Best Digital Business Communication Platforms for Enterprise

A communication platform is a digital platform that is designed to enhance and optimize communication by making it easier to share information and ideas among groups or individuals. In a business workplace, it is a software or an app that increases collaboration and facilitates easy information flow between teams, employees, and customers.

Before enterprises choose platform for their daily communication, they should take the time to consider and evaluate a potential digital solution by asking themselves important questions. The right enterprise communication solution will help employees and team members complete tasks on time by reaching the right person, whether employee or customer, through business communication channels, such as phone calls, text messages, and video conferencing.
 

• Does the platform have all the key features you want in an employee app?
• Does it align with your high-level goals, such as increasing employee collaboration, reducing costs, and reducing email?
• Does the enterprise communication software reduce the number of applications, saving on costs, by consolidating communication and collaboration features in current tools?
• Does it fill the current gaps not met by the tools in use?
• What is the total cost of ownership of the platform?
• Does it integrate with common applications to add value?
• Is the enterprise communication tool scalable and flexible?

Most communication software for businesses falls into the categories of internal communication, client communication, unified communication, video conferencing, collaboration, and project management. These platforms enable various forms of communication, such as instant messaging, video conferencing, and voice calls, sometimes combining multiple features to improve collaboration.
 

Internal communication platforms are tools for improving workplace communication between employees, managers, and stakeholders. Top features include instant messaging, push notifications, mobile apps, an intranet, and ease of use.

Examples: Calilio, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Confluence

Examples: Calilio, ZenDesk, Aircall, Gmail

A unified communication platform integrates multiple communication channels into one platform, such as voice calling, file sharing, instant messaging, and conference calling. With a unified platform, there is no need for multiple business communication apps, as every customer communication is in one place.

Examples: Calilio, RingCentral, Nextiva, Dialpad

Collaboration tools make it easy for teams to communicate quickly, share resources, and collaborate on projects and tasks through version control, real-time comments, and document sharing via a link. The best team collaboration tools simplify teamwork by offering group chat, shared calendars, real-time messaging, and file-sharing.

Examples: Calilio, Miro, GoToMeeting, Google Drive

Project management platforms enable you to prioritize tasks so that you can deliver projects on time through proper planning, scheduling, and execution. The software provides an easy interface to keep tabs on ongoing projects and who is in charge of what task. When choosing project management software, enterprises should look for features such as project planning, task management, communication, resource management, progress tracking, and notifications for efficiency.

Examples: Monday.com, Asana, Trello, Jira, Basecamp, Hive, Notion

Calilio is an all-in-one VoIP business communication and collaboration software for internal communications, employee engagement, and customer communications. It integrates calls, messages, reports, analytics, and emails in one unified platform. Calilio has all the tools to improve communication in the workplace by emphasizing mobility, reliability, flexibility, and productivity. Its detailed reports and analytics give you valuable insights into team performance, customer sentiment, and call patterns. With Calilio, you can switch between devices easily and access features that facilitate collaboration and teamwork, like internal messaging and conference calls.

Calilo is a popular business communication solution due to its easy setup, 24/7 live chat support, affordable and inclusive bill with no hidden costs, and integrations with current applications. 

Key Features:
 

• Internal Message - Share quick information internally for better collaboration.
• Unified Callbox - Have all your communications in one place.
• AI-Powered Call Summary - Get the key points of the conversation so you never miss a detail.
• Mobile and Desktop App - Switch between devices and be as mobile as possible.
• CRM Integration - Know exactly who is calling to assist customers better.
• Conference Calling - Connect with more than one person globally.
• Advanced Analytics and Reporting - Gain insights into call patterns for informed decision-making.
• Call Recordings and Storage - Store your phone conversations for future access.
• Auto Attendant - Automatically reroute callers to the designated department.

Pricing:
 

• 14-day money-back guarantee
• From $15/user/month if billed monthly or $12/user/month (billed annually)

Nextiva is a VoIP office phone system with all the essential business communication features needed in the workplace. Calls, texts, video conferencing, team chat, and file sharing are all combined in its NextivaOne app. Although it can be used for internal communications and collaborating with team members through video meetings, it is geared towards providing exceptional customer experiences through integration with CRM tools essential for customer ticketing, lead tracking, and opportunity management.

