The best business apps in 2024 and the role of the intranet

Business apps and remote working

More and more companies are trying to strengthen their everyday work processes by resorting to apps - applications - and software that increase performance.

A brilliant job is made of tools that can facilitate the employee and amplify his performance as a single and part of a group. For this reason, the market is full of company apps that focus on two macro areas: real-time collaboration and groupware - that is, the facilitation of everyday activities.

This article will show you 10 mainly useful apps for business and explain how to place them in the best business tool: the intranet.

The 10 best apps for your business

1. Slack

Slack is one of the business apps that offer real-time messaging in work/community environments. The interface is user-friendly, and the system integrates with Skype, Google Drive, and Twitter.

It's possible to make video calls from Mac, Windows, and Chrome.

The costs?

- $6.67 per month for the use of the Standard version per user

- $12.50 per month for the Plus version.

Alternatively, a free version is available but does not allow you to enjoy essential features such as unlimited storage for calls and messages.

2. Facebook Workplace

The social media giant approached the professional world to launch an app for businesses known as Workplace. This service matches the interface we are accustomed to, the Messenger chat with a news feed and insight in an operational dashboard.

The costs?

- $3 per month per user with a maximum of 1000 users. 

- $2 a month for a user from 1001 to 10,000.

- $1 per month for each user over 10,000.

3. Cisco Spark

Cisco Spark offers a messaging service that includes video, voice, and text with a content-sharing option categorized by room.

Spark allows free in-app calls, display sharing, up to 5 GB for file sharing, and integrating up to 10 apps.

The Premium version instead starts at $12 per month per individual employee.

4. Stride

The latest addition to the best business apps list is Atlassian. It's a collaborative tool that combines messaging, video calling, and other communication tools.

Its repertoire includes the Focus Mode, which eliminates user distractions from notifications and messages, and the "Actions and Decisions" feature, which allows you to categorize, assign, and save specific items.

Notifications are customizable, and you can annotate images and embed files. A free version is available, and a standard one, too.

5. Asana

For business management, one of the Asana company apps allows you to form lists to add and organize the work.

This business app includes reminders, tasks, ideas, and more. It can also be shared with the teams to discuss and develop projects and communicate updates on individual and shared activities.

6. Astrid

Astrid is among the most useful business apps because it acts as a personal assistant to the user.

It keeps track of employees' commitments with their degree of priority, deadlines, timetables, notes, and reminders. In addition, the platform organizes the calendar that can be shared with colleagues and has a geolocation function to send reminders depending on where the user is located.

7. Dropbox for Teams

The app was created to allow employees to access files in their folders from any device and share them.

This app facilitates the flow of work, and everyone can always work with the desired files in their most updated version and synchronize with their colleagues.

The business version allows more storage space and prioritizes document security compared to the free one.​

8. Microsoft Teams

Teams is one of the most-used apps of the market leader Microsoft 365 for business collaboration.

Colleagues can communicate with each other and discuss projects through channels, chats, and unique spaces.

The platform allows conversations and video calls and is the right tool to conduct meetings, conferences, and live events with 10,000 participants in a professional way.

Innovative features such as breakout rooms and together mode simulate rooms where users can brainstorm and immerse themselves in a virtual reality that mimics the desired environment.

Teams are the perfect collaboration tool. It ensures that the documents of the various teams are located in the right place to speed up the search processes.

Users can comment and edit each file in real time to maintain a constant work synchronization.

Intranet.ai uses and integrates seamlessly with Teams to ensure a unique experience.

9. Yammer

Yammer is another of the Microsoft 365 business apps, considered the corporate social network par excellence.

Companies use it as a center for discussing, comparing, and sharing company knowledge.

Customizable notifications, emojis, reactions, and other user-friendly features make the social appealing by stimulating business engagement.

Thanks to Yammer, employees can increase their business network and make their voices heard by colleagues and superiors by exposing ideas and opinions that help companies grow.

Intranet.ai also integrates perfectly with Yammer.

10. Microsoft To Do

To-Do is the Microsoft 365 app for business that reminds employees of all their activities and individual or team commitments.

The intranet: one place for the best business apps

Business apps are several and all focus on the organization and the business collaboration.

Each one is valid, but how much value can these tools bring to a company? A solid base that brings together the browsing experiences of all employees is needed.

For this reason, both SMEs and large companies rely on intranet systems integrated with Microsoft to ensure in one place all the most diverse tools that go far beyond the management of events or content sharing.

Here is an overview of what you can do with the tools of an intranet.

What does the intranet hold for you?

Intranet.ai offers companies more than 20 vertical solutions with features that accompany and speed up each employee's work processes.

The staff-only platform integrates perfectly and is built with the same technologies as SharePoint and Microsoft 365 to allow cutting-edge business apps in a unique browsing experience.

By accessing the intranet, every user will find a homepage with all the updates and news that the company needs to share.

The employee can start from there and move around, searching for materials and content with artificial intelligence-powered search systems and sharing them with different collaboration tools, such as Microsoft Teams and Yammer.

Departments such as human resources can make the intranet a portal for training.

Everyone can make training requests, take courses, and acquire knowledge.

The platform also helps accelerate internal recruitment processes thanks to advanced features such as digital resumes and smart organizational charts that allow you to know all the essential information about the staff.

Employees can find all business apps in one location, where they can not only organize, track activity progress, and collaborate with intelligent systems but also enjoy helpful services.

The most requested are company car booking, the seat in the canteen or office booking, visualization of past and future pay slips, requests for remote working, holidays, and sick days.

All the applications inside the intranet portal are perfectly connected to offer users a fluid interface, are intelligent, and are designed to amplify communication, stimulate engagement, and spread corporate knowledge.