21 Business Productivity Tools to Enhance Work Efficiency!

Stumbling due to inefficiencies in your workflow? It’s time to regain your footing by getting support from business productivity tools.

In the hustle and bustle of modern work life, the standard 40-hour week often falls short of delivering the productivity we all want. That’s where the idea of getting more done in less time comes in. A big part of making this happen is having efficient processes.

But, how can we transform processes to be as efficient as a well-tuned clock? The answer is- business productivity tools. These tools make tasks easy, encourage teamwork, and remove project obstacles. Whether you’re planning tasks, using CRM systems, or collaborating, these tools ensure everyone is on the same page. So, stay with us as we explore the 21 productivity tools for business in this blog post. Read on!

Importance of Business Productivity Tools

Businesses, regardless of their industry, strive for productivity to enhance operational excellence. Why? Because a more productive workplace not only keeps employees motivated but also creates a top-notch customer experience. Great customer experience is the key factor for building lasting brand loyalty. Achieving operational excellence is within reach for businesses through the strategic integration of business productivity tools. Here’s how:

1. Enhance Collaboration

Effective collaboration boosts coordination, innovation, and overall team efficiency. It is the backbone of successful business projects. But, when team members lack a unified platform for communication, open collaboration often becomes a challenge. This can result in diminished engagement, delayed decision-making, and a lack of accountability, risking project failure.

Business productivity tools address this by offering a centralized hub for communication. Features like real-time editing, @mentions, and inline comments foster effortless interaction among team members. Such tools transcend geographical barriers, enabling individuals from diverse locations to collaborate effortlessly.

Imagine someone on a business trip collaborating with a colleague halfway around the world as if they were in the same room. This instant collaboration enhances productivity and flexibility, eliminating the need for physical presence in the office. When collaboration becomes convenient, work progresses efficiently.

Moreover, these tools facilitate brainstorming and idea sharing to create a dedicated space for productive collaboration. With productivity tools, the team becomes a well-connected unit, overcoming communication challenges and achieving more in less time.

2. Improved Data Organization

Another significant advantage of productivity tools is their ability to centralize data storage for all team members. Collecting documents from various sources can be challenging in remote work scenarios.

For smaller file sizes, emailing to the relevant department or individual might work. However, for larger files, a separate flash drive or storage device becomes necessary.

Productivity tools simplify the exchange of information by providing a unified storage solution for all data types, including images, files, documents, data sheets, and presentations. This shared storage ensures quick access for all teammates involved, enabling prompt actions without delays.

3. Better Reporting of Progress

Keeping track of project progress is super important for project managers and senior management. But, let’s face it, figuring out who’s handling which project and how it’s going can be a bit of a challenge. Thankfully, productivity tools come to the rescue, making this task a whole lot easier.

Using these tools, managers can easily get real-time insights into employee performance and goal achievements. Not only managers these tools also enable employees to report their progress and seek help when needed.

This helps spot errors and also recognizes and encourages good work, fostering transparency and accountability. This transparency motivates team members, leading to improved overall productivity.

So, it’s clear that business productivity tools are a must in today’s workplaces, showcasing real improvements. Moving forward, let’s dive into our next section and discover the 21 business productivity tools that could revolutionize your work approach.

21 Business Productivity Tools

Whether you crave effortless collaboration, organized project management, email management, or enhanced focus, we’ve got the perfect tools for you. Discover a detailed list of these productivity game-changers, delving into their features and pricing breakdowns. Don’t miss the chance to revolutionize your work experience. Read on!

1. Collaboration Tools
2. Task Management Tools
3. Project and Product Management Tools
4. Time-Tracking Tools
5. Email Management Tools
6. CRM Tools
7. Focus Tools

Collaboration Tools

1.Bit.ai

Sorting through different apps for knowledge creation, search, and collaboration can sometimes make things more complicated than helpful. That’s where Bit.ai steps in – an AI-powered wiki and document collaboration tool that makes knowledge management a breeze.

