Project management collaboration tools - online vs. desktop solutions, advantages and disadvantages

Collaboration tools for project management are divided by installation and access technology into two big groups - web collaboration tools and desktop client-server collaboration tools. Both types of project management collaboration tools are widely offered and used, because each of them has its own advantages. Let's consider these advantages and problems starting with online collaboration tools.

• Advantages and disadvantages of online collaboration tools:

  You can find a lot of online collaboration toolsin the Internet. The main peculiarity of web collaboration tools is that their databases are hosted on their own web-servers and users should reach their data through the Internet connection. There are two main types of online collaboration tools - web based collaboration tool and online collaboration tool with client component. Nevertheless the most part of the online collaboration tools are web collaboration tools that require a web-browser to use their interface. In order to use collaboration tools of this type you should create special account on their web-site. You can also (but rarely) find online collaboration tool that provides client component to be installed on users' computers. Besides, some of web-based project management collaboration tools also provide client components as alternative to web-browser. If you decide to use some web based collaboration tool you should take into account that majority of such commercial products require recurring payments per user, but you can try to find a free open-source web based collaboration tool that works for donations. The most valuable advantage of any online collaboration tool is easiness of new users adding and deleting. If you want to manage temporal virtual team with varying staff and number of team members a good online collaboration tool is a perfect solution for you. However, to use web based collaboration tool for project team that works within one local computer network is not the best idea, because you risk to get your data unreachable - if Internet is not available for some reasons or collaboration web tool server is not responding.

Advantages:

• Convenience for project management in temporal virtual teams.

Disadvantages:

• Critical dependence on Internet connection and speed.
• Possible issues with web-browsers and necessity of recurring payments.
• Certain risk of losing working data.

• Advantages and disadvantages of desktop client server collaboration tool:

  Another big type of project management collaboration tools consists of applications that require installation (usually quick and easy). Desktop client server collaboration tool is much more advisable for companies and teams with stable staff and long-term projects. Proper example of desktop client server collaboration tool is VIP Task Manager.This PM collaboration tool allows you to manage your company's tasks and projects both via LAN and Internet (if your company has remotely located users they can connect database placed on your office server via Internet and for this case your server should just have static IP). Unlike Internet collaboration tools remote users should use not browsers, but individual client components of VIP Task Manager in order to connect to database that is safely kept on your company server (or just usual PC).
Advantages:

Read also a new article about process management - project management client-server software for Windows