Flowdock is a collaboration tool built around a chat and team inbox interface. Flowdock is available via app or as a browser-based solution.
It was originally offered by Rally Software Development, which was acquired by CA Technologies, which was acquired by Broadcom in 2018.
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Zimbra
Score 6.7 out of 10
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Zimbra is an email and collaboration platform and productivity suite that includes contacts, calendar, tasks, chat and file sharing, plus videoconferencing, document editing, and file storage.
Flowdock is well suited for small teams and to environments that doesn't need too much reliability. I think it has some management problems that can make your life difficult if you have to manage a big amount of users. If you want just a tool communication with basic features (without using any integration or robust features) it can be suitable for you. You should try Flowdock using its free version for a small team and compare with others similar products. Flowdock delivers team chat and collaboration features, but is not necessarily the best product. Maybe some usability problems that disturb me won't be so relevant to you.
Zimbra is great for an email system for a medium or large organization with appropriate IT staffing. The system is easy to use for end-users, and has a fantastic web interface. Unfortunately, it is overly complex, when considering staffing requirements and price, when compared with Office 365 or Google Apps for smaller organizations. For other education customers, it is hard to compete with Microsoft and Google providing their services for "Free" now though
One thing a little bit annoying is that a lot of links to others Flowdock sections (preferences, external services, etc) will open a new window/tab. Each click may take you to a new window and you can get lost easily.
There isn't a quick access list to members of your organization to start a private chat. I took a while to find how to do that. The interface and usability could be better.
There isn't an app for Windows Phone.
Sometimes you try to load some conversation and it doesn't show anything. It is not frequently but happens sometimes.
Zimbra's mobile application leaves much to be desired; it is its weakest point.
This forces the use of third-party applications on smartphones, which only offer a more or less complete integration with the ActiveSync protocol.
Zimbra allows for an on-premise scenario, which is not for everyone, especially considering that the trend nowadays is to outsource email; in any case, it also offers this alternative.
The cost of Zimbra as a SaaS solution comes too close to that of more widely adopted competing options.
Zimbra lacks a robust integrated chat system, which its competitors offer.
I go with the flow because I'm a newer employee and Flowdock works as advertised. If it were my decision to choose a team communciator for the organization, I'd recommend we go with Slack for its robust features and ever-changing/evolving software integrations. Slack is the outright innovator in the space and will continue to hold that role for some time.
The web usability of the solution is adequate, with all functions integrated into a single interface. However, it is important to note that in the desktop environment, it lacks its own application and relies on ActiveSync synchronization with reference solutions like Outlook or Thunderbird. Some features, such as the briefcase, will be excluded. The same happens on smartphones.It is also common for competing solutions to include integrated chat or video call tools, which Zimbra lacks. These shortcomings are among the most frequently requested by users.
Overall, we were satisfied with the implementation. We perhaps should have spent more time consulting with Zimbra or others regarding best practices but as we got to know the system better we were able to make changes relatively easily after the fact.
Private chat or channels are well implemented in both softwares and both are also very easy to setup.
Besides of some usability problemas I think Flowdock is still better than Slack in this user experience and design.
The second point is the price. Flowdock is half price of Slack ($3/month). If you are a student or a non-profit organization, you are able to get some special license.
Zimbra is a significantly cheaper option than one of the Microsoft solutions, such as Exchange. It is able to run in a free environment, as it is in the case of Linux. It offers the advantages of a powerful mail manager, such as indexed searches and the integration of contacts and notes, all in one platform. It is constantly updated and the operation of its connection in mobile equipment is remarkable and very efficient. Additionally, it is able to easily integrate with Outlook solutions with its connector, which brings all the benefits of Zimbra to the user under the interface known as "mail manager." So far, I have been using Zimbra for several years and I have not missed my previous work platforms.
Zimbra is a cheaper email service than other similar platforms and in my point of view offers better features, that's why the company migrated services to this platform several years ago and without a doubt, it has been the best investment.
Zimbra has a more user-friendly interface for employees, this has improved response times to external customers of the company.
The implementation of Zimbra in the company motivated the IT engineering department to make improvements in open source to adapt it to the needs of the company.
