TeamLab Corporate Portal, An Open Source SaaS Business Solution

TeamLab Free Solution – A Gift From Heaven For Freelancers?

Let’s face it. In todays busy world, distance, time differences and location, are no longer a problem like it was before, when it comes to outsourcing (or hiring) a group of collaborators. The main issue that arises for freelancers and small business owners, is to coordinate their projects with minimal effort, while maintaining its productivity to a maximum. The ideal business solution would be to have a powerful project management tool that is web based and preferably cost free.

TeamLab, a corporate portal, is one such company that offers SaaS (Software as a Service) business solution for free. SaaS main advantage is that the company providing such service hosts all of the programs, logic, and data in a central location, thus giving users access via the worldwide web. TeamLab’s SaaS Tool, offers these and features:

• Project Management: Build teams and assign tasks. Schedule project milestones, track project activity and generate reports.
• Improved Business Collaboration: View employee details, create posts in blogs and forums. Share photos, bookmarks and Wiki pages.
• Document Editing: Create, edit, save and share documents directly on your portal. Import docs base from Google Docs, Zoho, Box.net. Integrate documents into your project module.
• Instant Messaging: Chat with colleagues in real time. Get contact list automatically updated. Receive “what’s new” notifications.
• And many more new features, such as email management, access via your mobile phone, and even managing your clients via the same portal (CRM).

As you can see, the free web based TeamLab application can be a real help for those who have to manage their internal and external projects worldwide. Here’s more…

Think Strategically
The first compound part of this mix is common for most of the project management software – time tracking, milestones, reports generating, contact lists, documents processing and sharing, etc. – the list is long.

All the time and efforts that freelancers spend on projects coordination can be reduced as TeamLab automates the processes. Less time on routine, more attention to work.

Think Universally
The second part of the TeamLab mix (and for some teams, the most vital one) is a kind of a control center to collect files, media and notes, comment on them, discuss project issues, share references and useful resources relating to freelancers’ projects.

TeamLab involves several modules to make the data available to all teammates. The integrated Wiki makes it possible to draw a do-it-yourself article. Blogs and forums are an intelligent way to discuss the topic without overwhelming the inboxes. All the links to useful resources or interesting posts on the Internet are stored in a special section.

As a result, freelancers get a powerful tool to manage the information flaws within their TeamLab portal and it is some kind of a copyright as all the information stays inside the project.

Think Pragmatically
One more pro to decide for TeamLab is that the application is free which means all teammates can afford it. TeamLab is an open source solution which implies software customization specific for the needs of the team. This is a web based application and that ensures a round-the-clock access from various parts of the world.

What’s in the End?
The Internet statistics shows that most of freelance workers need some kind of a combination of a free project management tool and a knowledge center gathered in one place. For the most part, TeamLab conforms requirements of a freelance team that can be very diverse – both teams and requirements.