Key Features:
 

• Auto attendant for letting callers choose the person or department for chatting
• Call parking to continue the conversation with the customer from another device
• Conversational AI allows customers to talk in their natural language
• Voicemail for when you end up missing calls
• Call analytics for informed decision-making through historical data

Pricing:
 

• 7-days free trial
• Starts from $25.95/user/month if billed monthly and $18.95/user/month if billed annually

Slack is a cloud-based platform for team communication and collaboration within a workplace for organizations of all sizes, from small businesses to large enterprises. While the standard Slack plan is enough for startups and small businesses, Slack Enterprise Grid is a go-to solution for safe and secure communications for enterprises and large corporations. It can support collaboration and internal communication with up to 500,000 individuals and is used by IBM, Oracle, and E-Trade.

Key Features:
 

• Public and private channels for easy access to conversations and files
• Huddles for deeper conversations that are either audio-only or supported by videos
• Desktop or mobile app and website
• Integrations with 2,600 apps, including Asana, Jira, Salesforce
• Audio, video, or screen recordings for easy updates, announcements, and explanations

Pricing:
 

• 90-day free trial + free plan available
• From $8.75/user/month or $87/user/year

Microsoft Teams is communication software designed for collaboration and internal communication for more than 300 people. It has all the features needed for communicating, sharing, and collaborating across distances. Teams improve internal communication by allowing teams to create channels for important messages, send announcements to keep teams up-to-date on the latest news, tag people for targeted communications, and create an internal wiki for collecting and capturing knowledge from different sources. It integrates easily with all Microsoft 365 apps, including Excel, Word, and PowerPoint.

Key Features:
 

• Unlimited chat with coworkers and customers
• File sharing, tasks, and polling
• Collaborative annotations in team meetings
• Phone and web support
• Team meeting recordings with transcripts
• Whiteboard

Pricing:
 

• Free plan (60 minutes meeting duration) and one-month free trial available
• From $4.00/user/month to $12.50/user/month (billed annually)

Zendesk is a complete customer and client communication platform with features that allow agents to pass common questions to bots and customers to receive instant answers 24/7 across all channels. All client information and messages are in one workspace, so agents can provide personalized and engaged service across all channels. Features like built-in automation, AI, and Zendesk bots make it easy to serve more customers.

Key Features:
 

• Whisper mode to help the assigned agent during a live conversation through internal notes.
• Social and business channels to engage with customers
• Queue size and wait time to determine the wait time and queue size for incoming callers before being directed to voicemail
• Multilingual content to connect with customers in their native language
• Customer portal to manage support requests and community contributions

Pricing:
 

• Free 14-day trial available
• From $55/agent/month billed annually

Aircall is a cloud-based customer platform for communication designed for sales and support teams. It integrates with CRMs and other business tools, such as Slack, Salesforce, and HubSpot. With Smartflows call routing, customers are automatically routed to the relevant team or agent, ensuring customers receive service tailored to their needs. Weekly analysis of customer wait time and other customer experience-related metrics through advanced analytics dashboards makes it easy to understand how your team is performing and decide what needs to be changed.

Key Features:
 

• Softphone for desktop, Android, iOS
• IVR, call recording, and click-to-dial
• Advanced support features, including queue call-back
• Salesforce integration
• Analytics and call monitoring
• AI add-on for AI-generate call summaries, key topic recognition, transcript text search, and sentiment analysis
   

Pricing:
 

• Free 7-day trial available
• From $40/license (3 licenses for $120) billed monthly or $30/license (3 licenses for $1080) billed annually

Zoom is one of the best team communication platforms for businesses, whether your teams are in the office or working remotely. Its features, including private chats, breakout rooms, waiting rooms, and collaborative docs, make it a great collaboration tool. Locations and time zones are irrelevant when using Zoom. Virtual whiteboards make collaborating, brainstorming, and mapping out projects easy across remote and in-person teams.

Known as a video-conferencing tool, Zoom lets you hold virtual meetings. It was one of the fastest-growing business collaboration apps during the pandemic, with active meeting participants growing by 2900%. In 2022, it had 213,000 enterprise customers, up from 82,400 in 2019.

