7 Best Communication Software for Business

This article will explore the best communication platforms and software available today that can help increase employee engagement, optimize business operations, enhance collaboration, and improve overall productivity. We will look at features, pricing, and more. Ultimately, this article gives insights into finding the most suitable platform or software so businesses can identify the best tools for their needs.

Research shows that communication barriers could cost businesses around $37 billion a year. Even more concerning is that 86% of employees and executives cite the lack of effective collaboration and communication as the main cause of workplace failures.

As such, it’s more important than ever for companies to have updated communication platforms and software that encourages collaboration, keeps projects organized and on track, streamlines feedback loops, optimizes team performance, increases employee engagement, and boosts productivity. With so many different solutions available on the market today, it can be hard to choose the right one for your business.

Haiilo

Haiilo is a 360° communications software revolutionizing the way businesses communicate with their people. It allows top-down targeted communications as well as bottom-up and non-vertical communications. With its intuitive platform, you can reach out and connect with every single employee in a secure and trusted digital environment.

Haiilo helps you reach all your employees with targeted news and information through their preferred devices and channels, engage them in one digital home and understand the drivers and motivations of your workforce through built-in surveys. You can also leverage the power of communication through everyone’s preferred channels, such as emails and text messaging, digital signage, and integration apps like Slack.

The platform is perfect for enterprise companies that aim to bring all of their communications (meaning not only top-down, bottom-up and non-vertical but also external communications) to one platform. It offers personalized experiences, a mobile app for on-the-go access, built-in surveys, extensive analytics and employee advocacy features.

With Haiilo, you can identify the most engaging channels for your employees and use those for optimum communication, turn your employees into true brand ambassadors who can help spread the word about your brand. Most importantly, you get the necessary feedback to improve your workplace communications and create an ideal workplace environment for better engagement and retention rates.

Formats:

• Web, Android, iOS

Features:

• Knowledge management
• Targeted communication
• Mobile app
• Internal audience analysis
• White labeling
• Employee surveys
• GDPR and ISO compliance
• Employee advocacy
• Extensive analytics

Market segment:

• 49% Enterprise
• 41% Mid-Market

Slack

Slack has been one of the top communication tools for business for quite some time, streamlining team communication in a fast and user-friendly environment. Slack is the best solution for any business that wants to eliminate poor employee communication. Not only has it been one of the most popular internal communication tools for years, but its range of free and paid plans means that businesses of all sizes can find a way to streamline their team communication in real-time, no matter what their budget.

With an impressive list of features designed to make team communication enjoyable, effective, and simple, Slack mainly focuses on small and mid-size companies. With fast and efficient real-time group chats, direct messages, and file sharing in one central location, it’s an extremely convenient way for teams to stay up-to-date with tasks and projects.

Even better, Slack allows you to integrate popular tools like Zendesk, Asana, Gmail, Zoom, Google Drive, and many more. This integration makes it simpler than ever to collaborate with team members and is perfect for virtual communication.

Format:

• Windows, Android, iOS

Features:

• Voice and video calls
• Messaging
• Integrations
• Workflow builder
• Slack connect
• Slack hurdles
• Public and private channels

Market segment:

• 64% Small companies
• 31% Mid-Market
• 5% Large

Yammer

Yammer is another popular internal comms software on the market. With Yammer, employees can network with each other to build communities of interest, gather ideas and feedback on topics, and stay informed and aligned on projects. This communication platform brings conversations and communities across Microsoft 365 together in a single centralized place, allowing teams to collaborate effortlessly yet securely.

With features like a shared collaborative network with task tracking and to-do lists, it’s ideal for facilitating better internal communication. You can achieve overall more effective cross-functional collaboration. Yammer helps organizations avoid or break down company silos and strengthens collaboration within teams and departments.

Format:

• Web, iOS, Android

Features:

• Document and user management
• File, link, and image sharing
• Allows public and private groups
• Microblogging
• Content and message tagging
• Engaged with Microsoft Viva Engage

Market segment:

• 18% Small companies
• 38% Mid-Market
• 44% Enterprise

Chanty

Chanty is the ultimate communication platform for SMB businesses, offering everything a small to medium-sized team could need to communicate effectively. It allows you to create and join private and public group chats and direct messages. Its interface also makes it easy to pin important messages or leave voice recordings for urgent conversations on the go. With Chanty, companies gain necessary visibility into their workflow and allow their employees to focus on what’s most important: getting the job done.

