Good internal communication is the hallmark of every successful business. An organization that knows how to facilitate communication between different team members and employees will have solved half its problems. As we all know, miscommunication or a lack of communication are the reasons why most projects fall behind their expectations. While ERP does a lot of things, it needs certain communication tools that can be integrated to enhance internal communication. There are a number of third-party tools available today, which can be integrated with your existing ERP. This way, you will not need to go ahead and invest in an entirely new software tool.

In this article, let us take a look at 5 different communication tools that will help you to enhance the exchanging of information and collaboration among your employees.

1. Flowdock –

Flowdock is an incredibly useful chat-based communication tool that will revolutionize the way your employees speak to each other. It also doubles up as a project management tool and will allow you to grab all your communications, projects and tools into a single place. It is particularly popular for its threaded communication and users can install the mobile app as well. Flowdock comes with an API that will allow developers to integrate the tool with multiple software solutions, including your own ERP. It costs $3 per month to use, and there is a free 30 day trial period as well. This tool is clutter-free and does not come with a lot of bells and whistles that other tools come with.

2. Slack –

Slack is one of the most popular collaboration tools available today. This tool can be used to brainstorm ideas, share vital files such as images and spreadsheets and also make announcements of events. In other words, Slack acts as a hub for all team-related communication and will allow your staff to enhance intra-team communication. Slack is highly secure and comes with more than 1,500 apps that can be integrated. It costs $6.85 per active user when billed yearly. However, if your team is small, it is free to use. Integrating Slack with your ERP will help different departments to communicate with each other easily, and also work together. You can forget about the old sales and marketing team rivalry!

3. Skype for Business – 

While we all know that Skype is a great tool for messaging and making video calls, Skype for Business comes with HD video conferencing support. This is of particular importance when your staff works in multiple locations, and you need to make frequent video conference calls. You can send all your team members a personalized link to schedule meetings. You can also review meetings and clarify with those who are participating if they are available for future conferences. Most importantly, you can share PowerPoint presentations, share your screens and even poll the participants. Most importantly, you get 24/7 telephone support which can’t be ignored at all.

4. Calendly – 

Calendly is a great tool to integrate with ERP. Individual accounts can be created on Calendly and are particularly useful for those in senior-level positions. If you are a senior manager, Calendly will be a great way to let others know when you are available, and when you are not. All you need to do is to share your unique code with people and they will be directed to your calendar. Depending on your availability, they can fix appointments with you. This is particularly useful if you offer in-house consultation with other employees. All your slots can be viewed on an attractive interface, and appointments can be scheduled conveniently.

5. Blogin – 

If you thought blogs were only for the purpose of social engagement, think again. Blogs are a powerful platform that can be used to communicate and relay information to your own employees. Unfortunately, blogs are often public and may not be the right platform for such a purpose. However, Blogin takes inspiration from regular blogging and offers in-house blog platforms that can be made accessible only to your own employees. This can be used to improve collaboration and top-down communication. Consider using this to encourage your employees to share their thoughts and opinions as well. Of course, you can decide what will be published and what will not be.

Integrate Communication tools with your ERP now:

Certainly, there are many tools available today that can be used to enhance communication. It makes sense for you to consider various other communication styles including the agile framework to enhance intra-team communication. File sharing and file access is another area that is often ignored. Regardless of these issues, you can start with the five tools we discussed in this article today.

Flowdock offers instant messaging options to your employees and can be a godsend. Slack helps your team members to collaborate to complete projects in time. Skype for Business is perfect for getting your staff to make calls to each other when they need to communicate. Calendly can be used to remind your employees of appointments and make sure that ERP-related tasks are never out of sync. Finally, Blogin can be used to spread internal information among team members in a blog format.

If you would like to integrate one or more of these tools with your ERP, feel free to Contact Us and get a Free Demo.