Huddle is a secure online collaboration tool that lets employees work together on projects in real time, despite distance. Designed with telecommuting and the modern workplace in mind, it helps employees easily exchange information with its many different features. It is an ideal business tool for those who need an easy to use online working environment, especially when regularly working remotely.
Huddle online collaboration at a glance
Bottom-Line: Huddle is a beautifully made online collaboration tool, with an appealing user interface that makes using it a real pleasure. There are no downloads involved, so can be used from any Internet-connected computer.
Pros: Account setup is easy, and takes only a minute. Users can choose from a number of different accounts, from a basic free one all the way to an enterprise option, which has a number of unique features.
Cons: The free package only allows for one workspace with 100 MB of storage. In addition, it does not keep track of document versions. If you are looking for these more advanced features, then you will have to pay for one of the packages offered.
Price: Huddle offers a free, ad-supported account for those who only need its basic functionality. However, a variety of accounts with advanced features are offered and they go from $8 per month, all the way to $200 per month.
Quick and Easy Sign-Up Process
Huddle is a web-based tool that allows users to work collaboratively as long as they can access a computer with an Internet connection. To register, all users need to do is go to Huddle's website and sign up for the account of their choosing. For a free account, all that is required is a valid e-mail address, a username and a password. Once these details are entered, Huddle immediately sends a verification e-mail that ensures that the e-mail address used is legitimate. Finally, users are instructed to click on a link to activate their accounts. When that is done, Huddle is ready to be used. This process takes less than five minutes, so employees who need a quick document-sharing solution do not have to deal with complicated sign-up processes.
Uploading Files
Free accounts have up to 100 MB storage space, which is enough to upload a number of word-processor files, however, can be too little when uploading images or videos. If you know that you will be working primarily with such multi-media files, you may want to consider a paid account, which has anywhere from 1 GB to 25 GB of storage, depending on the option you choose.
The upload process is easy, you just have to choose the file from your hard drive, and upload it. Once the file has been uploaded, you can check it out for editing. This will temporarily lock the file until editing is done. Documents can also be downloaded from Huddle for editing, and then re-uploaded.
Working Collaboratively
Users create teams by sending e-mail invitations to their co-workers, who then join their assigned workspace. Team members also have to sign up for the Huddle service, but once they have given their information they can immediately begin to collaborate.
Colleagues can then use their workspace whiteboard to post project information and share with the team. Users can post images, ask for input and edit whiteboard, which looks just like a document. Once a change is made to the whiteboard or any other document, users can choose to send an e-mail to team members so they can be notified of changes.
Huddle keeps track of versions of the whiteboard and any other documents, and users can view all previous versions so they can compare and contrast documents as well as whiteboard posts. There is also an audit trail available, so team members can see which changes were made to documents or the whiteboard and when.
Users can also assign each other tasks, such as editing or approving a document, which can be organized by due date or status in the tasks section of the workspace.