Bit.ai redefines business productivity tools, offering a revolutionary approach to creating, collaborating, and organizing knowledge globally. This platform empowers teams and individuals to create dynamic documents, wikis, and projects with unmatched speed and intelligence. The introduction of AI Genius elevates productivity, enhancing writing, research, and creative thinking.

Bit.ai is a dynamic platform where smart documents and wikis facilitate better thinking, smarter work, and improved communication. It keeps everyone synchronized across robust co-editing, real-time notifications, and scalable fluid workspaces. So, with Bit.ai, experience the simplicity of streamlined work and tools in one place. Now, let’s explore the cool features of Bit.ai that’ll take your team into a new era of productivity:

Key Features:

Smart Workspaces and Wikis

• Create customized workspaces for projects, teams, or departments, ensuring organized and efficient collaboration.
• Control access by inviting collaborators with customizable permissions, from read-only to full editing capabilities.
• Quickly turn a document into a wiki by adding subpages, creating a central hub for all your knowledge.

Real-Time Collaboration

• Collaborate simultaneously on documents in real-time through @mentions and inline comments, fostering instant communication and productivity.
• Cross-collaborate by inviting team members from different workspaces to edit or provide feedback.

AI Genius Writing Assistant

• Overcome writer’s block as AI Genius Writer intelligently handles content research, outlines, ideas, and interactive experiences.
• Streamline document organization with auto-formatting. Automatic addition of headings and subheadings, tables, lists, syntax highlighting, etc., leads to a polished and structured look.

Rich Media Integration / Interactive Documents

• Enhance documents with over 100+ app integrations like OneDrive, Dropbox, Calendly, etc, transforming them into interactive visual experiences.
• Incorporate images, PDFs, videos, URLs, and more, making knowledge-sharing engaging and comprehensive.

Manage Permissions & Information Access

• Implement smart access controls, including password protection, document expiration, and document lock.
• Invite partners and clients to view the document through an authenticated guest login.

Smart Search

• Utilize smart search for swift retrieval of documents across all workspaces, folders, documents, and wikis.
• Bit’s smart search boasts pinpoint accuracy, automatically scrolling to the exact search location within the documents.

Document and Wiki Sharing with Advanced Tracking

• Bit.ai allows you to effortlessly share documents and wikis with internal and external members through live links, trackable links, and website embedding.
• Incorporate customizable lead capture forms into shared documents to collect specific information, like user preferences or feedback.
• Password protection, document expiration, and document lock features enhance security and control access for shared documents.
• Bit’s trackable links allow you to monitor shared document engagement. Get insights about viewer interaction like- how often a document is accessed, the time spent on it, and other user engagement patterns.

Shared Asset Library

• The asset library is a quick way to add reusable digital media and rich content to various docs and wikis within your workspace. It allows you to pre-upload digital content, speeding up the process of enhancing the knowledge you and your team are creating.
• Anyone in your workspace with full or editor access can access the asset library. Team members can contribute diverse digital content, including files, rich embeds, cloud files, web links, and more.

Pricing:

Free Plan: Enjoy free usage for up to 5 members.
Pro Plan: Starting at $8 per member per month, billed annually.
Business Plan: Starting at $15 per member per month, billed annually.

Additionally, you can enhance your experience with the AI Genius Add-on at $10 per 100k words per month, available with any paid plan. Choose the plan that fits your team’s requirements and budget for a seamless collaboration experience.

2. Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams transforms workplace collaboration by offering a simple, flexible, and effective communication platform. It empowers employees to collaborate from various locations and devices, eliminating the risk of information silos. More than just a chat hub, Teams integrates with Office 365, providing easy access to apps like Excel and Word, as well as cloud storage solutions.

