmail service. It has support across the board for Google’s apps and services and has a clean and fresh interface that is distraction free and easy to use. It supports offline access and Yahoo!, Hotmail and other mail services can be imported and integrated into your Gmail inbox to give you a well supported service.

JIRA Service Desk

JIRA Service Desk is service management software that connects IT to your business through fast, accountable resolution of customer requests. It provides a collaborative yet agile platform that’s low cost, easy to set up and scale, and highly flexible, all with a simple user experience. JIRA Service Desk is built on the JIRA workflow engine, which is used by more than 22,000 teams worldwide. It offers a modern, flexible service desk experience for both customers and your service desk team. Of course, not all service desks operate the same way, or have the same needs. That’s why you get to build the process that fits your team on top of JIRA's world-class workflow engine for the most streamlined user experience. You can connect with your environment, integrate with practically anything, and deploy anywhere. Your service desk software has got to unify the vision and execution of your support and development teams, which is why JIRA is field tested and improved upon by thousands of customers. It makes solving customer requests fast and accountable, while helping your customers help themselves when they can with its self-service knowledge base. Advanced SLA You have options when it comes to your service desk software. This isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution, but rather includes customizable queues and an intuitive interface. Self-Serve Made Easy Your customers rely on your site to meet their needs, and if they don’t, they know your competitors will. The built-in knowledge base and self-service capabilities mean no more waiting around for a service ticket to be addressed by an overburdened team member. At the same time, the automated triage nature of JIRA means crucial issues get addressed first, so you don’t have service problems sitting at the bottom of the pile. Go Anywhere This software is available as a hosted solution or on demand, with an easy-to-use mobile interface and unlimited custom fields. For issues that require email, the professional look and feel of those emails means your company’s face comes through, even online. Full Integration JIRA offers your company best practices for service desk software, right practices out of the box. It features advanced security and administration settings while still letting you easily import data from other systems and integrate with flexible REST APIs without holdup. Pricing JIRA Service Desk uses a subscription pricing model. Plans start from $10.00 per month for 3 agents, and there is also a 7 day free trial available (no credit card required). For more than 4 agents, the charge is $20 per agent, per month. Bottom Line You don’t have enough hours in the day to waste them on mind-boggling training, so everything about this software is ready ‘out of the box’ to empower your team. Its intuitive customer portal requires no wasted time in learning how to use it, and its real-time reports give you and your team complete visibility.JIRA redefines what IT means to your business, meaning it’s not just about cleaning up the tech messes, but about monitoring your systems and making sure your help desk team is prepared to prevent the fires instead of just put them out. It gives your end users a tailored, engaging service desk experience while easily monitoring and tracking the success of your service desk team.

