Finally, one area of efficiency that all organizations must consider is the amount of resources dedicated to internal communications. Holding meetings takes time, while distributing memos requires paper — and if someone important is left out of the initial communication, both time and resources are wasted getting this person up to speed.

To eliminate these issues, we use the HipChat utility at Single Grain. It’s a private chat tool that allows us to create chat rooms for groups of users, send private messages between individual teammates and even share files that pertain to ongoing discussions. At only $2/user, per month, it’s an effective way to ensure that our projects are managed as efficiently as possible.