Key Features:

• Instantly access Email, Skype, OneDrive, and SharePoint for a seamless collaboration hub.
• Teams, compatible with Android, Windows, and iOS, offers a user-friendly app enabling text chatting, voice conversations, and video meetings.
• Effortlessly integrate third-party applications such as Zendesk, Trello, Polly, and more.

Pricing:

Microsoft Teams Essential: $4 per user /month
Microsoft 365 Business Basic: $6.00 per user/per month
Microsoft 365 Business Standard: $12.50 per user/per month

3. Google Workspace

Once called G Suite, Google Workspace is like a supercharged toolkit for work. It brings together all the important Google tools, such as Gmail, Calendar, Docs, and Slides, so you can use them wherever and however you want. Advanced security features like data loss prevention contribute to a more efficient and secure environment. Google Workspace’s focus on integration and user experience delivers a fresh identity and an improved collaborative space, making it an essential tool for efficient communication and content creation.

Key Features:

• Google Workspace easily integrates communication and productivity apps like Figma, Confluence, Miro, etc.
• It puts Chat, Meet, and Spaces under one umbrella, eliminating the need to switch between multiple tabs for different tasks.
• Improved @mentions, and file previews in Sheets, Slides, and Docs.

Pricing:

Business Starter plan: $7.20 per user/ month when billed monthly.
Business Standard plan: $14.40 per user/ month when billed monthly.
Business Plus plan: $21.60 per user/ month when billed monthly.
Enterprise plan: Contact sales for pricing information

Task Management Tools

1. Calendly

Calendly makes scheduling super easy and helps small businesses and marketers get things done more efficiently. You can customize it to set up meetings smoothly, handle breaks between appointments, and sync it seamlessly with your calendars. It’s like having a virtual assistant that keeps things flexible and organized when planning different types of meetings. Plus, the easy-to-use interface and browser extension make collaboration a breeze.

Key Features:

• Customizable scheduling with buffer times.
• Highly adaptable to various meeting types, from one-on-ones to group events.
• Easy integration with Google Calendar and Outlook.

Pricing:

Free version available
Paid plans start at $10/user/month when billed annually.

2. Casual

Casual, a visual task management tool, caters to small project-based teams. With a unique approach to organizing tasks visually, it stands out for its charting, task dependencies, and workflow management. Casual’s features include visual workflow creation and flexible task grouping, providing an intuitive platform for project planning.

Key Features:

• Offers pre-set templates to assist you.
• Workflow organization through charts.
• Task dependencies, grouping, and milestone tracking.

Pricing:

Personal: $10/month for up to 2 users.
Starter: $25/month for up to 5 users.
Team: $50/month for up to 10 users.
Enterprise: Custom plans for larger teams.

3. Smart Task

SmartTask, an all-in-one work management platform, caters to solopreneurs, SMBs, and enterprises. It offers features like recurring tasks, subtasks, and timeline views. The standout features of this business productivity tool include team collaboration and integration with various applications. SmartTask’s simplicity, along with advanced functionalities like Gantt Chart and CRM, makes it a powerful choice for efficient work management.

Key Features:

• Multiple task views (list, board, calendar, and timeline).
• Team collaboration with chat, calls, and file sharing.
• Productivity scoring for visual insights.

Pricing:

Free Forever.
PREMIUM: $7.99/user/month (billed annually).
BUSINESS: $10.99/user/month (billed annually).

SmartTask ensures clarity in team responsibilities and boosts productivity, making it an excellent choice for comprehensive work management.

Related: 10 Task Management Tools Every Business Must be Using!

Project and Product Management

1. Scoro

Scoro is an all-in-one management and business productivity software. It is designed to align workflows and free up your valuable time. It excels in time tracking, team management, and effortless invoicing, ensuring your focus stays on customer satisfaction.

Key Features:

• Real-time overview of projects, profit, budget updates, and more.
• Assign tasks, prioritize, link with projects, and make time billable.
• Get a comprehensive overview of your company’s workflow, sales, and budget in just one click.

