15 Must-have Digital Workplace Tools for Modern Enterprises in 2024

In this fast-paced business world, companies often struggle with communication, document sharing, and unorganized task management at an enterprise level. These barriers can negatively affect employee productivity and engagement. Without the right digital workplace tools, maintaining a team and ensuring everyone is on the same track gets challenging.

Digital workplace tools have found their place in modern workplaces to improve collaboration, transparency, and flexibility in working. The post-pandemic era has seen a shift in working styles and has accelerated the adoption of cloud-based platforms. All these shifts have propelled the digital workplace market which is set to cross US $76.6 billion by 2027.

In this article, we've identified 5 core areas were digital tools are used in enterprises and the top platforms under each of these areas to help you choose the right ones for workplace transformation.

What are digital workplace tools?

Digital workplace tools are software and technologies that help improve productivity, collaboration, and communication in a digital environment. These tools support remote and hybrid work more by enabling real-time interactions, project management, file sharing, and task automation. They make work more efficient, streamline processes, and allow for flexible working arrangements, resulting in more connected and productive teams.

Top communication platforms

With teams getting more distributed than ever, communication platforms are vital in bringing employees together across different locations and over various timezones.

A few top communication apps adopted commonly by enterprises include,

1. Slack

Slack is a digital communication app used for instant messaging and collaboration.

Slack is highly customizable with an easy-to-use interface for efficient collaboration. It is helpful for remote work and virtual collaboration through real-time messaging and file-sharing capabilities.

Pricing

• Free plan available
• Pro plan: $8.75 per user per month (billed annually)
• Business+ Plan: Costs $12.50 per user per month (billed annually)
• Enterprise grid: contact Slack

2. Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams offers everything you need for teamwork: chat, video conferencing, file sharing, task management, and even deep enterprise integrations. It helps keep everyone on the same page and reduces the need for bouncing between diverse tools. The free version of the app is better for basic needs but has limitations.

Pricing

• Free version available (Limited)
• Basic plan: $6 per user per month

3. Zoom

Zoom is a video conferencing and online meeting platform that allows users to communicate and collaborate through video, audio, and chat. Zoom offers features such as screen sharing, virtual backgrounds, breakout rooms for smaller group discussions, and recording capabilities. It supports a range of devices, including computers, smartphones, and tablets, making it a versatile tool for enterprises.

Zoom's free plan is fantastic, but the meetings are limited to 40 minutes. Upgrading the plan is the only solution for extended meeting times and additional features.

Pricing

• Get a free option (Limited)
• Paid plans:  start around $15 per month

Top productivity tools

Productivity tools enable employees and teams to organize, prioritize, and manage their tasks efficiently, boosting individual and team productivity. The below tools help teams to track progress and ensure transparency among projects, helping employees achieve their goals.

4. ClickUp

ClickUp is an all-in-one project management and productivity tool designed to help teams organize, track, and manage their work. It offers features like task management, document collaboration, time tracking, goal setting, and workflow automation. ClickUp allows customization through various views such as lists, boards, and calendars to suit different project needs.

Pricing

• Free plan available
• Unlimited plan: $7 per user per month
• Business plan: $19 per user per month
• Business plus plan: $29 per user per month
• Enterprise plan: Contact ClickUp team

5. Jira

With many customization options, Jira is specially built for software development teams. It is several useful software project management features like Issue tracking and agile task management that let teams work together smoothly.

Pricing

• Free plan available
• Standard plan: $7.75 per user per month
• Premium plan: $14 per user per month
• Enterprise plan: Custom pricing for large organizations

6. Asana

Asana is a popular project management tool known for its user-friendly interface and strong collaboration features. Its clean and intuitive interface makes it easy to learn and use, even for non-technical teams like sales or marketing to manage their different workflows. Users can create to-do lists, set deadlines, and collaborate through comments and file attachments. Asana supports various views, including lists, boards, calendars, and timelines, to accommodate different project management styles.

Pricing

• Premium: $10.99
• Business: $24.99
• Enterprise: Contact Sales team

Top collaboration apps

Collaboration apps are aimed at allowing team members to work together on projects, share updates, and collaborate on documents in real-time, fostering teamwork and innovation. Organizations usually have one of these collaboration spaces in place:

7. Google Workspace

Google Workspace shines for being a cloud-based suite. It unifies all your essential productivity tools – Gmail, Docs, Drive, Calendar, Meet, and more. This develops collaboration, allowing teams to work on documents, brainstorm ideas, and hold meetings simultaneously.

