Remote working is a common practice now. Many large and small organizations are availing of this work model to save on expenses. Remote working not only cuts down on overhead costs but enhances performance and scalability. It can be defined as working as an employee from a location other than the physical office space, commonly your home. As exciting as it may sound, remote working has its challenges. But one thing is obvious: office work cannot be done without certain features and facilities that your physical office has. This problem is solved by remote work software.
Remote work software provides you with the same environment and features that your brick-and-mortar does. Remote work is impossible without using this software. For virtual work, you need a secure virtual environment, where you can share and store data. Communication is the most important thing in remote working. You need to stay in touch with your co-workers all the time for this setup to work. Remote work software is the answer to that.
Another challenge that you will face in remote work is the management of projects. Managing your team, routine conference calls, reports, feedback, data storage, and managing attendance, all require remote work software. If virtual working is a body, remote work software is its backbone.
Top remote work software:
There are numerous options in the market making it difficult to pick the best-suited ones. Well-suited and good software can go a long way with you. But, if you pick software that does not fulfill your requirements, it can hinder your work more than facilitate it. We have made a list of the most popular remote work software that are the current top options available.
G Suite:
Google suite is a whole package of cloud-based tools that can help you to work remotely. It includes many apps that help you in data sharing, storage, and managing your schedules. It gives Gmail, Google Drive, Google Docs, and Google Calendar. Using these you can send and receive messages, store documents, share documents, and manage your schedule. You can add reminders for daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly appointments. Google calendar can pull dates for reminders directly from your emails so you don’t ever miss anything, even if you forget to add it to the calendar. Google Voice can be integrated into other Google apps like contacts, calendars, and messaging apps.
Trello:
Trello is a team management and communication tool; you can add team members and assign projects to them individually. They can also share files with you and the rest of the team. You can instantly create boards and collaborate on your work. A mobile app of Trello is available as well, you can use it while traveling. You can task track for any type of project and workflow using Trello.
Asana:
This is another popularly used project management and collaboration tool. It gives you one window of control over the complete project and team. It keeps the complete team on board by allowing you to create projects and assign tasks to team members. Once assigned the task, they can take ownership of it and keep track of the progress with you. It lets you set priorities, and limitations, and map out each step of the project to make it easier. You can easily see and monitor what each team member is working on and how the work is progressing.
Time billing:
This is a very helpful tool for team managers working remotely. It helps you tackle the biggest challenges of working from home. Office workers time in and time out when they enter or leave the office premises. This becomes difficult to handle when you are working from different places and time zones. This app is a lifesaver for managing time. It helps you monitor the amount of time your team members spend while working on a task. Using Time billing you know how many hours a team member spends working on a project. This helps you to bill the time to the client that the project belongs to. In short, it not only helps you monitor the members working on different projects but also how much to bill different clients.
Zoom:
There are many communication tools available. But for the times when you need face-to-face interaction, oom is the ideal solution. You can do a video conference with one person or a large group of people easily through Zoom. Using this tool you can easily create online meetings with clients and employees. You can also arrange and host webinars and collaborate with your team.
GitHub:
GitHub is a tool specially designed for developers. Developers and people in the software business need special features for communication and collaboration. You can create open-source areas and collaborate with other developers. It is designed for coding and handling coding projects. GitHub has all the features you need to share your code rather than copying and sharing on standard communication apps. You can start developing your software within the app and share it with your team.
Zapier:
This unique app is used for the automation of tasks, and for using different apps coherently. It makes things easier for you by making the innumerable remote work apps interactive. You can link all the apps you use through Zapier and share information among them. It makes performing tasks easier for you and your team members, without switching between different tools. It also makes you perform faster and better coordinated.
Conclusion:
Remote or virtual office work is impossible without remote work software. You need tools that make your work easy and safe. Thousands of tools are available in the market, to help you communicate, collaborate, and manage your office work remotely. You can choose the ones that suit you best only when you know what you require. Make sure you understand your business, work dynamics, and team members; before selecting them. There are many free tools available that you can try before switching to paid versions. The right tools can improve your work quality and performance better than a physical office.