Thanks to advancements in technology, it’s getting easier and easier for employees to work remotely—and for employers to let them. There’s a plethora of new business tools out there that allow businesses and employees to conduct work from just about anywhere in the world.
A project manager in New York, for instance, can easily conduct a live meeting with a client in Japan, using screen sharing software, via webcam or live meeting. An instructor in Nebraska can host a training with attendees from around the world, from Asia to Algeria, through easy-to-use web software tools. There are numerous technology tools, from instant messaging (IM), voice, video, voice messaging, desktop sharing, and conferencing, to file sharing and storing programs that make life easier for the virtual employee. There are many free services like Google Docs, a web-based application in which documents and spreadsheets can be created, edited, and stored online, and many more collaboration tools that do more the more you pay.
Why is it beneficial for businesses—especially remote companies—to use these resources? These tools, all “streamline tasks, boost productivity and, in sum, save lots of time and money” as pointed out in this Entrepreneur.com article titled Top 5 Small Business Tools.
These tools drive collaboration at Plex, a 100-percent virtual company that provides instant access to all of your media collections—home videos, photos, music, TV shows, and movies—so you can quickly find and stream what you want to any device, any time. With 80+ employees across 22 countries, the Plex workplace culture, even though all employees are remote, is driven by the use of technology tools and programs that help streamline communication and collaboration.
“The most essential tools are those that bring us closer” said Scott Olechowski, co-founder and chief product officer of Plex.
Below, we look at some popular and effective tools that remote businesses rely on.
Note: This is not an all-encompassing list, or a “best-of” list, but a small overview of the many types of tools out there, with comments from sources who have experience using various applications to conduct business.
Here are five types of tools remote companies and employees may find useful:
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1. Real-time Messaging Programs
With real-time messaging (also known as instant messaging), text is instantly transmitted as it’s typed or created and recipients can immediately read the message while it is being written, without waiting. The team at Plex uses Slack, dubbed as a “real-time messaging, archiving and search for modern teams.”
Real-time messaging helps give the staff at Plex a family-like feel, says Olechowski. “In fact, we’ll force ourselves to use Slack, even if we are in the same room, so we can make our Plex employees in other parts of the world feel part of the conversation.”
Other popular programs include WhatsApp Messenger, Cisco Jabber (which has a wide variety of functionality beyond messaging, including voice, voice messaging, desktop sharing, and conferencing from any device) and Line, among the many out there.
2. Videoconferencing Tools
Videoconferencing technology has been arguably the most effective communication tool for both traditional and remote businesses. After all, why fly a team from New York to San Francisco when a videoconference can create face-to-face interaction, saving thousands of dollars, and countless hours of time, in the process?
The options for videoconferencing are plentiful—and many are very, very good. There is Zoom, Skype, Cisco Jabber, Google Hangouts, GoToMeeting, WebEx, eVoice, Zoho, Drum, Highfive, and so on.
“We use Google Hangouts regularly, and like Slack, meeting face-to-face helps create an intimate team feeling from every corner of the globe,” says Olechowski.
Saïd Radhouani, Ph.D. and co-founder of Nextal, a collaborative applicant tracking system, says he likes to conduct and participate in virtual meetings with people from all over the world every week, and Skype is his go-to videoconferencing platform. He also likes Google Hangouts.
“I don’t remember a single time when someone told me that they don’t have Skype,” said Radhouani. “I’ve also worked for big companies, where Skype is heavily used as an official tool for remote meeting. Especially, after it got acquired by Microsoft, Skype became part of the Microsoft Suite and is embedded within corporations.”
3. Collaboration Software
Plex supports 40+ platforms—from iOS and Android to XBox and more, and “tracking product development progress across all of these platforms can be challenging to say the least, so collaborative development platforms are invaluable to us,” says Olechowski.
There is another laundry list of viable collaboration and project management tools, including Jira, as well as Smartsheet, Samepage, daPulse and Wrike.
There are also others, like Github, a cloud-based git service, and Zenhub, an enterprise-ready project management tool that adds features right into GitHub.
4. File Sharing Sites
Sharing files is a must in today’s technology-driven world. Emailing large files just isn’t always possible. So programs like Dropbox, Google Drive, MediaFire, SkyDrive, Mega, Zippyshare, and others are all essential to communicating and sharing necessary information at a global level.
No more need for your advertising agency to overnight a CD with the necessary files to complete a project: they simply can use a file sharing program and share within minutes, not hours.
5. Organizational Tools
Using all of these tools and programs takes time to learn, but one doesn’t have to be an IT guru to figure out how to use them, and that’s why they are so effective. For many, the biggest challenge is staying organized online. A popular and effective way to do that is through a program called Evernote, which allows users the opportunity to “collect, nurture, and share ideas across desktop and mobile platforms,” or Microsoft OneNote, which lets you take notes and share them across all your devices.
Other popular tools/apps are outlined in this list, and include Trello, MindMeister, and Xmind, among others.
New tools are always emerging and existing tools are always being enhanced. No business or employee can use or know every tool, they just need to use the tools that work best for them—and their clients.
“The point here is that I need to be flexible, so that I make it easy for others to communicate with me,” says Radhouani. “That’s why I’m comfortable with more than one tool.”
Interested in more tips on remote collaboration? Check out our flex workplaces category.
Photo Credit: bigstockphoto.com
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