Bitrix24 – Uniting Businesses On a Social Intranet

Small business owners who need a better way to communicate with their customers, partners, and employees can use Bitrix24 to bridge the gap between their online and offline worlds. The collaboration and communications platform functions as a centralized hub for entrepreneurs who are tired of clicking back and forth between multiple communication systems each day.

Enter your email address to sign up for Bitrix24 and create a social intranet (for your employees) with a built-in customer relationship management system (for your customers and clients). If you’ve ever used Facebook, then you should be able to understand how Bitrix24 works. The web-application is set up similarly to the popular social network, with a dashboard page that’s focused around a central activity stream. This activity stream is where you’ll go to see everything your employees have been up to. You can also post messages of your own in the activity stream as a way to keep everyone updated on the latest projects and company milestones. To conduct more private conversations, use Bitrix24’s Instant Messenger or start communicating with individual employees through the Conversations tab.

In addition to its social intranet features, Bitrix24 also provides tools for managing tasks, sharing documents, CRM, and time management. The platform can be used by managers to create work reports, absence charts, and meeting briefings. Overall, Bitrix24 is a fantastic tool for small business owners looking for a better way to stay connected with their employees and clients.

Practical Uses:

• Ask employees to post their latest updates in the group activity stream
• Make sure everyone knows about an upcoming after-work event
• Conduct a private conversation online in real-time
• Find out as soon as an employee has completed an important task

Insider Tips:

• Uploaded documents are visible in the activity stream
• Calendars can be shared with Outlook and most mobile devices
• All messages in the internal Instant Messenger are saved in a history folder
• Bitrix24 offers a bulk photo uploader

What we liked:

• Managers can process sales leads using Bitrix24’s CRM tool
• Companies can promote upcoming events by posting on an intranet system
• Employees can clock in and clock out with the time manager
• People can comment on the photos their colleagues put up

What we didn’t like:

• Users with basic and standard accounts don’t get access to Bitrix24’s time management tools

Alternatives:

• Chatter – http://www.salesforce.com/chatter
• Convo – http://www.convo.com
• Podio – https://podio.com

Company Info:

• Launched: 2012
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: Alexandria, Virginia
• Founded by: Sergey Rizhikov
• Web site: http://www.bitrix24.com

Costs:

• Basic plan is free
• Standard plan is $99/month
• Professional plan is $199/month