Virtual teaming and online meeting management has grown in popularity in the recent past. The increasing need for collaborations among employees, clients and partners has intensified the demand for collaboration software. Therefore, the technology and the security of the collaboration software are of great importance when selecting an effective solution. The software identified should be capable of balancing the need for mobility, security, and ease of use. Huddle collaboration software is identified as an appropriate solution spanning key functional capabilities that include file sync and share, collaborative workspaces, external sharing, and a system of record.
Popularity and Use
Huddle software has grown in popularity among organizations because it facilitates collaborations both within and without the organizations. It has allowed organizations to free themselves from the restrictive legacy IT infrastructure and collaborate more effectively (Huddle Software). Huddle is used by more than 100,000 organizations across the globe including AKQA, KIA Motors, Williams Lee, Grant Thornton, and Keolis among others. Moreover, Huddle has strong government credentials as the cloud collaboration service is used by 80% of the Central UK government departments such as the Ministry of Justice, Food, and Rural Affairs among others. The company received an award for “Emerging Star of the Year” at the UK technology awards as well as the “Supplier of the Year” accolade at Computer Weekly’s European User Awards for Enterprise Software. Therefore, the collaboration solution is very popular among the users in terms of effectiveness, reliability, and security.
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Privacy and Security
Huddle software has the required security and privacy features essential for keeping data safe and secure. Biggest businesses in the world and numerous government organizations have trusted hurdle with their data (Huddle). Therefore, huddle has integrated the necessary security features in their collaboration software that make it reliable in terms of privacy and security. Project managers can control who can see certain projects and who cannot see by setting permissions on the subfolders, folders and even the entire workspaces. Such information can be updated at any particular time with just a few clicks hence making it easy to manage what each individual has access to. The software users, therefore, can manage team permissions as well as use time-stamped audit trails that facilitate identification of individuals accessing and using one’s documents.
Cost
Huddle software is relatively expensive and many organizations may not afford to purchase the product. There are low cost alternatives to huddle which can be utilized by organizations especially those with tight budgets. Huddle’s pricing is dependent on the inflexible bracket of user numbers into which the requirement of each buyer happens to fall (Huddle Review, 2015). The rigidity of the user number brackets makes Huddle an expensive vendor of collaborative software. Moreover, one has to commit to a one-year contract in order to subscribe to their service. This becomes expensive especially when an organization wants to use the software for a limited period. Huddle is available in four plans: essential, plus, premier and government and public sector. The essential package costs 9000 pounds per year while the plus package costs 36000 per year. The other packages are even more costly. This therefore demonstrates that the costs associated with the use of huddle collaboration software are high.
Technology
Huddle employs modern technology to facilitate secure storage, access, sharing, and file synchronizing in enterprise and government organizations. The technology can be used regardless of whether an individual is inside or outside the organization’s firewall (Viswanathan, 2014). The software is built to support the needs of the workforce and is focused on the secure external collaboration. Huddle collaboration software brings together the entire business network of colleagues, partners, clients, and contractors into one central online environment from where they can collaborate effectively on content from wherever they are. The collaborating parties can work from various devices such as laptops, desktops, smartphones, and even tablets.
Training
The software is user friendly and it requires basic computer application skills. However, training the users about the use of the software during adoption is very important. Training will help the users to get familiar with the new environment of virtual teaming and online meeting management. Therefore, basic knowledge of the features in the software alone may not be enough to make the users to effectively utilize the resource. Training is essential in an organization especially when a new idea is presented to the staff.
Product Evaluation
Huddle is a collaboration software that effectively enables organizations to securely store, access, share, sync, and work on files with any individual or partner they need to regardless of where they are. Huddle collaboration software helps businesses to effectively manage their cloud content (Huddle Review). It provides employees with a platform that helps in creating and browsing through user profiles and facilitates file sharing and project collaboration options. Huddle also provides mobile applications that enable employees to access content in their Blackberry phones, Android phones, and iPhones.
Advantages
Huddle facilitates effective and efficient file sharing and management in organizations. Files are some of the most accessed items in an enterprise network. The employees in an organization need to share their reports. Moreover, product teams need to manage feature documents and presentations that assist in vital decision making in organizations. Huddle provides the most effective way to upload and access the files in a familiar folder structure with sorting and search features (Huddle Software). Huddle also provides document integration with Microsoft Office and versioning control.
When using Huddle, employees in organizations can sync content across multiple devices. Moreover, the individuals can subscribe to only the relevant content to be downloaded to their mobile phones or workstation (Viswanathan, 2014). With Huddle, there is a 99.9% uptime guarantee and user access control hence providing greater security for the content. The solution offers effective collaboration options through virtual whiteboards and commenting features that help the users to get real-time responses from colleagues. Tasks can also be managed using Huddle because it has built-in task management tools. The collaboration software can be customized to fit the needs of the particular users.
The integration of Huddles with Microsoft Word allows the users to work in Word and have their changes updated automatically in Huddle. This improves the convenience and the efficiency associated with the collaboration software. Moreover, the software provides document histories and audit trails so that users can view who is editing the documents (Huddle Reviews). The workspace of the users can be customized to include branding.
The security of the data is assured because access rights and security levels are customizable. Therefore, users can allow access to certain employees and departments. Moreover, the users can revoke access to the content across all devices. Therefore, huddle has integrated the necessary security features in their collaboration software that make it reliable in terms of privacy and security. Project managers can control who can see certain projects and who cannot see by setting permissions on the subfolders, folders and even the entire workspaces. Such information can be updated at any particular time with just a few clicks hence making it easy to manage what each individual has access to.
Disadvantages
Huddle is relatively expensive and it can strain the organization’s resources. It charges even more than comprehensive project management software providers (Huddle Review, 2015). Huddle’s pricing is dependent on the inflexible bracket of user numbers into which the requirement of each buyer happens to fall. The rigidity of the user number brackets makes Huddle an expensive vendor of collaborative software. Moreover, one has to commit to a one-year contract in order to subscribe to their service. This becomes expensive especially when an organization wants to use the software for a limited period.
Huddle lacks a time clock or a place a user can enter how much time he has been spent on a particular task. This is a problem because time information is important in determining how much effort has been spent in a particular task as well as scheduling future projects. Moreover, projects cannot be viewed in a timeline view because the software lacks Gantt charts. The software is not capable of generating reports making analysis difficult.
Conclusion
Huddle is an effective collaborative software and it is highly recommended for use in organizations. It helps team members stay organized as it facilitates real-time content sharing. Huddle facilitates collaborations both within and without the organizations. It has allowed organizations to free themselves from the restrictive legacy IT infrastructure and collaborate more effectively. Therefore, Huddle is the best option because it has useful features that are necessary for effective collaboration in organizations. Huddle has functionalities that effectively enable organizations to securely store, access, share, sync, and work on files with any individual or partner they need to regardless of where they are (Huddle Review, 2015). Huddle collaboration software helps businesses to effectively manage their cloud content. It provides employees with a platform that helps in creating and browsing through user profiles and facilitates file sharing and project collaboration options.
References
Huddle. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.huddle.com/
Huddle Software. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.softwareadvice.com/project-management/huddle-profile/
Huddle Reviews. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.trustradius.com/products/huddle/reviews
Viswanathan, B. (2014, March 23). Huddle Software Review: Overview – Features – Pricing. Retrieved from https://project-management.com/huddle-software-review/
Huddle Review. (2015, November 12). Retrieved from http://www.reviews.com/project-management-software/huddle/
