The transition of employers and employees towards teleworking is facing a new paradigm that will be maintained over time. It is therefore important to optimize the way of doing it in all aspects. These aspects include team communication, virtual meetings, project management, productivity, and design.
Improve Team Communication
Slack is a very popular tool that combines text, audio-video chat features. Conversations can be organized on channels based on team members, projects, or whatever else is relevant to your organization.
Team members can leave or join such channels at any time, unlike long and heavy email chains.
Slack also has a search history feature that allows users to easily find past chats and shared information in no time. Furthermore, this communication application will even allow you to share documents such as PDF, images, and videos.
Other alternatives to Slack include Google Hangouts Chat, Chanty, Microsoft Teams, Aircall, etc.
Tool For Storing Files
Google Drive is a service for storing digital files which, in any case, are a useful tool, but especially if other Google products such as Docs, Gmail, etc. are also being used.
It can also be used to save and work with files from other systems such as Microsoft and Apple.
Google Drive is your cloud storage in which we can access offline files from mobile devices and reorganize them by project type and priority, set different sharing permissions for each document, folder or user, and ensure that the files are available for the right people.
Other similar services: iWork, Dropbox, OneDrive.
Send files
WeTransfer is a cloud-based online platform. Its main advantage over other similar services such as Dropbox or Box.net is that WeTransfer does not require you to create an account to use it.
The person who will receive the file does not have to create an account either. The WeTransfer Pro plan also offers you a cloud-storage with a space of up to 100 GB. Moreover, it offers the possibility of protecting your files with a password, personalizing your emails, or the aspect of the page from which the recipients can download the files.
Meetings and Conferences
Zoom is a cloud-based video conferencing service that you can use to meet others virtually, be it video, audio, or both, all while chatting live.
Along the same lines is Adobe Connect, Cisco Webex, Whereby, etc.
Projects Management
Trello is a collaboration tool that provides an overview and visual of everything that is taking place, who is working on it, and how far it has gone.
Each task is organized in a card that in turn allows you to attach lists, links, content, and due dates, as well as classify them with labels, and mention the members involved in each of them.
The platform is moderately inspired by the KanBan plate system developed by Toyota as a good way to manage flexibility and keep production levels high.
Other options: Asana, AirTable, Monday, Hibox and Teameyo.com
Email Administrators
Spark is an intelligent application with multiple and varied functions. You can separate the emails received by types such as Personal, Pins, Newsletters, etc. Spark also lets you limit notifications, so you can set it to only notify you of important emails.
It also has follow-up reminders, email scheduling, smart searches, customizable sidebar, and various collaboration tools.
It is worth taking a look at Mailbird, Spike, ThunderBird, or Inky, among others.
Time Managers
Google Calendar is a powerful and free service that you can use to organize your agenda and coordinate events with other users. It has many useful features, including the ability to share calendars with others and easily change what is displayed in real-time.
You can access your calendar from any computer or mobile device as long as you are logged in to its Google account. We are talking about an excellent time management tool that allows you to keep your schedule, coordinate teams in meetings, and work sessions.
Also noteworthy are IDoneThis, RescueTime, GetPocket, and Toggl.
Design and Development
Github is a software and code development application focused on teamwork. It allows users to acquire roles on teams and guarantee permissions within them. The tool has a chat with moderation tools to keep track of projects.
It is open-source and among its functions, it has an option to establish community guides or codes of conduct. The great advantage of GitHub is that it prevents you from accidentally overwriting someone else’s work (or even yours), and it also makes a history of changes so you can return to them if you need to.
Along the same lines, we find Adobe Creative Cloud, Chrome Dev Tools, Figma, or Atom.
Improve Productivity
The Teamleader is the platform that constitutes an online CRM, project management, billing, support, and incidents. It focuses more on customer relations (Customer Relationship Management) than on teamwork.
It allows you to manage the database of contacts and clients, send or automate invoices professionally, and manage projects. In other words, it offers information on which ones work well and which ones need more attention, so that the time spent on each one is recorded to improve profitability.
Also take a look at Focusmate, TimeDoctor, or Chimp-Champ.
Write and Edit Text
Microsoft Office Online makes a free, cloud-based version of Office available to users. In addition to Word, you will find other more popular tools such as Excel and PowerPoint. Its integration with OneDrive is complete, making your documents always accessible.
It has most of the functions of the regular version of Microsoft Office, being therefore one of the best free alternatives to work with your files. It has applications for iOS and Android.
Other alternatives are Google Docs, Evernote, Libre Office, or Authorea.