Key Features:
 

• 1000 Participants per meeting
• Whiteboard for collaboration in real-time with others
• Translated captions for global collaboration
• Audio conferencing with global phone numbers
• Unlimited cloud storage
• Zoom rooms for group collaboration with a single consistent interface

Pricing:
 

• 30-day Zoom Rooms trial + free plan available for one user
• Starts from $12.49/month/user, billed annually, or $14.99 billed monthly

Monday.com is a project management and collaboration platform best suited for workflow automation and startups on a tight budget. Workdocs, forms, and proofing are features that facilitate collaboration. Enterprises can create a desired workflow by combining building blocks, such as boards, apps, integrations, and views, suited to how their business runs. Uber, Lionsgate, Coca-Cola, WiX, and Glossier use Monday.com for easy collaboration.

Key Features:
 

• GDPR, SOC 2 Type II, and HIPAA compliance for security
• Integration with Zoom, Google Docs, Salesforce, and Slack
• Workload view, table view, and app views
• Wiki-type collaborative documents, whiteboard, and built-in inbox for remote collaboration
• Real-time dashboards to track open tickets, client payments, logs, and orders.

Pricing:
 

• 14-day free trial + free plan available
• From $8/user/month, billed annually

Trello is an easy-to-use project management tool perfect for individuals, small businesses, and enterprises. Its drag-and-drop features make creating a project, organizing it, and collaborating easy. The mobile app includes shortcuts, reducing the need to search for features. However, unless you are on the Enterprise plan, support is limited, and you must make do with forums and submitting tickets. Some high-end enterprises using the platform are Visa, Zoom, and Google.

Enterprise Plan Key Features:
 

• Unlimited workspaces
• Automation bot for automatic update of cards, assignment of members, and helping the team complete the project on time.
• Manage permission settings and security from one central admin dashboard.
• Single sign-on for teams
• 200+ integrations to the tools you need, such as Dropbox, Google Drive, and Slack.
• Android and iOS mobile apps and desktop app
• Advanced checklists to assign tasks to members along with due dates.
• Dashboard, timeline, table, calendar, map, workspace table, workspace calendar view

Pricing:
 

• Free plan available
• Starts from $5/user/month if billed annually ($6 billed monthly)

Jira is a project management tool best suited for cross-team project tracking. It is a powerful online communication platform that makes it easy to plan, organize, and monitor each team’s work in a unified platform. Scrum and Kanban boards make it easy to visualize and customize workflows and break projects into smaller tasks. Jira integrates with other tools and platforms, such as GitHub, Slack, Zendesk, Trello, and Microsoft Teams, making it easy to collaborate and communicate within teams.

Key Features in Enterprise Plan:
 

• User roles and permissions
• Unlimited goals, projects, tasks, and forms
• Cross-product insights with Atlassian Analytics and Data Lake
• Unlimited automation for increased efficiency through automated processes and workflows
• Backlog, list, board, timeline, calendar, and summary views
• External collaboration through anonymous access to projects

Pricing:
 

• 14-day free trial of Standard or 30-day free trial for Premium plan + free plan for up to 10 users with 2GB of storage and Community Support
• From $8.15/user/month (for up to 100 users)

Poor employee communication leads to financial loss and workplace errors, making collaborating difficult. However, with the right communication platform, the efficiency and productivity of your team can increase. The perfect business communication platform does not exist, but Calilio comes close with its all-in-one unified communication system. Whether you are looking for a platform for internal communication, project collaboration, or customer engagement, Calilio offers all the features you need, from a unified callbox to advanced analytics, accessible via an intuitive desktop and mobile app. The platform is easy to learn and offers data encryption and security authentication measures that are GDPR and HIPAA-compliant. Best of all, it can scale with your business needs if, in the future, you need to add more users or features.

A business communication platform is a digital corporate communication software that enables interactions, collaborations, and information exchange within a team and with people outside of the workplace through messaging and filesharing capabilities.

When choosing a platform for communication, businesses should consider the size of their team, budget, needs of the team, integration requirements, time to set up the online platform, security measures in place, and the learning curve of the new communication system.

Some popular platforms for business communication are Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Workspace, Zoom, Calilio, Basecamp, and RingCentral.

The best business communication software is Calilio. Other commendable enterprise communication platforms are Zoom, Nextiva, and Dialpad.