Communication, collaboration and productivity

This includes applications for email, chat, video conferencing, document sharing, project management, and workflow optimisation to support efficient and effective teamwork.

• Email and messaging
• Collaboration and planning
• Project management
• Creative and visual communication
• PDF software
• Artificial intelligence (AI)
• Video and conferencing
• Phones and mobiles

Featured tools

Email and messaging

Core tools

• Google Gmail
  Send and receive emails, with organisation, search and integration features.
• Slack
  Team communication with channels, direct messaging and file-sharing.

Other tools

• Google Groups
  Custom groups can help you communicate with specific members of the University.
• Google Chat
  Simple instant messaging tool with Google Workspace integration.
• Mailjet
  Create email campaigns and track their performance. This service is for staff only and for sending non-essential information.
• Yet Another Mail Merge (YAMM)
  Send personalised bulk emails using Google Sheets and Gmail.
• Email submission and relaying
  Transfer emails from one server to another for delivery.

Collaboration and planning

Document creation and management

• Google Drive
  An easy way to create, edit and share documents such as Docs.
• Google Workspace
  Suite of collaboration and productivity tools including Docs, Sheets, Forms and Slides. 
• Microsoft 365
  Suite of collaboration and productivity tools including Word, Excel and Teams.

Scheduling

• Google Calendar
  Manage schedules and events, and include meeting notes and video conferencing.
• Doodle (events scheduling)
  Schedule meetings and events and find suitable times among groups.

Forms and surveys

• Google Forms
  Create surveys, quizzes and forms for data collection. 
• Qualtrics
  An easy-to-use, drag and drop interface to create general purpose research surveys.
• Formstack
  Create complex, multi-page, multi-threaded forms using a simple drag-and-drop builder.

Collaboration and ideation

• Digital whiteboard tools
  Collaborate, plan, interact and brainstorm ideas using digital whiteboards.

Project management

• Project management and business analysis support
  Resources and tools for managing IT projects and analysing business processes.
• Microsoft Project
  Develop plans, assign resources track progress and analyse workloads within projects (staff only).
• Microsoft Visio
  Create diagrams, flowcharts, charts and other visual representations of complex information (staff only).
• MindGenius (mindmaps)
  Visualise ideas, plan projects and manage tasks.

Creative and visual communication

• Adobe Creative Cloud
  Use for graphic design, to edit images, audio and video and create visual effects (staff only).
• Corel PaintShop Pro
  Edit bitmap images such as photos.
• Corel VideoStudio
  Create and edit high-quality videos.
• CorelDRAW Graphics Suite
  Edit photos, create and edit vector graphics and capture images from your computer screen.

PDF software

• ABBYY FineReader PDF
  Edit PDFs.
• Adobe Acrobat Reader
  Read and annotate PDFs.
• Corel PDF Fusion
  Convert and combine PDFs.
• OrbitNote PDF reader (TextHelp package)
  View and work with PDFs in an accessible and interactive way.
• Thorium Reader
  Read various digital book formats such as EPUB, PDF and DAISY.

Artificial intelligence (AI)

• Microsoft Copilot
  AI-powered assistant which can enhance productivity and integrates with Microsoft apps.

Video conferencing and equipment

• Zoom
  Attend meetings, webinars, and online events with this video conferencing tool.
• Google Meet
  Video conferencing with Google Workspace integration.
• Microsoft Teams
  Video conferencing with external organisations when it's not possible to use University default tools such as Zoom or Google Meet.
• Hybrid meeting rooms
  Upgraded rooms, equipped with technology for seamless in-person and remote meetings.
• Online and hybrid meeting equipment
  Equipment to support virtual and hybrid meetings, including headsets and webcams.
• Zoom Phone and desk phones (telephony)
  Make and receive calls with your own unique telephone number.

Phones and mobiles

• Mobile phones and wifi plans
  Access a mobile phone for business use.
• Zoom desk phone (telephony)
  Make and receive calls with your own unique telephone number.
• Satellite phones
  A type of mobile phone that connects to orbiting satellites.