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A consultant is like a best friend: they solve problems and give you the best advice on how to handle any situation. But just like a BFF, they need a toolset that allows them to reach out to you, respond to your needs, and help you stay out of trouble.
With the best collaboration tools for consultants, you maintain seamless connections with clients, facilitating efficient problem solving and decision making. So let's review the best options to get you started.
What is a collaboration tool?
A collaboration tool is a digital platform or software that helps a team work together more easily — especially when everyone is geographically dispersed.
Upwork’s Future Workforce Report shows that remote working is not only here to stay but also growing fast: by 2025, about 40.7 million Americans will be working from home. But even if remote collaboration is not your company’s case, using those tools is still an easy way to:
- Communicate with clients, stakeholders, and other collaborators
- Share documents in a safe way
- Track project progress
- Manage tasks more efficiently
The bottom line is that having a collaborative consulting team works better when you can rely on useful, safe and easy-to-use software that helps you see the process clearly.
Related: 12 techniques to improve client collaboration
What should consultants look for in collaboration tools?
To choose the best tools for consultants, there are three things you must look for: how easy they are to use, how secure they are, and how integrated they can be with other tools.
Let’s better understand how those factors can impact your day-to-day:
1. Easy of use
Collaborative consulting tools that are easy to use often don't require much training — that is, your team will be able to use most of them without the need to take long, complicated lessons.
As a consultant, you deal with different levels of technical expertise, clients, and projects. Opting for intuitive technology allows you to focus on important tasks rather than wasting time on complex training and troubleshooting.
Related: 6 best practices that make virtual collaboration easy
2. Security
IBM's Cost of a Data Breach Report showed that a single data breach has an average financial impact of $5 million. That means that a company that uses software and tools to share vital information can lose a lot more than the trust of its clients when security is not a priority.
The best software for consultants assures that stakeholders collaborate without worrying about security risks. You should look for:
- Encryption: By converting sensitive information into a coded format that only authorized users can read, you protect your data from breaches and leaks.
- Customizable access and permissions: By controlling who can view, edit, and share specific information, you prevent unauthorized access and misuse. You can also track who did what, when, and where, which helps find the source of the problem when something goes wrong.
Related: The most secure visual work platform for the enterprise
3. Integration with your tech stack
Without integration capabilities, you hop from software to software, increasing the risk of silos and lost productivity. Using online collaboration tools that integrate with different software and platforms is a way to have:
- Fewer errors
- A unified view of all relevant information
- Smoother workflows
- Easier tracking of progress
- Quicker access to insights
One common example is the integration of a project management tool with a communication platform. For consultants, that means any updates in one system are visible in the other, and the team stays in sync. This way, you also minimize software overload — the feeling that the team is working with too many tools and is starting to feel overwhelmed.
Top 12 consulting tools for collaboration
With so many options out there, choosing the right one may take some time. With that in mind, we selected the top 12 collaboration tools for consultants and organized their highlights on a list. Check it out:
1. Mural
Starting strong with Mural, the ultimate visual platform to help consultants and their teams work better together from anywhere. 🏆 It's not only super easy to use but also fun and engaging.
Mural’s features include some of the best tools for consultants:
- Sticky notes for easier reminders or new ideas
- Flexible permissions for more controlled access to collaboration features
- Concept maps that allow for a quick visualization of processes
Mural also uses rigorous security measures to keep your data safe. And our integrations help you have a seamless workflow with all the other software that you might possibly need — from email to communication apps to spreadsheets to project management tools.
Remember the basic factors that you should consider when choosing a consulting tool? Mural covers all of them — and so much more.
2. Confluence
If you’re looking for a collaborative tool designed for easy documentation, Confluence is a strong candidate. With it, you and your team can create, organize, and share the work all in one place.
Confluence counts with:
- Specific spaces for teams, departments, or projects where you need to gather all the content in a single place
- Real-time collaboration and communication
- Integration capabilities with other useful tools
Just be ready to spend some time learning how to best use it. After all, Confluence's learning curve for all the customizations can be steep, often requiring training.
3. Dropbox
Dropbox is a good option for storing, syncing, and sharing files online. As a consultant, it can be useful for sharing documents via secure links and accessing them from anywhere. There are also features to leave comments on, sign, and watermark documents. And you can integrate Dropbox with other tools, which is handy if you need chats or visual collaboration.
