FALL 2020

158 THE DISTRIBUTOR’S

158 THE DISTRIBUTOR’S LINK JOE DYSART PODCASTING: FOR FASTENER DISTRIBUTORS, KILLER MARKETING ON A SHOESTRING from page 124 ¤ Trello (5.5/6 Stars) Trello’s emphasis is on project management. So its design focuses a great deal on enabling fastener distributorship staff and management to track, organize and coordinate as a project through to completion. With Trello, you can easily inform others on the progress of various components of a project. And you can quickly create your own custom boards and lists to more easily manage and/or communicate about a project. Like most top packages, Trello also integrates with a number of other software packages, including GitHub and Slack. ¤ Basecamp (5.5/6 Stars) Basecamp, another pioneer of team software, is also known for its emphasis on project management. The company literally wrote the book on teams software, titled “Remote Working,” (www.amazon.com/Remote-Office-Not-Required/ dp/0804137501). Basecamp easily enables fastener distributors to create a project and then put together all the people, discussions, documents, files, tasks and deadline associated with that project on one place. Staff can share their personal “To Do” lists for the day and then update that list to inform management on how they’re progressing. Meanwhile, company managers can post key announcements and notices in virtual spaces in Basecamp that are common to all. And clients can be brought into the loop with the ability to see data that managers deem appropriate. Managers can also opt to receive a daily digest of pertinent Basecampe activity to their email inbox every day. ¤ Microsoft Teams, part of Microsoft 365 (5.5/6 Stars) This platform enables fastener distributors to create a separate team for each project you’re looking to complete. Each team ‘meets’ in a virtual building, where they can communicate and collaborate. And there are also rooms, where select members of a team can break off into smaller groups. MANY TEAMS SOFTWARE PACKAGES ENABLE WORKERS TO COMMUNICATE WITH LIVE VIDEO The platform also has all the communication options that you’d expect from a top tier choice, including private chat, instant messaging, calendar integration, group voice calls and group audio calls. based around Microsoft products. But perhaps one of the package’s greatest strengths is its tight integration with other Microsoft apps like Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Whiteboard. That makes it a high contender for workplaces ¤ GSuite (5.5/6 Stars) Formerly Google Apps, GSuite offers fastener distributors a collection of tools millions of users turn to every day: Google Docs, Gmail, Google Hangouts, Google Currents, Google Calendar and the like. With Google Hangouts you’ll easily be able to meet for video conferences. And with Google sites, you’ll be able to quickly put together a quick Web site for a company or internal project. The platform also comes with Google Work Insights, an analytics tool that uses charts to report on how your team is using GSuite and how the tool may or may not be helping with worker productivity. Essentially, GSuite is a high contender for workplaces that rely heavily on Google apps. _________________________________________________ (All images sourced from royalty free, copyright free, attribution free online image libraries) JOE DYSART