Pricing:

Starting from $26 per user/month.

2. Productboard

Productboard, a customer-centric product management platform, excels in prioritizing product development through effective collaboration. It integrates product and customer feedback from various tools like Zendesk and Slack, offering enhanced analytics and roadmapping. The business productivity tool mainly focuses on customer satisfaction. This is evident in its customizable road mapping, portals for feedback, and prioritization features.

Key Features:

• Tailor roadmaps for clear product strategies.
• Collect and analyze feedback from various tools in one place.
• Easily integrates with Slack, Microsoft Teams, Zapier, etc., to ensure efficient communication and collaboration.

Pricing:

Essentials plan: $19 per user/month
Pro plan: $59 per user/month
Scale and Enterprise plans: Contact sales for pricing.
Offers a 15-day free trial.

3. ProductPlan

ProductPlan is a super easy business productivity tool for making plans for your product. It helps you collaborate with your team and talk about your ideas easily. If you use other complicated tools, it can make things harder, like more work and less flexibility. But with ProductPlan, you get cool and interactive roadmaps that make it a must-have for product teams. It brings everyone on the same page about the product and enhances overall product strategy communication.

Key Features:

• Easily create a timeline, list, or table layouts for prioritizing product development.
• Tailor roadmaps based on the audience to ensure secure idea management.
• Easily collaborate with colleagues to prioritize and visualize your product development journey.

Pricing:

Basic plan: $39 per user/month
Professional plan: $79 per user/month
Enterprise plan: Contact sales for pricing.
Offers a free 14-day trial.

Time-tracking Tools

1. Timely

Timely is a fantastic time-tracking app made by Memory AS to effortlessly keep track of your time. It makes “Memories” of what you do on your computer or the web, so you can easily link them to tasks. Privacy is a top priority—only you have access to your data. This business productivity software is super easy to use. Simply connect your calendar and set up projects, tasks, and hourly rates. Timely quietly works in the background, so you don’t need to worry about starting timers manually. Plus, it’s great for detailed reports, showing you things like unbilled hours and insights into specific workspaces and projects.

Key Features:

• Provides memories of software and web usage for effortless time entry.
• Offers customized views, invoicing through QuickBooks, and task planning.
• Allows team scheduling, project management, and insightful dashboards.

Pricing:

Starter Plan: $9/user/month (up to 20 projects, 5 users)
Premium Plan: $16/user/month (unlimited projects, 50 users)

2. Harvest

Harvest, tailored for freelancers and project teams, excels in time tracking, expense management, and project budgeting. It integrates easily with project management tools, simplifying billing and optimizing workflows. This business productivity tool ensures accurate time tracking across various interfaces for enhanced productivity.

Key Features:

• Professional invoices based on tracked time and expenses.
• Offers intuitive time tracking across the web through smartphones and external applications.
• Provides detailed reporting through time analysis and project insights.

Pricing:

Paid Plan: Starts at $10.80 per user/month with a 30-day free trial.

3. Toggl Track

Toggl Track helps you keep a close eye on your time with cool features like automatic tracking through your browser and Pomodoro Technique settings. The Chrome extension makes it super easy to start and stop tracking, while improved dashboards make analyzing your data a breeze. With Toggl, you can easily solve the mystery of “Where did my time go?” through helpful and insightful reports.

Key Features:

• Advanced browser-based time tracking like idle detection, Pomodoro Technique, etc.
• Customized dashboards for weekly stats, team summaries, and filtered reports.
• Track time manually for billable hours and detailed project insights.

Pricing:

Free plan available
Paid plan: starts from $9 user/month

Email Management Tools

1. Brevo

Brevo, formerly known as Sendinblue, combines email marketing and CRM in one easy-to-use platform. If you’re into email marketing, Brevo’s got smart lead segmentation, transactional emailing, and a clean dashboard for efficient marketing campaigns. The drag-and-drop email editor makes designing professional emails a breeze. With Brevo, you can handle unlimited contacts and automate segmentation based on behavior, interests, and attributes. It’s not just about emails; Brevo also helps manage things like password resets, order confirmations, and shipping updates.