Pricing and User Ratings

• Free option available with limitation
• Basic plan: $6 per user per month

8. Microsoft Office 365

Microsoft Office 365 is popular for collating a number of file-sharing tools (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.) with cloud support. This will streamline workflows and keep your team connected, regardless of location. The plans are not like you do traditionally, like getting licenses, but operate on a subscription model.

Pricing

• Various plans are available for individual and business needs
• Basic plans: $6 per user per month

9. Dropbox

Dropbox is a pioneer in cloud storage, offering a simple and user-friendly way to store your files online. It can easily integrate with your devices, creating a designated Dropbox folder that automatically syncs with the cloud. This ensures you always have the latest version of your files accessible from anywhere with an internet connection. The tool offers a free plan with limited space.

Pricing

• Offers free plan with limitation
• Basic paid plan: $10 per month for increased space

Best knowledge management tools

Knowledge management systems store and organize enterprise knowledge in a central repository, making it easily accessible to employees. Commonly deployed knowledge management systems include:

10. Confluence

Think of Confluence as a solution for all your team's important documents, meeting notes, project plans, and brainstorming sessions. Confluence develops a culture of knowledge sharing by allowing easy creation, organization, and collaboration on content. It is user-friendly for basic tasks, but it may need some learning to set up complex structures or workflows.

Pricing

• Free plan with limited features
• Paid plans: start around $5 per user per month

11. SharePoint

On Sharepoint, businesses can make intranet sites to store, organize, and share information, files, and papers. It also comes with built-in tools for teamwork, such as discussion boards, wikis, and job management.

Pricing

• No direct free version is available
• Basic price: $6 per user per month

12. Notion

Notion acts as a note-taking app, project manager, wiki, and even a database—all under one roof. Notion supports rich text formatting, embedding multimedia, and linking documents for seamless organization. Integrations with other apps enhance its utility, making Notion a powerful workspace for personal and professional use.

Pricing

• Get a free limited offer
• Paid plans: start around $5 per month

ESM Platforms

Employees may need support in finding certain information urgently, fixing IT glitches, and getting access to certain apps. When employees are not provided the right help at the right time for these issues, it eats into their productive work time. Enterprise Service Management (ESM) platforms help employees access the help they need across IT, HR, and finance teams.

13. Atomicwork

Atomicwork is an end-to-end ESM platform that brings employee support to where employees collaborate and hang out the most—on Slack and MS teams. Integrating with knowledge management systems, it makes enterprise knowledge more accessible for employees. Each employee can own a personal AI assistant that can provide help instantly in an interactive manner.

Atomicwork also automates common workflows like employee onboarding and off boarding processes which makes the overall employee experience more frictionless and delightful.

Pricing

• Professional: $90 per employee per year
• Business: Talk to our team
• Enterprise: Talk to out team

14. TOPdesk ESM

TOPdesk ESM is best for various service departments such as IT, HR, Facilities, etc. It centralizes everything in one platform, which helps you take a unified approach to service delivery. While TOPDesk ESM is a powerful tool, you may need expert support for initial setup and ongoing maintenance.

Pricing

Plan price: Connect with the team

15. USU ESM

USU Enterprise Service Management (ESM) adapts to fit your organization's specific needs. This flexibility allows you to optimize individual service areas or use it as a company-wide hub for all service requests. Additionally, businesses may face little problems integrating it with existing systems.

Pricing

Plan price: Connect with the team

Have the right digital workplace toolkit for successful employee engagement

Digital workplace tools are vital in bringing teams and employees together to accomplish great work with the least friction possible.

However, as vital as these tools are, too many platforms could turn burdensome for employees. Hence it's important to not just adopt these tools, but see that there aren't duplicates for the same solutions, that they're centralized, and used by your entire organization.

Tightly integrating these tools with one another is also key in providing seamless employee engagement. A modern digital workplace solution like Atomicwork integrates deeply with communication tools like Slack and knowledge management systems like Sharepoint to remove hassles in employee self-service and support.

If you're looking for more ways to reimagine your digital workplace, then we're happy to hear you out and help in implementing a holistic digital workplace solution.