4. Google Workspace
Google Workspace is a cloud-based productivity tool that includes apps like Gmail, Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Meet. It’s an all-in-one-place kind of platform designed for real-time collaboration.
Each solution focuses on a different part of the project and can be of use if you need a client collaboration tool. You can create documents, organize information on spreadsheets, hold virtual meetings, store information, and more.5. Microsoft 365
Microsoft 365 includes tools like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and One Drive. So yes: it’s very similar to Google Workspace in the sense that it also offers a centralized platform for you and your team to develop and share projects or ideas.
Cost can also be a limitation, though. Microsoft’s licenses can be expensive, especially for small teams, and entry-level plans come with limited cloud storage. If you’re looking for a scalable solution, it’s an option — but if you only need a hand to organize and visualize projects, it can be too much of an investment.
6. Slack
Slack is a messaging platform where teams can communicate through different channels and direct messages. It helps organize discussions and separate different conversations for different projects — all in an easy-to-use environment.
Slack is also an easy way to share documents and files. But because it is an online communication platform, it can be hard to find and access those files after some time, especially if you’re using a free plan.
Something to pay attention to when using Slack is the amount of notifications, which can make it hard for your team to find focus or keep track of all the messages. Also, Slack doesn’t offer any project management features, so, as a consultant, you may need to use different tools to build timelines or track time on projects.
7. Zoom
Zoom is a video conferencing platform normally used for virtual meetings.
Although it offers features such as screen sharing and tools for webinars and presentations, Zoom can’t be used for much more than the meeting itself. If you use the free plan, meetings are limited to 40 minutes. To have a high-quality video, you need to have stable internet — and that can be hard depending on your location.
8. WeTransfer
If you need to send large files quickly, WeTransfer is one of the best collaboration tools for consultants. This file-sharing software allows you to share projects and documents in various formats that are too big for email attachments — with no account required.
However, files expire after a certain amount of time, requiring re-uploads if you’re dealing with ongoing projects. If you use the free plan, the file size is limited. And keep in mind that WeTransfer doesn’t offer any kind of real-time collaboration.
For consultants who are looking for an easy and secure way to send a few files here and there, WeTransfer will be fine. But if you need more support, recurrent sharing, or even just more collaborative options, it may not be the best option.
9. Chatter
If you or your company uses Salesforce software, you can benefit from Chatter — it's a Salesforce’s social collaboration tool where team members can talk about specific records or projects.
Chatter helps keep all project conversations connected to relevant data — Salesforce's primary concern. For consultants, it’s something like a Facebook for the workplace: a space to post updates on projects, share insights, and receive feedback.
The only thing that needs attention is that Chatter is limited to Salesforce ecosystem. As a result, it’s harder to integrate with other tools.
10. Asana
As a project management tool, Asana can help you organize, track, and manage tasks more visually. For consultants, it’s an easy-to-use way to monitor projects, create timelines, define deadlines, and keep everything organized.
Features include a space to talk with other members and collaborate with clients by assigning specific tasks directly to them. The free version, however, lacks features like time tracking and advanced reporting. Also, if you have a small or straightforward project, it can be too complex to use.
11. Basecamp
Basecamp is a project management and team collaboration tool that offers to-do lists, message boards, and file storage in one place, so it's easier for consultants to keep track of projects and visualize their processes.
It also provides a client portal where consultants can communicate and share important information. This function is useful for projects that require frequent updates because it helps decrease the number of meetings and emails and centralize all communications in one place.
12. Trello
Trello is a visual project management tool that can make it easier to see what tasks are being completed and where the project is facing bottlenecks. If you use Scrum or Kanban boards, Trello allows you to create and assign cards to team members, which helps you organize tasks and track project progress. Just keep in mind that the free version limits integrations.
Create and manage projects with the best collaboration software for consultants
Keep it simple and have everything you need in one place: Mural is the best collaboration tool for consultants to visualize and track their projects.
With Mural, you can:
- Create, organize, and share online whiteboards with team members and clients
- Access hundreds of templates to save time and focus on more urgent tasks
- Collaborate in real time and from anywhere with mobile and desktop apps
- Synthesize ideas and key takeaways with Mural AI
Sign up with Mural for free and get the best software for consultants to create and manage projects.