Key Features:

• Integrated marketing and CRM stack to access a comprehensive suite for sales and marketing email management.
• Execute marketing campaigns seamlessly using advanced features like automation, A/B testing, and targeted market segmentation.
• Universal inbox feature enhances collaboration among teams, ensuring that customer interactions are tracked and managed efficiently.

Pricing:

Starter: $25/month
Business: $65/month
BrevoPlus: Contact for pricing

2. SaneBox

SaneBox is a business productivity tool in the field of email management. It leverages AI to prioritize and declutter inboxes. It pays attention to how you handle emails and figures out what’s important and what’s not. When you connect it to your email, it creates special folders like SaneLater for distracting emails, SaneNews for newsletters, and SaneCC for those CC’d emails.

If you’re waiting for replies to your emails, SaneBox has your back with the SaneNoReplies feature, so you know when someone hasn’t responded. It’s the go-to tool for anyone drowning in emails, seamlessly working with your email service to organize everything neatly. Say goodbye to email chaos and hello to focus!

Key Features:

• AI email sorting feature identifies and categorizes important emails, reducing inbox clutter.
• Users can set up custom filtering rules for a tailored inbox experience.
• Receive a summary of sorting and filtering activities through ‘Daily Digest’ to ensure nothing is missed.

Pricing:

Snack: $3.49/month
Lunch: $5.99/month
Dinner: $16.99/month

3. UpLead

UpLead revolutionizes lead generation with a focus on accuracy and efficiency. It’s like a superhero tool for sales and marketing folks. UpLead provides verified emails, phone numbers, and social media information for decision-makers. Users can effortlessly find leads using over 50 criteria, making sure you hit the bullseye with your targets.

The cool Chrome extension from UpLead makes it a breeze to grasp and reach out to potential clients. It also comes with real-time email verification and diverse data enrichment capabilities. In short, UpLead is a business productivity software that helps businesses connect with the right contacts.

Key Features:

• Its 95% data accuracy guarantees reliable and accurate contact information for outreach.
• Save time by looking up emails in bulk and exporting results to CRM.
• Understand leads better with detailed user profiles, including job titles and social media links.

Pricing:

Free Trial
Essentials: $99/month
Plus: $199/month

CRM

1.Keap

Keap is a super helpful business productivity tool designed for small businesses and entrepreneurs. It brings together everything you need for managing customers – sales, marketing, and customer stuff. Keap is all about making businesses grow by using advanced marketing automation, easy e-commerce integration, and efficient lead-capture tools. Keap keeps things simple and automated so that users can focus on growing their businesses wisely. It also helps with customized campaigns and aligns sales processes.

Key Features:

• Personalized, automated campaigns for lead nurturing and conversions.
• Online storefronts, payment processing, and invoicing for streamlined sales.
• Customizable tools for effective prospect information collection.

Pricing:

If you want to decide whether to keep Keap, check out a demo or their 14-day free trial.
Pro: $159/month
Max: $229/month

2. MS Dynamics

Microsoft Dynamics 365 provides a unified hub for customer records. It’s awesome for customer-centric businesses with complex processes. MS Dynamics positions itself as a crucial tool for adapting, scaling, and sustaining long-term growth in a dynamic business environment.

Key Features:

• Comprehensive analytics for tracking and improving the sales process.
• Automating administrative processes for increased efficiency.
• Utilizing AI for valuable customer data/insights and adaptive scaling.

Pricing:

Sales Professional: $65/month per user
Sales Enterprise: $95/month per user
Sales Premium: $135/month per user
Microsoft Relationship Sales: $162/month per user

3. Insightly

Insightly is a versatile CRM and business productivity software. It is designed to support businesses in customer relationship management, project coordination, and team collaboration. Great for small businesses, it smoothly brings together project management tools. With its features, Insightly empowers teams to stay organized, communicate effectively, and align workflows. Whether you want efficient lead management or aim for improved customer relationships, Insightly has flexible plans to suit what your business needs.

