5/1/13

Bitrix24: social intranet

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Bitrix24 is a bit more than an average task management application. It is a complete intranet solution for small companies and group of individuals working together.
This web application, containing a great number of business tools and views, based on a good and functional design, aims to be your private CRM, project and time management tool so that you can manage all the possible aspects of your team and projects.


Available elements

By the time you will create a workspace in Bitrix24, you get your own web address, to access your intranet. The Bitrix intranet, is a collection of tools working under the workspace.
You can invite your team members to join the workspace, and begin working on your projects.
Bitrix24 can handle tasks, calendars, files, photos and conversations in your workspace. Projects have also their special place even if they called Workgroups.
Each of your projects/workgroups have their own section, along with their tasks, calendar, files, polls, and a dedicated wiki to enter information. There are also more than the standard views for workspaces and that includes a flat view, subtask view, Gantt chart and customizable reports.
Additionally, there is a CRM section for small companies which includes everything from contacts and deals, to products, sales and employee management.

 

Working with Bitrix24

The web application is pretty fast and responsive, with most of the page elements being self-explanatory. Due to its complicated nature, one might get lost at the beginning, as it gets some time to get familiar with the big number of different views.
Users can work with files right from inside the application and they can also map network drives right into their computers using links provided by the application and have conversations through the built-in instant messaging service. Each user can also have a clear view of tasks assigned to him, or be a simple observer to other tasks.
Time management tools seem pretty straightforward: timers, tags, reminders and priorities are supported,  but don’t expect something resembling a classic GTD system. Calendars can be connected to Outlook, Thunderbird, Apple and Android devices.


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In conclusion

Bitrix24 is a very good intranet system, containing a great number of essential tools to cover any team’s or small company’s needs. The service is free for up to 12 users and 5GB of available cloud storage. If those numbers seem small, there is a professional plan as well.