Matrix Meridian Corporation

The following tools are broken down into a few buckets for clarity of function. Note, these choices are purely subjective, but we use most of these daily or have implemented them for various groups.

Google Suite

This is the most obvious especially for smaller organizations that don’t want to be bothered with running their own infrastructure. It works especially well if there is a strong need to collaborate. Besides being free, there is a huge amount of storage allocated, and is available on mobile devices, or even offline through Google Gears.

Gmail for email
Google Docs for documents spreadsheets and presentations
Google Calendar for time management and scheduling
Google Reader for keeping up with RSS feeds
GTalk for chats…great for working as remote teams

37 Signals Suite

These applications aren’t free if you go beyond what is basically a trial use of the applications. However, they are well conceived and pretty inexpensive.

Basecamp - Basic Project Management…I say basic, but it is likely more than you need.
Highrise - CRM
Writeboard - Text editor, collaborative whiteboard
Backpack - Intranet
Campfire - Group Chat

Content

To present words and pictures on the web, that is easily updatable, there are a few options. Among those are a few really good Open Source Content Management Systems. We like:

Drupal
Joomla

Another option to look at is a blogging engine. For instance, we use Wordpress as the basis of this website. It is designed for blogging, but we’ve bent it to suit our needs as a web content management system as well. It seems to be working well for us. There is a hosted version at www.wordpress.com and if you wish to install it on your own server (like us) go to www.wordpress.org

In this category, we’ve also been looking at another option that isn’t free, but is inexpensive. Expression Engine.

All worth a look…

(Also, see Part 1 of this article)

We have been getting a few questions about what web apps that we like and use. There are A LOT of tools out there. So, it is our duty to remind you that as always, IT ISN’T ABOUT THE TECHNOLOGY!

Our job is NOT to simply develop and implement tools or technology for our clients. Anybody can cut a few corners and do that badly. Our specialty is creating best-of-class solutions by revealing and refining YOUR business processes and helping you streamline and automate some of these refined processed using the most appropriate technology.

It just happens that some of the best tools for the job are cheap or free. OK, got that?

If you have have any questions on what you should do for your organization…CALL US!

Photos

For photos, we love Flickr. Not only is it a great host for your photos, you can embed the photos into your own site easily (see the widget to the right of this post) and there is a fantastic community of snap happy users.

RSS Feeds

To syndicate feeds, we like Feedburner. This app makes it easy for people to subscribe to your feed, and has good reporting tools.

Videos

Videos are part of the web now and will only become more important as time goes on. It is already some of the most viewed content on the web based on the stats from YouTube. While almost everyone knows about YouTube, it has some limitations. Among these are a 10 minute video limit.

A great alternative is Vimeo. This service has a 500mb upload limit a week, but should give you plenty of space for larger videos.

So, our strategy is to use YouTube for teaser pieces and Vimeo for full videos.

For streaming LIVE video, check out:

UStream - Live interactive video streaming

Qik - Stream Video from your mobile phone!

Tell us. What do YOU like?