Collaboration Tools Comparison
- Grosshandler, Mike
ITS provides collaboration tools to enable University faculty, staff, and students to work together and communicate efficiently with anyone, anywhere, anytime.
Microsoft Teams
Use Microsoft Teams to share files, edit and collaborate on documents, take notes, host & join virtual meetings, chat with individuals or groups from any device, and create a SharePoint Team Site.
UAlbany faculty, staff and students can create a Team in Microsoft Teams that provides 1TB of storage for files for your team.
Microsoft Teams is great for:
Collaborating with people/groups outside the University
Storing large files (up to 250GB)
Files your group or team need to work on together
Files you need to share with multiple people
Files multiple people need to be able to access any time from anywhere
Files for clubs, interest groups, committees, project teams, departments
Being able to have access to your group's files directly on your device with syncing, even while offline
Group files that you need to access or edit from a mobile device
SharePoint Team Sites
SharePoint Sites are great for:
A private website and storage space to collaborate with your team to organize and co-author shared content
An intranet/internal website for an office or working group to document procedures, specifications, troubleshooting steps, and store important files
Internal websites for clubs, interest groups, committees, project teams, departments
Extranet site to collaborate with an external partner (including specific external users; not the general public)
Knowledgebase for policies, procedures, or troubleshooting information
SharePoint Communication Sites
SharePoint Sites are great for:
An intranet/internal website for an office or working group to document procedures, specifications, troubleshooting steps, and store important files
Internal websites for clubs, interest groups, committees, project teams, departments
Extranet site to collaborate with an external partner (including specific external users; not the general public)
A website to share information that engages and informs broad audiences within the University
Internal University-facing department/news site
Knowledgebase for policies, procedures, or troubleshooting information
Smartsheet
A Smartsheet is great for:
Project Management with automated workflows and dashboards
Other Collaboration Options
ITS recommends the collaboration tools listed above. There are other options for specific uses available.
If you are working with data subject to federal, state, or local regulations, or declared sensitive and personally identifiable (Category 1 data) by the University, please refer to Category 1 Storage Standards for guidance on appropriate storage locations.