7 Must Have Types of Remote Working Tools

Remote working is a new trend globally, but actually it’s not. Many businesses do allow their employees to work from home even before the coronavirus pandemic to get the job done. However, the percentage of those businesses that allow remote working is around 5% worldwide. 

But today this has changed entirely. Remote working is a necessity for most, if not all businesses. Thanks to remote working tools, software and apps that helped to cope up with this unprecedented situation.

In order to increase and maintain team productivity, it is essential to empower your remote workforce with the right remote working tools. 

Below are 7 essential types of remote working tools that can help remote workforce to work efficiently as they do in the office.  

1) File Storage

There is no better way than cloud storage for easy file sharing and collaboration with teams working remotely. Some of the most popular cloud based file storage tools are Google Drive, Dropbox, MS OneDrive and MediaFire that can be used to store and access files in real time from anywhere, anytime.

2) Team Collaboration & Communication

Effective communication is a key to any business success. But what if your teams are working from different locations / time zones and F2F meeting is not at all possible. Thanks for remote team collaboration and communication tools like Zoom, Slack, Google Meet, GoToMeeting, Microsoft Teams and WebEx that allows easy communication between distributed and cross-teams. It allows users to make audio/video calls, screen sharing, document sharing, private chats and many other features which might vary as per tool.

3) Remote Desktop

What if your remote workers want to use or access files that are stored on PCs at work? Answer to this is remote desktop software that allows users to access a server, desktop, tablet or smartphone virtually from anywhere as long as you have a reliable internet connection. The most popular remote desktop apps are MS Remote Desktop, Teamviewer, Apple remote desktop and Chrome remote desktop. 

4) Project Management

Managing projects is quite a demanding task especially when it needs to be handled remotely. Using online project management tools, it allows remote teams to collaborate from anywhere in this world to plan, organise and manage projects in real time. Allocation of tasks, project tracking, time tracking, automated invoicing, detailed reporting etc is all possible using these tools. Some of the project management tools that are widely popular are Trello, Scoro, Asana, Basecamp and Airtable.

5) Hosted VoIP

Switching to remote working was not easy for most of the businesses worldwide during the coronavirus pandemic. All were looking for innovative ways to run their business efficiently and manage their staff remotely. Thankfully, we already had a VoIP technology on hands to help facilitate remote working with ease. 

For a quick, easy and affordable VoIP setup, businesses can opt for hosted VoIP solutions like TR Cloud VoIP rather than going for on-premise VoIP. All setup, maintenance, system upgrades, security etc. is managed by a service provider for which you pay a monthly fee. Apart from significant cost savings, you get a unified communication system which is no longer limited to voice calls. 

6) Virtual Private Networks

Using the most recommended and secure VPN solutions like Private Internet Access, NordVPN, ExpressVPN and Norton Secure VPN, your remote workforce can securely connect their device or computer to your organisation’s computer network to access your corporate applications and services while hiding the end user’s IP.  It uses encryption to safeguard your corporate data and manage user access to that data.

7) Note Taking

While working remotely, taking accurate notes becomes very important so that you don’t miss any important items and deliver high-quality and accurate work every time. No wonder you’ll need some cool note taking apps such as Evernote, Whiteboard, Sketchboard, Microsoft OneNote to keep things organised and can be accessed from any device. Now jot down your meeting agendas, action items, to-do list, important dates etc in a form of text, pictures or audio files with ease. 

Conclusion

No doubt remote working is challenging and can be stressful but making use of the right type of remote working tools can make your teams happy, efficient, motivated and productive.

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Paul Sturges

Managing Director, Tech Results Ltd.

IT Infrastructure, VoIP, Disaster Recovery and Cloud Data Migration Specialist