Front Desk

Front Desk was developed for personal service businesses such as gyms, yoga studios, music and dance studios, personal franchise services, and kids’ activity organizations. It is a cloud-based solution that simplifies business management and provides a way to manage your company from any smartphone, tablet, or desktop. The mobile platform delivers streamlined appointment scheduling, client management, attendance tracking, billing, and payment processing. Although business owners and managers are going to benefit the most out of Front Desk, the platform is also able to be used by staff members and clients. For example, a gym’s staff can use the platform to check clients into classes and confirm attendance. Meanwhile, clients can use the platform to schedule their own appointments, update billing information, and purchases class passes etc. Scheduling Client Appointments A cool feature of Front Desk is that it provides various tools for scheduling classes, workshops, and private appointments from a web based platform. Not only can clients book these services, they can also alter their own reservations and make any necessary payments. Before any clients can start scheduling your businesses classes, you need to enter the relevant class data into Front Desk’s scheduling management system. Basic data, including the title of the class and the name of the instructor is required, along with the class scheduling time and the price of each class. Managing Client Relationships In order for small businesses to function on a personal level, staff members need to have a relative amount of information regarding their customers. This is where client profiles come into ply. Client profiles give staff members a snapshot of every customer relationship. These client profiles include basic contact information, and other relevant data, such as profile photos, payment methods, and sign-in codes. There is also the ability to track and store liability waivers and release forms within their client profile modules. Accepting Payments Front Desk has solid automated billing and payment tools that allows your business to securely accept various payments with credit cards, direct deposits, and Paypal. Depending on how your business is setup, clients can purchase plans, passes, or pay for classes and sessions individually, In order to process payments with Front Desk, you are required to create a merchant account.* When your credit card processing has been activated, you are then able to save your clients’ credit card data in Front Desk and thereby avoid having to re-enter the information for every subsequent purchase. *Front Desk encourages business users to process transactions via its partners, TransNational, Bankcard and Gravity Payments. Integrations Front Desk is able to seamlessly integrate with other cloud-based business apps, including DocuSign, Emma, and MailChimp. This is a superb way to tackle email marketing and reduce paperwork. A great feature of Front Desk is that it provides users with a free DocuSign account. You can use the eSignature app to securely sign, send and store electronic documents, such as waivers and other liability forms, in the cloud. Pricing Front Desk uses a subscription based pricing model that starts at $75 or 1% up to $10,000 in revenue per month and $2 per $1,000 over $10,000. Merchant processing fees for US-based businesses are a flat rate of 2.4%. In real-terms this equates to $97.60 for every $100 deposited in your bank account, regardless of the type of credit cards used by your clients. Front Desk has a free trial available to test out the service, with no credit card required. Bottom Line Overall, Front Desk is a solid platform to manage almost any personal service business from. You can oversee scheduling, billing, payment processing and client management. It has scaled pricing to alter as your business grows, and is available to access across a variety of devices as it is based in the cloud.

Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365 is Microsoft’s cloud collaboration suite (formerly known as Office 365), which provides a secure space to store, edit and share files and documents. It has a vast array of tools that can help to connect dispersed teams using shared calendars, messaging and conferencing tools. The business class email provides 50 GB of storage per user, and is able to send messages up to 25 MB in size. This is great for sending images and applying custom formatting. With Microsoft 365 you can customize inbox rules and notifications, and update your calendar and to-do list, in order to help you prioritize your tasks. The online chat and instant messaging tools let you communicate with colleagues more effectively along with one-to-one, or one-to-many voice and video calling. Some great features of Microsoft 365 are the collaboration and knowledge sharing tools for both internal and external purposes. Documents can be accessed and viewed by clients, and you can also create project-specific mailboxes and websites that can be tailored for specific teams, complete with automatic policies. Instant Messaging With Microsoft 365 you can use your computer for video calls and are able to conduct online meetings or connect with your co-workers via instant messaging. File Sharing The ability to share your work with others, and be able to collaborate together, is a must-have feature of today’s modern office. Microsoft 365 lets you store and organize your most important documents easily, with 10GB of overall storage to work with, you'll never run out of space to store what you need. Calendars and Email You no longer have to be tied to your desktop in order to view emails and organise your calendar. With Microsoft 365 and a smart device, you carry your email and calendar with you, wherever you go. Calendars and Email can be accessed from any supported computer or smart device that has an Internet connection. Multi Language Microsoft 365 supports the following languages: Arabic, Chinese (Simplified), Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, and Ukrainian. Supported countries include Australia, Canada, Europe, India, Latin America, Middle-East and Africa, United Kingdom, United States. Pricing Microsoft 365 uses a subscription pricing model, with plans starting from $4.00 per month. Microsoft also provides a free trial to test out the software (no credit card required). Bottom Line Microsoft 365 is a secure way to create, store and edit your documents online. Using Microsoft 365 you can run your business with powerful cloud services that don´t require any in-depth IT expertise. You can access your emails, and attend meetings virtually, along with sharing files or creating a professional website. No matter what it is you need, Microsoft 365 helps you be productive on the go. It works with mobile devices such as Windows Phone, iPhone, iPad, Android, Symbian and Blackberry, and can be accessed via Mac OS or Windows OS.

