[3-minute read]
Global teams have sprung up like mushrooms. Corporates were forced to pivot their on-site teams to work remotely during the Covid-19 pandemic, and it’s changed the global workforce forever. Employees and employers alike realised that achieving a work/life balance without an office is possible, and that there are more global employment opportunities than we thought. Effective and productive collaboration tools are crucial for future success in the modern workplace as teams become increasingly global, straddling time zones and geographical borders.
Various collaboration tools fulfill different functions; tools that are more appropriate for project management might not be useful to creative teams. Tools stored in the Cloud might not be appropriate for teams that require intense processing capacity. Assess the tools we recommend according to what your ecommerce business needs. Most importantly, make sure the tools you choose are compatible and that you can integrate them with your existing software. It might also be a good idea to choose tools that are intuitive and easy to learn, depending on your team’s technological fluency.
Communicate and stay on the same page
If people don’t talk to each other they can’t work together. There’s a variety of tools available for this, from instant messaging services to video conferencing.
- Slack offers instant messaging, file transfers, powerful message search, and recently they’ve added video conferencing capacity. One of the greatest features of Slack is that it integrates with Google Calendar, Lattice (a people management tool) Jira, Asana, Salesforce, and many more. They offer various packages for organisations of different sizes and orientations.
- Microsoft Teams (Skype for Business)
We’re all familiar with Skype. Microsoft Teams has replaced it as the tech titan’s business conferencing solution. Simply put, it’s an online collaboration tool that allows people to communicate with each other via instant messaging, voice, video, and screen sharing. One of the great features is that Teams/Skype offers conference calls where teams of up to 25 people can talk to each other. It also allows instant screen sharing.
If you were not aware of Zoom before the pandemic, you certainly are now. We’ve all seen the hilarious clips of people communicating on Zoom while the world was in lockdown. Zoom offers secure meetings with flawless video, audio, instant screen sharing, and cross-platform instant messaging. Events, webinars, Zoom Rooms, chat, a developer platform, and an app all contribute to making it one of the most popular communication platforms in the world for both home and corporate users.
Project and task management tools
One of the biggest challenges remote or hybrid teams face is how to track progress on projects and tasks. Managers need to see how close they are to reaching their objectives and how employees are performing different tasks.
Asana allows users to assign and pass on tasks to other team members, add followers and co-dependencies to projects, and monitor deadlines. Users can create to-do lists, calendars and upload shared files. It’s also a very useful strategic planning tool.
Voted as the favourite collaboration tool by SnackNation, monday.com needs no introduction. It offers an alternative operating work system (Work OS) that keeps all work organised on one visual platform that everyone in your team can access. Automate workflows, data entry, and other repetitive tasks and assign them to various team members when a task is complete and ready to hand over. It offers the user a bird’s eye view on multiple projects, timelines, calendars, and much more.
The tool has an interesting interface that resembles solitaire. You can drag task cards across columns just like when you’re playing cards. Trello works well for assigning tasks and monitoring projects. It’s also super easy to learn. Another benefit is that it easily integrates with Scrum, Agile, and other project management frameworks.
If you’re looking for an extremely visual tool that’s easy to use, look no further. Dapulse lets you communicate, set objectives, and assign tasks. It’s super easy to use, understand, and work with.
Online documentation tools
It’s pointless to run a virtual team without tools that allow multiple people to work on, edit and save documents, sheets, videos, visual assets, and other material. Here are the most commonly cloud-based tools. One of the drawbacks of these tools is that you have to be online to be able to upload, edit, and access these tools. Some of them offer native desktop apps that enable users with limited internet access to upload and download their work. One of the biggest benefits of working in the cloud is that your work remains secure and can’t disappear when a device breaks or is stolen. It also makes it really easy to pass work from one user to another.
This cloud-based office suite might not come to mind when you think of collaboration tools, but Microsoft has put it at the heart of its future products for teams. Microsoft is still the most used software in the world and few other software developers come close to offering the same level of functionality and ease of use. Teams can directly collaborate on the same document, spreadsheet, presentation, or report. Bundle it with Microsoft Teams and you have a winning combination that works on Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS. If you combine it with Outlook, there is not much this office suite can’t do.
- Google Docs and G Suite
Most people are familiar with Google Docs. It allows users to create and edit documents, spreadsheets, and take notes live while they work together. The platform offers version history that makes it easy to see who did what when. Combined with the comment and suggest features while editing, you’ll have to go far to find a more practical and immediate collaborative solution. Throw in G Suite and it takes care of all your business needs. Chat, email, calendar, contacts, and a Drive where you can store all your documents in the cloud complete this powerful collaborative toolset.
Remote workstation management
If you want to manage various workstations remotely it can pose quite a challenge if you don’t have a tool that allows you to do that. We’ve chosen only one to list here. There are various others, but TeamViewer outperforms on many levels.
TeamViewer is a cloud-based platform with intuitive features to securely and remotely access, control, and support any device across platforms – from anywhere, anytime. If you need to install new software, control security settings, do platform maintenance or solve any problems with installed software on a remote device, TeamViewer allows you to do just that. It is used by different industries across the world and you’d go far to find anything that’s more up to the task.
To pick only ten tools is quite an ask. If you want to find out more about different options, have a look at PCMag’s top 13 picks or what SnackNation has to offer in their 35 selected collaboration tools.
The future of work looks bright. These collaborative tools enable people to work from anywhere and build remote global teams with confidence, knowing that they will deliver and be more productive than if they were in the same building. These tools ensure that teams can work with flexibility instead of the rigid nature of a traditional (and rapidly outdated) 9-5.
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