This post was written by Andrea Fabbiani, volunteer at Beta-i. Andrea focuses on how to maintain a smooth communication in the company.

Verba volant scripta manent. It’s a latin proverb and comes from Caio Tito at the time of the Roman emperor. It literally means that spoken words tend to be forgotten while what is written stays. Even though this proverb comes from the ancient Romans can still teach us something. Modern startups are characterized by double digit growth rates and usually require a great flexibility to continuously adapt to a changing environment. In addition startups are characterized by flat organizational structure which allows to fast communication and easy cooperation inside the team. According to some of the most successful startup CEOs interviewed by TechCrunch one key strength that characterize a great company is the team and the ability of its members to work together. So what really makes the difference is all about communication.

There are dozens of articles listing best practices to keep up with internal communication, team alignment etc. but what really matters is not the “what” but “how”. How to maintain a smooth communication in the company? Well, fortunately out there there is plenty of tools that can help your company, you’ve just to decide which ones fit your needs.

1. Slack: with the slogan be less busy, Slack made its way to kill emails used for internal communication. Already adopted by several big companies like Paypal, Adobe and ebay this tremendously good application enables to index all you conversations and attachments and keep track of them, you won’t waste your time anymore scrolling for those old conversations.
2. Google drive: already well established in small and big businesses is a must have to share all your documents with your colleagues. With an online version of text editor, spread sheet and presentation builder working remotely has never been that easy.
3. Dropbox: with more than 200 million users it represents the easiest way to share any kind of file, it works just perfect to have everything with you everywhere and to make it accessible with all your colleagues and that could just mean no more USB sticks flying around the office.
4. Google Calendar: there are always a lot of meetings and keeping track of your colleagues daily schedule might be difficult but with google calendar you can let them know what’s your schedule, when you’re busy and where you are.
5. Goole Moderator: there is no better way then listen to your employees to create a great working atmosphere. So before each meeting let your colleagues decide what they want to hear from your side.
6. Trello: classified as a project management, it allows you to create checklists, to-do lists and schedule detailed tasks complete with descriptive photos and videos in a simple and clean design, everybody will always know what to do.
7. Zendesk: sometimes customers’ questions might so specific that there is the need for engineers or developers to take over those emails. With the possibility of sharing any kind of message you receive with your entire team you will always find the best person to provide your customers with the best answer.
8. Wunderlist: getting lost with all your tasks? Wunderlist makes your to-do listing much easier. With the possibility of sharing, adding comments and attachments is one of the most complete app to keep track of your daily life and remember everything.

Andrea.