Pixlr Image and Photo Editor

Pixlr is a free online photo editing suite that is split into three different apps that have been built from the same engine. Simply pick the one best suited for what you need and away you go. As Pixlr is a web service it provides a solid platform to work from. You can combine image design and paint tools with photo editing. The interface is intuitive with a gentle learning curve, so users of all levels of expertise will be able to navigate it with few issues. If you want to create an image, layer one image over another or use a variety of effects, filters and level adjustments to transform photographs, Pixlr can do it all. Key Features include: Variety of filters and effects. Custom Brushes. Customizable user-friendly interface with movable and scalable windows. History window for quick undo/redo. Fee-hand crop, move, super-impose and interpolate images and rotate and remove entire canvases. Pixlr Editor mimics native photo editing apps such as Photoshop. The structure and design of this technical editor allows you to seriously edit images. The interface looks familiar with toolbars along the left hand side and top. Along the right hand side you have a Navigator, Layer Controller, and History. The top bar is equipped with layers, adjustments and a stack of filter options. Pixlr Express gives you an simple service with some neat features. You can start from four points; Browse, Open URL, Webcam, or Collage. The interface is simpler than the Pixlr Editor. You have six different editing tools to choose from: Adjustment, Effect, Overlay, Border, Sticker and Text. Next up is Pixlr-O-Matic. This is the simplest version of the app. It has the least amount of features, but, is arguably the most fun to use. You start by selecting your image, then you change the effect/distortion of the picture by choosing from a massive range of effects. Then you can change the border to finish. All three parts of these apps are well developed and have been designed with a specific purpose. If you need to edit your next masterpiece or even make a great cover photo, Pixlr is a great choice because no matter what platform you access the web app from, you still get the same standard, uniformed Pixlr experience. Overall, Pixlr is a very functional photo editing suite, with everything you could possibly need. The interface is easy to use and the tools are are varied as your imagination. Pixlr really is a perfect example of an app which hits all the right notes and provides a great, free service.

Nectar Desk

Think of Nectar Desk as your call centre in the cloud. Billed as the most affordable and complete software of its type for handling inbound and outbound calls, with reporting and analytics, it offers the complete package for your business. Call centre fundamentals are taken care of thanks to Interactive Voice Response (IVR), Extensions, Call Recordings, plus, local and toll-free numbers. So to, are advanced features and service to take your customers’ experience to the next level. Nectar Desk’s cloud-based Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) tools, auto-dialers and IVR technologies allow you to reach out to horizons you didn’t imagine. Take advantage of Nectar Desk VoIP services to call prospects from anywhere in the world with your caller ID localised to eliminate dropped calls. It also supports more than 20 integrations including Salesforce, to ensure that all team departments get essential metrics from customer’s behaviour across all platforms – meaning you can map out the entire customer journey. Keeping track of staff performance and KPIs is a simple, too. Advanced agent analytics gives you full insight into metrics such as answering time, agent availability, ability to record, listen live along with customised reporting and alerts. Pricing Prices start at $29/user/month for the 'Basic Price' plan, which includes a maximum of 10 agents. Move up to $49/user/month for the 'Multi-Channel' plan and there's a maximum of 25 agents. Finally, for $99/user/month, you get the 'Unlimited' plan. Bottom Line Nectar Desk can be setup in minutes – from buying a number to customizing your agents and more. With no contracts, no hidden fees, no hardware, 24/7 phone and live chat support, it’s hard to think what more you could want from a cloud-based helpdesk.

