9 Tools to Keep You in Sync With Clients and Colleagues

Photo by visualpanic.

These days the idea of a design team is usually wide open to location. Your creative director could be in LA while the designers work in New York, and the client lives in Texas. To keep in sync and get all the work done on time, I’ve found that I can’t work without certain tools. Here’s a small list of applications and websites that aid collaboration over long distances that and are either free or very affordable.

1. Google Site Apps

Many of you with your own domain may not realize the amazing potential of Google Apps for domain owners. If you run a team or just freelance yourself, you could gain tremendously from setting up a free account. First off, instead of that horrible web mail your host either provides for or charges you for, you could get Gmail and its storage for free. Yes, thats right, and it’s personally branded. There are different options, but if you’re under 100 employees, its straight-up free.

You also get a useful start page (such as start.mydomain.com) that you can use as a login point for clients or employees. Like iGoogle, you have widgets that can be added to the page. Your far left-side is locked for things you want all those logging in to see. For example, a calendar to keep track of deadlines and meetings, or the RSS feed of a production blog. You can even have your inbox on the startup page.

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