The Best Remote Working Tools

Some of the software tools for remote teams include the following categories:

• Project Management Software (Slack, Basecamp)
• Video Calls and Conferences (Zoom, Microsoft Teams)
• Cloud Storage and File Collaboration (Dropbox, Google Workspace,)
• Remote Access & Support (TeamViewer, AnyDesk)
• Meeting Schedules: (Google Calendar, MeetingBird)
• Time-tracking Tools: (Clockify, Toggl Track)

Completing and executing projects successfully within the boundaries of time, cost and scope is important. This can be achieved by collaborating and distributing the tasks to the team in order to achieve a successful project. The right use of tools can help managing projects in an easier way.

Slack is a business communication platform which offers many features like persistent chat rooms, private groups or direct messaging. It offers teammates to share ideas, comment in real-time or help each-other on various tasks through the use of Slack channels for instant messaging or collaboration.

Basecamp offers a range set of features and tools for synchronizing the team by distributing tasks, to-do lists, sharing documents and files and providing automatic check-ins. Automatic check-ins feature allows to gather updates from everybody in the team and keeps the whole team informed without the need to synchronize their schedules. This is a great way of being informed on a daily basis. Another interesting feature is that you can split off the project when you have many people involved but don’t want to necessarily receive feedback from all of them. So, you invite just a handful of people who are involved into specific tasks and work as a smaller group. So, Basecamp simple functionality and clean design make it user friendly and popular among the software tools for remote teams.

Video calls play an important role in remote teams. It boosts productivity and helps to improve communication, builds better team collaboration in real-time, helps to brainstorm and make sure everyone has a clear image of what they are going to work on.

With Zoom you can screen share and discuss the upcoming projects or tasks, host webinars or team-meetings. You can customize who can enjoy the meeting, so when you invite a selected group of people only them can have access to the video conference. A special space is created for teams to share and implement ideas together through the use of Zoom Rooms. The other feature is that you can also record the meeting and re-watch it later.

Microsoft Teams offers numerous features like holding a meeting, scheduling an event, project management tool, to-do list app or other apps and collaborations. You can share files, screen record a meeting and check it out later in the stream app. It brings together everything that a team needs. With the power of Microsoft 365 applications, you can easily integrate apps and workflows that your organization relies on.

Organizing all of your data and files in one place can help to keep track of them easily, speed up the workflow or provide access to team members so that they know what to add, what needs to be reviewed or edited.

Dropbox offers storing and backing up your files online from anywhere. It is helpful for remote teams to share files and collaborate on certain projects. It is free and compatible with mobile and desktop devices. It is secure as it uses encryption for files while they are being transferred to the cloud or back. You can easily retrieve or password-protect the files with provided access to specific users.

Google Workspace comprises most important applications of Google. Apps like Drive, Calendar, Docs, Meets, Gmail and Google Forms are all setup in one environment and can be customized based on the organization needs. With system security and accuracy and easy integrations, Google Workspace is ideal for remote teams. It is highly scalable and robust as you can easily share, create or coordinate with teammates by creating or reviewing documents, presentations or slides. In addition, it offers quickly access to Documents, Gmail or Meet platform and the feature of adding, removing or creating groups. It can be synced to various devices and can also be used to report weekly metrics.

Remote Access provides easy support with screen sharing while trying to solve an issue with a teammate. It helps on troubleshooting problems and saves time by collaborating on a task.

TeamViewer connects users anytime and offers remote access with collaboration capabilities, support or control for online endpoints. It helps to make the communication easier by using videos, audios, chat or file transfer features. It is easy to use as it doesn’t require any specific configuration. You can connect to a remote computer with one-click connection. It is compatible with mobile and desktop devices and has security features for particular access on remote sessions and supports two-factor authentication.

AnyDesk provides a lot of useful features that are essential while working remotely. Features like file transfers, unlimited endpoints, remote printing and chat features make this app easy to use and efficient. Session recordings allow a better team interaction while collaborating during remote connections. It works stable even with lower bandwidth internet connections.

Exchanging emails to schedule a meeting might be time-consuming, so the need for a schedule meeting app is much needed. Today, there are various apps out there that help out on work schedules and the most used are: Google Calendar and Meetingbird.

With Google Calendar you can schedule meetings or events and share them with the team in order to get reminders about the upcoming meetings or activities. Its rich features make it preferable and easy to use. Various features are offered such as customizing your calendar by choosing event-specific notifications whether you want desktop or alert notifications. Also, you can manage the calendar view through check boxes on showing weekends, decline events or view the schedule by day, week or month.

Meetingbird is a free software tool that offers an easy way of scheduling with customized meetings, locations or time zones. Powerful features like easy integration with other platforms such as Zoom or Gmail makes it ideal for scheduling. You can add meeting times directly into Gmail by using the Meetingbird Chrome Extension. Also, it helps on generating an automatic Zoom meeting immediately after it’s booked.

Time-tracking is important as is the key to time-management skills and reaching a company’s goals. Through collecting working time it helps to reflect how productive were you during work or which tasks take most of your time. It also helps employers to monitor their employees when they clock-in and out and what kind of tasks they are working on a daily basis.

With Clockify you can get an accurate time-tracking on activities or projects so you can improve productivity or check how much time projects take. Employees can also track attendance and see who has worked and what kind of tasks do they work on a daily basis. Clockify is a free app and is available in all platforms.

Toggle Track is a free software app with lots of helpful features and functionalities. With Toggl Track you can track your time and provide details about the project later. It can be used through Chrome extensions so you can automatically track your time based on whether the browser is open or not. It offers the opportunity to correct time if you have forgot to stop tracking time. It can be easily integrated with other apps like Slack or Google Calendar.

Remote teams need to rely on working tools to collaborate, manage projects, track their productivity or stay organized. Today, there are a lot of software tools that offer efficient solutions and provide customized features for the organization needs and requirements. It is up to the company to choose the needed working tools.