Key Features:

• Unified platform for customer relationships and project management.
• Customizable sales pipeline stages for improved organization and focus.
• Comprehensive understanding of customers through connected contacts, organizations, and projects.

Pricing:

Plus Plan: $29/user/month (billed annually)
Professional Plan: $49/user/month (billed annually)
Enterprise Plan: $99/user/month (billed annually)

Related: 9 Best CRM Software You Should Use This Year!

Focus Tools

1. Freedom

Begin your distraction-free journey with Freedom, a unique digital wellness tool. Unlike typical blockers, it ensures a seamless, focused environment across all your gadgets. This app helps you to conquer the ever-present digital distractions. Create a daily or weekly schedule, or customize distractions as required. Choose the devices, sites, and apps you want to block, then initiate the timer. You can alert your team before entering this business productivity tool to create a space for uninterrupted work.

Key Features:

• Block distractions seamlessly on multiple devices.
• Through lockdown mode, prevent edits to blocklists during active sessions.
• Choose productivity-enhancing ambient background sounds for enhanced concentration.

Pricing:

Monthly Plan: $8.99
Yearly Plan: $3.33/month (for one year)
Forever Plan: $99.50 (lifetime subscription)
Trial: 7-day free trial

2. Noisli

Boost your focus and productivity with Noisli – a stylish app that transforms your workspace. With 16 diverse sounds and a user-friendly interface, Noisli goes beyond typical white noise generators. It lets you create personalized soundscapes, turning your environment into an auditory haven. Whether you need to drown out household noise or enhance concentration in a busy office, Noisli has you covered. Immerse yourself in a seamless blend of sound and productivity, making work a truly immersive experience.

Key Features:

• Customizable mixes to blend various sounds for your ideal working environment.
• Its text editor helps you accomplish simple writing tasks within the app.
• Variety of sound options like nature, train, coffee shop, and more.

Pricing:

Free Plan: $0
Pro Plan: $10/month when billed annually
Business Plan: $24/month when billed annually

3. Trevor AI

Say hello to Trevor AI, your trusty companion in the world of to-do list apps. Task management becomes a breeze with this AI-powered gem. Trevor keeps things simple – no major reshuffling of your day and no complicated controls. It offers an easy-to-use interface while utilizing AI to optimize task placement in your calendar. As you use it, Trevor learns and refines your schedule, adapting to your preferences. Embrace the subtle art of task organization where simplicity meets efficiency, all guided by the gentle intelligence of Trevor AI.

Key Features:

• Trevor excels in task scheduling, utilizing AI to suggest durations and optimal times for each activity.
• Embrace a focused work approach with Trevor’s time-blocking feature, enhancing concentration on individual tasks.
• It is uniquely designed to easily integrate with your existing calendar for enhanced planning.

Pricing:

Free Plan: Available
Paid Plan: $3.99/month

Here, we’ve covered a bunch of productivity tools for you. Now, choose what fits your business best. Before deciding, try free trials to ensure it’s the perfect match. Let’s head to the final section for a comprehensive wrap-up!

Wrapping Up

Alright, we’ve reached the end of our chat about business productivity software, covering why they matter and exploring 21 handy tools for collaboration, focus, email management, and more.

Now, it’s time to put this knowledge into action! Use these tools to supercharge your work life, boosting efficiency and organization. This leads to two big wins: finish tasks faster and reduce stress. Now, go conquer your to-do list and turn productivity into your superpower!

Further Reads:

Top Knowledge Management Examples for Business Productivity!

10 Appointment Scheduling Software in 2024!

Top 10 Best Knowledge Management Tools in 2024!

25 Best AI Tools For Peak Productivity!