This is one of the best communication software packages available, as it’s user-friendly, totally secure, and a great asset for any company or organization that wants optimal collaboration and performance. It enables quick video conferences with a single click, allowing everyone to meet face-to-face and share screens in order to collaborate on projects. This is an invaluable feature and a time saver for all types of businesses.

What’s even better is how Chanty allows you to easily convert conversations into tasks and assign them to the correct people or teams. This ensures that no important messages or task requests ever get lost in translation, making it ideal for busy business environments.

Formats:

• Web, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android

Features:

• Project management
• Screen Sharing
• Teambook hub
• Chat
• Voice and video calls

Market segment:

• 49% Small companies
• 51% Mid-Market

💡Related: 8 steps to build an effective internal comms strategy

RingCentral

RingCentral is a popular communications platform for small companies. It combines messaging, video meetings, and phone calls in one convenient application. It makes it easy for businesses to stay in touch while providing them with today’s modern conveniences. Businesses can send private messages, update stakeholders, and quickly share and pin vital files– without leaving the app.

Plus, using RingCentral’s built-in task management tools, teams can easily assign tasks and seamlessly collaborate for optimal productivity. With RingCentral, you can initiate an HD video and audio call with instant screen sharing, which is very suitable for businesses with remote workers. This internal comms software also integrates with many collaboration tools like Google Drive, allowing you to easily share files.

Even better, you don’t need to rely on the same device to interact. Whether mobile, laptop or tablet, calls will remain crystal clear no matter where you are. If needed, choose any of their higher-priced plans and gain access to even more features like unlimited cloud recording and streaming, Call Flip, voicemail transcription, and more. What makes this the best communication platform is that it’s an open platform. You can not only integrate with over 100 integrations from the gallery, but you can create your own integrations.

Format:

• iOS, Web, Android

Features:

• Join an audio meeting by using “Call Me” to call your phone
• Can create up to 50 breakout sessions
• Can host large conferences or training for up to 500 people
• Offers call screening, delegation, and call flips
• Toll free and vanity numbers
• Features outbound and inbound voice
• Presence and head-up display.

Market Segment

• 71% Small companies
• 8% Mid-Market
• 14% Enterprise

Google Workspace

With over 2 billion monthly active users, Google Suite is one of the most practical and comprehensive options out there when it comes to communication and collaboration platforms. Its suite of apps offers capabilities ranging from word processing, database and spreadsheet creation, and more.

These apps include everything Google offers, such as Google Docs, Slides, Calendar, Drive, Sheets, Forms, and Meet.

Not only does this internal comms software provide everything a business could need for its communication platform, but it also offers several collaboration and team communication tools. You can easily leave comments or instant messages in documents and even create new chats with individual team members – making Google Suite one of the best communication software for business.

Formats:

• Android, iOS, Web

Features:

• Google apps that work in harmony
• Double cloud storage for each user
• Cloud search across all apps
• Flexible user account management
• Google vault to manage data
• You can assign roles to different people
• Apps that work offline

Market Segment

• 45% Small and Mid-market
• 55% Enterprise

Zoom Meetings

Zoom Meetings is one of the best communication software for business due to its impressive range of features. It has everything you’ll need for collaborative video events, allowing users to easily host meetings and conferences.

This platform is available across multiple platforms, so anyone can join, no matter what device they’re using, which is great when you have multigenerational workers. It even offers a few add-ons for a price if you want a bit more from the experience, including cloud storage, large meetings, and audio conferencing.

Perhaps more impressive than that is the sheer number of users Zoom has attracted; with over 300 million people using the platform, there really is something here for everyone — from individuals to groups and companies — making it one of the most versatile communication tools around.

Format:

• Web, Mac, Windows, Android, iOS

Features:

• Developer Platform
• Rooms and workplaces
• Can host workshops and webinars
• Chats
• Meetings
• Workshops and webinars
• Events

Market segment:

• 49% Small companies
• 38% Mid-market
• 12% Enterprise

If you are looking for the best communication software for enterprise business, schedule a Haiilo demo today!