Collaboration tools are one of the hottest segments in webtools at this moment. The days of being limited only to Microsoft’s SharePoint are in the rear view mirror. While there are dozens of online collaboration providers, I seek out those that are offering capabilities that are best suited and adapted by sales professionals-those I call Salesmakers.
Huddle.net is one of these online collaboration webtools. While the collaboration space is becoming crowded, Huddle continues to 
innovate and learn what its users would like to see in its product. Here are some key reasons why salesmakers should evaluate Huddle’s offering:
No-cost LinkedIn Integration-accessible via the Applications tab with LinkedIn gives you full access to the following features at no cost:
- One free private workspace with 1 gigabyte of storage
- Document –sharing, online editing, discussions, workflow and approvals. There is no download and nothing to install. You can get going in just one click.
- Within Huddle, you can see people you are working with on the project, and shortcuts for inviting contacts, uploading files, correcting a file and creating a new discussion.
- Tabs include Activities to see everything that is going on, who did it, what did they do and when did they do it. Plus, you can subscribe to this via an RSS feed using your favorite reader.
- Files Tab shows all documents, video’s, spreadsheets, images and anything else that has been uploaded to the site.
- Discussions Tab where you can share information and get feedback from people in your workspace, all in a secure environment.
- Invite Contacts Tab – type a name of a contact and they can be connected as soon as they accept and log in.
Increased functionality and capabilities are available with one of the monthly paid plans starting at $15.00/month and include the features above plus enhanced or expanded features including:
Live Web and Phone Conferencing-This feature alone makes Huddle a value with these capabilities:
- Schedule meetings and invite users.
- Dates/times are automatically entered into desktop calendar applications without extra steps.
- Built in phone conference calling capabilities.
- Built in web-conferencing capabilities.
- Team information sharing via files, discussion and tasks for all workgroup members.
Online Collaboration-effective capability to address the following sales needs:
- Online Editing to make changes to files online in real time.
- Search for files by name, type, author or date.
- iCal allows you to add tasks to your other calendars.
- Create separate work spaces for Projects, Teams and Relationships.
- Whiteboard to foster the brainstorming required in many sales activities.
- Word Processor and Spreadsheet functions built in.
- Full control over User access and posts.
- Tracking of reviews and approvals.
- Audit trails of activity.
- SSL security throughout the experience.
- Alerts are delivered by either email or RSS feed.
- Dashboard provides view of all your projects from one screen.
- Branding of your workgroup sites.
Project Management –Huddle opens the most common bottlenecks in sales projects via tools that address:
- Finding project documents.
- Providing visibility to overbooked or mismanaged resources.
- Geographically dispersed project teams both internal to the company and outside members. including vendors, business partners and even customers when appropriate.
- Communication breakdowns.
- Unfulfilled tasks and deadlines.
Document Sharing– Huddle adds value to this collaboration requirement by providing online storage of critical files that begins at 1GB at no cost. This allows you to expand or shrink your storage commitment as your business needs dictate.
As you can see from the robust list of features and capabilities above, collaboration is no longer a luxury for only the biggest companies. It is available to you, regardless of your company size. I have many clients that are using Huddle as an individual Salesmaker, enhancing their sales efforts by using Huddle independently of what their company is using, if anything.
Visit Huddle.net to improve and accelerate your sales success.
Huddle works as advertised and with its unique capabilities such as conference calls, web meetings and LinkedIn integration. I recommend you place Huddle on your short list.