Jira

JIRA is a bug tracking and issue recognition software that works on all platforms. It demonstrates advanced project management capabilities and features. It is used by a number of well-known open source projects as their primary software development issue tool and is a key component in tracking software bugs. JIRA houses a team's resources and knowledge assets under the same platform, making collaboration easy and open for everyone. This is great feature of JIRA because it enables teams to be more efficient. JIRA helps your team share information and engage others seamlessly by displaying issues on agile boards with customized workflows. JIRA’s agile project management features, give managers a clear way to locate hindrances which affect team productivity and rectify them. JIRA makes good use of kanban work in progress limits: this is massively beneficial because by matching the amount of work in progress to the team's capacity, kanban gives teams more flexible planning options, faster output, clear focus, and transparency throughout the development cycle. Managers can check their efficiency planning and assign specific tasks to specific individuals. In addition, JIRA has a feature rich service desk implementation, which gives every department the ability to collect customer requests immediately. This key tool can arrange requests and assign them to priority queues. This, in turn, improves team productivity. The information from metrics and SLAs, provide you with enough data to produce detailed, real time reports that will help you gain an overview of your team’s efficiency. Agile JIRA Agile was designed to assist collaboration among software development teams. It is a great tool that is used to increase overall productivity by making use of agile planning processes. With JIRA Agile, teams have the ability to stay flexible, yet deliver functioning software in a timely manner. JIRA supports agile by offering a transparent workflow that can be utilised by all project team members. This is achieved using solid practices such as scrum and kanban. JIRA Agile lets you plan in accurate detail, and with precise estimations. Everything, including bugs, tasks and actions, can be dragged and dropped to help users alter prioritization or change sprints. When the sprint ends, JIRA generates extensive reports that are filled with rich information and graphs to highlight completed work and unfinished tasks. These can then be moved to the backlog or onto the next sprint. Service Desk Probably the most useful feature of JIRA is the JIRA Service Desk. It uses a queue system that automatically prioritizes and categorizes requests according to settings that can be configured to your specifications. JIRA provides some queues out of the box for you, but you can add more any time you choose. JIRA Service Desk provides a clean and intuitive customer support portal where they can locate what they need via an easy-to-understand interface that can either direct them to an appropriate online help section, or onto the most appropriate person in order to resolve their issue. When a request reaches the service department, engineers undertake the assignment and begin work on the tasks involved. Atlassian Marketplace A great feature of JIRA is Atlassian's Marketplace. This is the area that houses all of JIRA’s extended functionality. The Atlassian Marketplace includes a huge selection that is upwards of over 400 add-ons. You can choose from free admin tools, chart drawing tools, dashboard gadgets, and themes and styles--the majority of which are free. Not only does it have add-ons, but there is also an extensive selection of workflow templates to choose from. Pricing JIRA uses a subscription pricing model with a free trial available. It uses multiple pricing tiers that get progressively less expensive per customer service agent as you add more users. Typically it offers 3 solutions. The basic tier accommodates 10 users and is priced at $10 monthly. The second tier includes JIRA and is priced at $20 per month. The third tier is priced in the same bracket, but has the Service Desk add ons enabled. The first essential add on is the Jira core service. This is priced based on the number of users. JIRA is commercial software; however, it may be used for free and without limitation by organizations that are non-profit, non-government, non-academic, and non-commercial. Open Source projects also meet the criteria to get a free user license. Bottom Line JIRA is solidly featured at a decent price and has customizable dashboards with a nice array of supported widgets. JIRA has workflows to match your existing processes and workflow management tools that let you work smarter. With tools like Agile project management and JIRA Service Desk, the JIRA platform is a flexible service desk that streamlines customer requests and boosts your IT team's efficiency.

