Best Remote Collaboration Tools to Boost Productivity

Remote collaboration tools are more in demand since 2020, the year the COVID-19 pandemic forced all to stay at home and work where feasible. Most organizations did not prepare to have a shift towards remote operations.

However, evolving technology has provided us with plenty of remote working tools — this helps collaborate with your colleagues located across geographies and time zones.

What are the must-have remote collaboration tools you and your teams need to have for effective management? It would be best to make your team members feel connected to the organization and its vision and mission, irrespective of the geographical distances.

Let’s look at some of the leading remote collaboration tools available that you need to run your business effectively in 2021 and beyond. Awareness of the importance of these tools is essential.

Why use remote collaboration tools?

There is a difference between when you meet your colleagues in the office daily versus sitting at home and working remotely with them. Remote collaboration tools empower your employees to feel more connected and work efficiently. Let us discover why these tools are essential.

Collaboration tools required for remote teams for the following reasons:

Keeping work items centrally:

When your team members work from separate locations, documents may get stored in different places. Connecting remote collaboration tools help in managing a central location where files are efficiently organized, managed, and shared.
Staying connected: It can get lonely working from home, and here’s where instant communication that facilitates group video calls, file sharing, and instant chatting tools help drive away from the monotony and makes your employees feel connected. You can connect with your employees instantly.

Improving productivity:

Working remote has challenges in getting deliverables done on time. Using the right collaboration tools, you can ensure work gets done on time with quality. Working on remote collaboration tools helps to bring a feeling of a virtual office.

What tools do you need for remote working?

There are many tools for remote working with a plethora of features. You need to choose the ones you need. Tools for team communication, project or work management, and file sharing are major ones.

Communication:

Working remote does not permit team members to stop by at other colleague’s tables or meet up by the office pantry for coffee or go for an actual face-to-face meeting. Here’s where digital communication apps help in virtual communication.

Some of the best communication apps are:

Google Meet

Using Google Meet on a web browser, and one can have one-to-one or group video conferences. This process is helpful for your project teams to meet up and discuss progress and action plans.

Google Meet’s free plan has a limit of 1 hour on meetings and 100 participants. The paid plans are much more comprehensive and include recording and other features at $ 8 per active user / month.

zoom

Zoom has become famous in the last year 2020 as a remote video conferencing software. You can host video conferencing meetings, besides chat and screen sharing capabilities available in most video apps.

Zoom has free plans, limited to up to 40 minutes. The paid plans start at $ 14.99 per month with social media streaming and many other features.

Slack

Slack is a beautiful tool for real-time communication and collaboration. You can have different channels set up using hashtags. Besides media, other features include private messaging, voice and video calls, and integrations with business apps like Google Drive or One Drive.

Slack has feature-rich free plans, but value-added paid plans start at $ 6.67 per month.

Project management tools

Managing projects may sound challenging remotely, but not anymore. Project Management apps or domain-specific cloud apps help keep your projects on track and well organized with alerts and reminders. These thesis vary across industry verticals.

GetMyInvoices

GetMyInvoices is best known as a cloud accounting software for small businesses. In the accounts payable domain, it helps organizations manage invoices effectively. One can import invoices from multiple portals and sources. Everything gets securely stored centrally. You also have an app that scans invoices and extracts the needed data. The scanned invoice data maps against your bank transactions with bank integration too.

GetMyInvoices offers a 14-day free trial with feature-rich paid plans starting as low as 15 $ per month.

Trello

Trello helps teams manage projects efficiently. You can organize projects using Boards, Cards, and Lists. As the project progresses, members can move cards to various like “To Do,” “In Progress,” and “Completed” like agile project boards.

Trello’s free plans are limited to 10 boards, while paid plans start at $ 12.50 per user / month.

File sharing

Sharing files while working remote option is essential. Files can be sensitive, or size may be significant. There are many file-sharing platforms available that enable secure sharing. You can integrate them with applications and devices too. Google Drive, Dropbox, and OneDrive are popular options with free and paid plans.

Conclusion

Using the right set of remote collaboration tools, your organization can gain efficiencies in remote working. These connecting tools empower teams irrespective of locations to work seamlessly. Get ready to try these remote collaboration apps for remote working efficiencies and improved productivity.