It is the goal of any business to produce the maximum output from any given input. Productivity is the ratio of outputs produced to inputs during production. In this Information Age, knowledge workers are mainly responsible for the outputs of companies and enterprises. To improve the productivity of individuals and teams, organizations promote the use of productivity software for their knowledge workforce. The use of these modern tools help individuals spend less time in completing work, so they are able to do more to improve the quality of their work. Collectively, teams are able to communicate more effectively and collaborate well to produce the best work expected of them.
What is productivity software?
Productivity software was originally defined as any application software that is used in producing information. Office suites that include word processors, spreadsheets, slide presentations, and database software were the first productivity tools for providing alternatives to typewriters, columnar notebooks, Rolodexes, and other non-digital work tools. The scope of productivity software expanded to include time management software and project management software for tracking project tasks, resources, schedules, workload, and progress. As businesses continue to transform digitally, the meaning of productivity also continues to expand beyond time saving and effective team collaboration.
Common productivity software features
Project management enables teams to create goals, define tasks to achieve the identified goals, add schedules and resources, track progress, and facilitate communication for the whole project life cycle. Some of the best productivity software are project management tools with expanded features for other business processes.
Time management allows workers to track the time they spend working. It provides a record complete with details and categories for each block of time spent on a particular activity or task. Users can view records, review their timesheet, and plan for further optimization.
Communication is vital, especially in today’s distributed and remote work environment. Many productivity tools include chat, email integration, and group communication tools to support team collaboration.
Best productivity software and tools
Here are some of the best productivity tools available today for businesses and teams of all sizes regardless of industry. We looked at the latest reviews from several media sites, customer feedback, features, releases, support, and market ranking to determine the standings.