RingCentral

RingCentral is a cloud phone system that can securely deliver high quality voice, fax, text and conferencing for your business; no matter what the company’s size, budget, location or devices used by your employees. With RingCentral you connect IP desk phones and PCs to your Internet connection and then install the RingCentral Mobile App on your employees’ smartphones. It is these endpoints which communicate with the RingCentral cloud platform to enable a seamless communications system across all your office locations. RingCentral’s cloud communications solution is so much easier to manage, not to mention far more flexible than standard legacy, on-premise PBX phone systems. No matter what the nature of your business, RingCentral can help you stay connected across multiple locations, with desk phones, smartphones/tablets, and soft phones. Moving to RingCentral’s cloud phone system from your current system is a fast and straightforward procedure; a RingCentral implementation specialist will manage the transition for you, so all your office locations and remote working employees will be taken care of. The logistics of transferring your existing phone numbers, ordering new lines, or choosing from local, toll-free, and vanity numbers can be undertaken by your account representative, thereby leaving you to get on with the most important thing; your business. Flexibility RingCentral provides you with a flexible communications platform, which can adapt to the needs of your business. RingCentral’s systems are a robust solution that can easily be scaled as your business grows and expands. You can set up, manage and access your communications from anywhere you choose by using any smart device or via the web. RingCentral utilises a unique click/tap interface that is easy to operate and thereby will reduce IT workloads, and increase your productivity levels. RingCentral’s Intelligent collaboration will give your employees the power to share files, manage projects, and collaborate across your business more productively than ever before. Call Management RingCentral’s business phone system is fully customizable to suit your needs. When customers contact your business, you want them to experience a professional and personalised service. The advanced call management features of RingCentral’s cloud phone system means that your team will provide a clear and consistent service across the board. When you first log in, an online wizard walks you through the setup of your users and basic phone system settings. You can then move on to set up services such as Call answering rules, Call forwarding, Call logs, and Message alerts. There are also really useful features such as Missed-call notifications and Automatic call recording. Integrations and Mobility RingCentral provides you with an integrated voice, fax and text service. The cloud-based office phone system lets you work when you need to. Because nearly all management features are available on RingCentral Mobile Apps for iOS® and Android™ you are never tied down. RingCentral allows for seamless integration with other cloud business apps you rely on day to day, including Microsoft Outlook®, Box, Dropbox and Google Drive. It also integrates really well with services from Oracle® Sales Cloud, Salesforce®, Zendesk® and Office 365™. These integrations and supported services means you will stay connected and remain productive. Pricing RingCentral operates a subscription pricing model and services start from $19.99/month, with a Free Trial (No Credit Card required) to let you feel comfortable trying out their services. RingCentral Office™ services start from $19.99 per user and RingCentral Professional™ is charged from $9.99 per user. Bottom Line RingCentral is a key solution for Freelancers, Large Enterprises, Non Profits, Public Administrations, and Small Businesses alike. The communication services are provided at a fraction of the cost of outdated PBX hardware, and because it supports devices from across all major platforms including iOS®, Android™ Windows Phone, and Mac OS/WindowsOS, combined with a seamless integration with other cloud business apps, RingCentral is a complete cloud phone solution that covers all the bases.

Kite Desk

A unfilled order pipeline is a terrible thing, but KiteDesk prospecting software helps dramatically improve your company’s lead generation. The system is designed to produce the right lead information, including email addresses, phone numbers, and professional or social profiles, at the right time to create more qualified meetings and closed sales. KiteDesk specifically targets your Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs), an area where your prospect research is most efficient. KiteDesk's visual prospect list builder uses expansive search criteria, including company name, type of industry, and business size (including filters by revenue and number of employees); individual person, sorted by name, department, and title; and locations for each contact or business, broken down by country, state, region, city, and/or zip code. The KiteDesk system works everywhere and lets you pick up new contacts no matter how you find them, whether through the Chrome extension, a social media search toolbar on LinkedIn, Kite icons connected to an email address, and the ability to auto-discover prospects from any website. These tools enable the fast construction of lists filled with quality prospects from a database of millions of companies and contacts. Best of all, your sales teams can scale outbound lead generation with KiteDesk. Lead Location KiteDesk’s massive leads database means there are plenty of fully-filterable leads, suited to your industry. The prospecting tool automates the task in order to speed up the sales process. Finally, the social media toolbar will help you save a lead found online with the click of a mouse, while the advanced connection scoring will help ensure that you generate only “warm” leads. Integration Bi-directional syncing with Google Apps, Office productivity, CRM integration, the Chrome extension, the social media toolbar, and the web app mean you are always on the hunt for a lead without missing a chance to grab it. Lead Management Your sales team can record, bridge, and log calls with KiteDesk's Sales Dialer, which lets them keep all of their pertinent lead information in one place. They can also send contact emails directly from the KiteDesk dashboard to avoid multiple channels when trying to follow up on leads. Pricing KiteDesk uses a freemium subscription pricing model that starts from $75.00 per month, with a free trial available with no credit card required. KiteDesk plans start with KiteDesk FIND, which is priced at $75 per seat, per month, billed annually. Next up is KiteDesk REACH, priced at $100 per seat, per month, billed annually (this option includes KiteDesk FIND). If required, data packages and minutes can be purchased separately above the starter tier. Bottom Line KiteDesk provides you with the shortest path to warm, viable leads with advanced connection scoring. You can map out your day’s most important tasks and contacts with action lists, and therefore avoid the pitfall of having so much to do and nowhere to start that you really never get off the ground. With the ability to fully integrate your workflow with leading CRMs, social channels, calendars, and email programs, you can keep all of the information you need right at your fingertips.

