Our team, like many others, is going to be working remotely for the foreseeable future and it’s important to keep in touch – not only for productive workflow but also for morale (we are not all naturally home workers). We choose to be rurally based and we’ve been set up for our staff to benefit from home working for many years so our systems are robust and proven. With this in mind, we thought a list of our favourite collaboration tools might be useful…
Office 365
Most businesses are catching on to Office 365 and its benefits for remote working. The selection of apps allows you to access all sorts of features … Microsoft Office suite (Outlook, Word, Excel, Powerpoint etc.) … chat and conference call with Microsoft Teams … share and edit documents via One Drive and SharePoint … keep track of your thoughts and to do lists with OneNote. www.office.com
Trello
Trello is a great online tool that organises your projects or themes into boards. Almost like a pin board you can drag and drop notes, attach documents or upload/download images. Really handy for managing workflow on complex or fast-moving projects. www.trello.com
Zoom
Similar to Skype, Zoom is a video and conference calling tool that you can access via desktop, device app or even link up with Microsoft teams, within Office 365 – handy! www.zoom.us
Botim
Another messaging tool alternative, useful for keeping in touch from other countries that do not use/allow Skype, the UAE for example. www.botim.me
A well known messaging app, but perhaps not so well known is that it uses end-to-end message encryption. This makes it great for securely passing on confidential business information or conducting 1 on 1 interviews. www.whatsapp.com
Hootsuite
Great social media management tool, perfect for keeping tabs on your business’ social feeds in one place. You can integrate Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and now Instagram to view feeds, messages and notifications; create & schedule posts over multiple platforms; set up streams to follow various keyword or hashtags; view social media analytics. www.hootsuite.com
Tom’s Planner
If you’re planning projects on spreadsheets that just get too complex, and you can’t justify the cost of project management software that offers functions you’ll never need, Tom’s Planner could be the answer. Create, share and amend Gantt charts easily with drag and drop time blocks. www.tomsplanner.com
There are lots more collaboration and productivity tools out there, and more people will start to discover their benefits through having to work remotely.
What are your favourites? Let us know!