Chart Comparing Business Status Boards

Below is the most comprehensive and well-researched survey of business status boards on the Internet today. There are many great boards, and you'll want to choose according to your needs and according to your budget.

Most of the in-out boards below primarily look at a user's status, i.e., what they are doing (in, out, at lunch, vacation, meeting, working at home, etc.). The Business PSB and Business PSB Plus (as well as the Social PSBs) go one step further and include a wider context: not only statuses of what the users are doing, but also what they need (help with computer, assistance with a project, more resources for the project, problems with the project, etc.) In this way, users can communicate needs without spending time tracking down those who can help; e.g., if there's a computer problem, the IT department will see it when it's posted and can immediately schedule a time to help. If a manager sees that a project needs more resources, s/he can immediately find out from the status posting, and begin to find solutions without a lot of extra time consuming communications.

In addition, Business PSB and Business PSB Plus (as well as the Social PSBs) provide the space for long statuses, thus freeing up users from having to enter a lot of details in their comments. For example, "Need new project assignment" immediately tells a manager that s/he needs to assign work to someone who doesn't have anything to do! Although many of the boards offer unlimited users, most are licenses for just one board. The Business PSB and Business PSB Plus (as well as the Social PSBs) allow unlimited boards, unlimited members, and unlimited users, from just a single license, as long as these are all managed from a single database.