Open DNS

Open DNS is a DNS resolution service. It provides easy-to-implement Internet navigation and Web security solutions for families, schools, governmental organizations and businesses of all sizes. The services provided by OpenDNS increase the speed of navigating websites and prevent unintended access to phishing and malware sites as well as to any Web content that you configure to be restricted. Key Features include: Faster, more reliable Internet Internet security. Customizable filtering and security. Cloud service. Parental controls that protect every device. Phishing protection. Premium DNS. Malware and botnet protection. For small businesses and families with children, OpenDNS provides a relatively simple method of keeping users away from questionable material on the Web. It has a clean, well-explained interface that makes it simple to block individual domains or categories of online sites by simply logging into your account and entering your preferences. OpenDNS’ phishing protection can identify and stop sites trying to phish your personal data. It works with all operating systems and browsers, and supports any other security measures that are already in use, such as a firewall and anti-virus software. Overall, OpenDNS can make your Internet experience safer and faster for you and everyone using your network.

Phone.com

Phone.com is a robust cloud-based phone service that is tailored to entrepreneurs and small businesses. The end-to-end system is easy to setup and manage and is scalable to suit numerous types of businesses of varying sizes. Phone.com has some really useful services, such as a native iOS and Android app. With Phone.com apps there is no longer a need to carry around multiple devices in order to manage your business successfully. Phone.com is capable of managing several telephone numbers on a singular mobile phone. This service is great as it allows you to separate your professional and personal profiles whilst only carrying around one handset. Online Fax The Phone.com service allows you to send and receive faxes. This is a great feature that is included with all plans, although it is worth noting that you will have to pay more if you are on a pay-per-minute plan. For every fax page sent or received, your account will be debited in value equal to 1 minute. If you are on an unlimited plan though, then you can send/receive unlimited faxes. Sending faxes is a fairly simple affair; navigate to the extensions page and choose the extension that you want to send the fax from. There is a menu bar on the left hand side, from here you will see an option to ‘Send a Fax’. The service lets you type the message directly or upload a document file. Auto Attendant Phone.com lets you truly personalize your business communications. With Phone.com you can set up a custom greeting when users call your number, in much a similar way to standard customized outgoing voice message. One really cool feature of Phone.com however, is the ability to set up a menu for callers to direct themselves to the department or employee which they attempting to reach. Setting up a greeting on your account is easy; you can record a greeting from your phone, input text and have it read by an auto voice, or upload an audio file. This is then followed by creating a ‘menu’ that will enable callers to route their call by pressing a corresponding keypad button; 1 for Sales, 2 for Administration etc. Once configured, Auto Attendant is easy to manage. Integrations Phone.com is able to be connected to numerous different CRMs via a 3rd party service called Callinize. Supported services include Insightly, Salesforce, REthink, SugarCRM and Zoho. Pricing Phone.com uses a subscription pricing model with a free trial available (no credit card required). Plans start from $9.99 per month for the base plan. This includes 100 minutes, (no extra charges for toll-free minutes) all 40+ features, a toll-free or local phone number and 24x7 Support in the U.S. There are also two options for additional minutes; 1) Pay-Per-Minute above 100 minutes as low as 2.5¢ and 2) Unlimited Extensions as low as $19.99/month. Bottom Line Phone.com is a simple service that can be setup and running in no time at all. The service is scalable with packages including a single phone line with basic functions to a more advanced system that can have multiple users.

Sfile.mobi

Free web-based file-sharing service

InvGate Service Desk for Web Apps

Technical

Program available in other languages