ASUS Business Hub

Following our recent look at tools that teams use to improve their communication and project management, it’s now time to look at the best offerings when it comes to online file storage, time-tracking, and aggregating notes, ideas, and more into one simple location.

Cloud Storage

Cloud storage is an ideal solution for companies looking to pull their data out of the office and individual staff systems, and into one cohesive, organised place. It’s the smart and secure way to organise company and customer files. It does require an active internet connection to access, and strong download and upload speeds will rely on a strong router – the ASUS range are an excellent choice for office setups – so consider both your office and staff home connections as you look to implement cloud storage into your business. Google Drive (Free/Paid Options) Google Drive offers a wealth of storage for very low prices, and like other options in this list, scales well as your team’s needs grow. G Suite is the actual offering, not to be confused with Google Drive’s consumer option. G Suite offers a range of features, from website and survey builders, Hangouts Meet and Chat – which offer teams messaging, video, and voice conferencing, potentially saving costs in other areas on this list – and unlimited cloud storage for teams on the Business or Enterprise plans with more than 5 users. There’s plenty to unpack with a G Suite plan, and for those firmly in the Google ecosystem, it’s an option worth considering. Microsoft OneDrive (Paid) OneDrive is Microsoft’s cloud storage option, and looking at their business options you can see low-cost options for those simply looking to make use of Microsoft’s file-storage system. Moving to the Office 365 Business Premium plan will see teams gain access to the suite of Microsoft Office applications, including SharePoint and Teams; much like Google’s G Suite, will mean teams may not need to spend elsewhere if they go with this option. For those already using Microsoft Office in their day-to-day work, this one is an obvious choice. Dropbox (Free/Paid Options) While using Dropbox’s consumer offering is an option for small businesses, Dropbox Business offers significantly larger storage capacities, along with security options including invitation enforcement, domain verification, file locking, document watermarking, and more. Dropbox is a file storage system at its heart, and offers little additional benefits beyond that purpose, which may put some teams off who are looking to maximise their spend. For those purely focused on finding a suitable file storage system and have no interest in office tools, Dropbox is a simple and easy-to-implement solution for businesses of any size.  

Time Tracking/Management

Toggl (Free/Paid Options) Toggl prides itself on providing a simple and easy-to-use tool to track how much time each team member spends on tasks and projects, stressing that it’s a tool teams will actually use to keep track of time invested. Toggl offers a free Basic plan, that includes the fundamentals:

• One-click timers
• Tracking reminders
• App integrations
• Reporting
• Project Dashboard

If you’re looking to go beyond simply tracking time and get more in-depth reports on where you can save time and money, profitability charts, reports-to-email scheduling and more, you’ll want to view Toggl’s paid plans, which come with a free 30-day trial. Time Doctor (Paid) Time Doctor takes the tracking functionality a few steps further, throwing in screenshots, mouse/keyboard activity, payroll and payment integrations and more. Time Doctor is certainly for those team leaders looking to keep close track of how teams are progressing, and add in a few other features besides. While more expensive than apps like Toggl, the functionality is also greater, and is suitable for managers looking for a serious solution to time and team management. Harvest (Free/Paid Options) Harvest much like Toggl offers a simple solution to time-tracking, expense reporting, and more. Starting with a Free account, users can manage up to two projects, offering a great test environment to see how Harvest could be used with larger teams. Harvest includes 100+ app integrations, unlimited people and projects for the Pro plan, reporting tools, and more. If your team doesn’t need something quite as intensive as Time Doctor, Harvest could be a great solution. Timely Timely is much more than a team time-tracking tool; it covers not only employee timesheets, dashboards, and more – you’ll also find appointment scheduling, marketing trools, sales and payment systems, client management, inventory and stock management solutions, and more. It’s a intensive system that covers many aspects of business management, and is likely an ideal solution for any teams looking to go beyond simply tracking hours and timesheets, and manage various aspects of business from appointments and client management, to ensuring stock levels and marketing campaigns are on-track. As you can imagine, this expanded range of features comes with a higher price-tag, though Timely will likely work out cheaper for teams who want to condense various tools into one singular tools that covers all the needs mentioned above.  

Note-Taking/Collaboration Tools

Evernote (Free/Paid Options) Evernote is one of the most popular note-taking applications available, offering users the ability to collate and coordinate notes and files in one centralised location. Evernote offers a business plan that goes beyond organised note-taking, adding in collaboration features, virtual bulletin boards, and team administration features. In addition, file limits are much higher, giving teams the freedom to develop comprehensive file systems for clients and projects. You can even connect Evernote Business to Outlook, Slack, and Teams, Salesforce, and link Google Drive files. Overall, Evernote offers a strong document and file collaboration space for managers who need that system for their team. Microsoft OneNote (Free/Paid Options) OneNote is similar in feature-sets to Evernote, particularly in design; both follow a notebook-style format, dividing projects and categories by notebooks, sections, and pages. In terms of how they differ, OneNote’s storage limits are limited only by the OneDrive storage users have access to – perfect for those businesses already using Office 365. The same factor applies to pricing; Office users will already have access to OneNote’s storage, though it should be mentioned that OneNote does have a free version available to all. In terms of pricing, OneNote will be cheaper for those Notion (Free/Paid Options) Notion hasn’t been around long, first offering its features in 2018. Since then, it’s quickly become a strong contender for teams looking to centralise work, files, projects and more in one place. It’s a versatile tool, offering various features beyond note-taking and collaboration:

• Company documents and resources
• Calendars for project management
• To-do lists/Task management
• Timeline views
• Live document collaboration

Its offering differs from OneNote and Evernote Business in that it goes beyond taking notes, stretching into the wider team workflow, which may eliminate the need to purchase other products in time management and to-do applications. Pricing for Notion is low, comparative with OneNote and Evernote Business, and users can get started for free to get a feel for how Notion might be applicable in their teams.