Time wasted commuting and office distractions are two of the most cited reasons for employees opting to work from home. Increased productivity and reduced costs have given employers good reason to accept that telework has quietly become the rule, rather than the exception.
And yet, everyone who’s worked from the couch or kitchen table has had the ‘jokes’ about raging hangovers and watching movies all day – making it even more important to prove you remain 100% connected to the business, whether on your own device or one the company gave you, no matter where you are.
Granted, Friday evening’s after work drinks aren’t quite the same via Skype, but there’s software coming out of the walls to take remote-working teams round the clock and across the globe, without missing a beat.
Communication and collaboration are key to working seamlessly outside the office (and silencing the critics), so just as we previously looked at the IT updates that help a business or agency to grow, it’s good to keep pace with the tools racking up five star ratings, because they might just work for your team too.
Here are seven of the most popular tools keeping remote teams tight.
Teleware’s Skype for Business Recording is a cloud-based build on the bog-standard Skype package. It allows voice recording, retrieval, replay and archiving of Skype calls, making it a popular choice for employees who spend a lot of time on calls and trying to remember what was said afterwards.
Both inbound and outbound calls are recorded, files can be filtered or transcribed and users can choose how long they’re stored.
Teleware can be integrated into a business’s infrastructure with tamper-evident controls and encrypted call-recording, so even the most heavily regulated businesses can stay on the right side of compliance and governance restrictions.
The brainchild of remote connectivity firm LogMeIn, Join.me is an online meeting tool that allows teams to share screens and run audio and video conferencing. It’s designed from a mobile-first, multi-device perspective, so it feels less formal and more user-friendly than tools that try to replicate the boardroom.
They even have a virtual whiteboard for those who just can’t resist the urge to doodle while they’re on a call.
Slack started out as a messaging tool for video game developers and has fast become one of the best full-service collaboration platforms on the software circuit. It integrates easily with popular applications like Skype, Dropbox and Twitter, making it an easy transition for users and a popular choice for businesses who already work in those spheres.
They recently added video calling to the Mac, Windows and Chrome versions of the service and a flourishing partnership with Google means a more integrated experience for customers who have weighed up the server versus cloud computing debate and come down on the side of using Google Cloud and Google Drive.
The software is popular for its ability to counter the dreaded reply-all e-mail chain scenario, providing chatrooms or channels organised by topic instead, so you can stay on top of multiple conversations, without the risk of overlap.
Maybe most interesting of all is the claim that teams who use Slack see an average reduction of 49% in internal e-mail. For anyone who struggles with their inbox daily, that might be reason enough.
Cisco Spark is an app-centric cloud-based service built around the idea of an online ‘collaboration suite’ where teams can create, meet, message, call and share pretty much anything, wherever they are. This makes it one of several services ideal for collaboration with an outsourced IT support team because it enables the organisation and consultant to clearly explain what needs to be done, how it will be done, and by when, with little room for confusion.
Like many of its competitors, Spark is capable of linking up with lots of other popular apps and the messaging service includes text, voice and video. The content sharing functionality uses ‘Rooms’ to separate conversations and information, allowing the right people to get involved at the right time.
It’s big on efficiency and aims to create an environment that smooths the way for continuous workstreams, making teamwork seamless, simple and more secure.
Widely regarded as the closest rival to Slack, Microsoft launched Teams in November 2016, calling it a ‘chat-based workspace’ within Office 365. It allows team members to message each other directly or set up group discussions where they can share content and collaborate on documents.
Unlike its more formal counterpart, Skype for Business, this instant messaging platform comes with emojis, gifs and memes, injecting a little more fun and personality into team get-togethers.
Teams also allows for threaded chats, sidestepping the risk of conversations becoming disorganised and helping users find chats within chats.
As you’d expect, it integrates with fellow Office 365 products like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, video conferencing with Skype and all your files via Sharepoint, making it a formidable all-rounder.
Salesforce Chatter was one of the first off the blocks in the collaboration market and it’s proving its staying power seven years later.
The mobile-first solution is a business-level social network that allows employees to stay connected with each other and gives them a channel to reach out to customers and partners.
It structures discussions around groups and like other social media apps, makes recommendations on people, files and information to follow, based on user activity, personal feeds and profile pages.
Topics pages add an additional layer of personalisation, giving users space to collect and present information on specific subjects, so content and sales opportunities remain focused and relevant.
Designed with a Facebook-esque look and feel and using @mentions to flag posts, it has a familiar user experience and promises to let any salesforce ‘Take action at the speed of social’.
Jive’s interactive intranet software provides real-time communication and collaboration with the help of live activity streams, groups, discussion and blogs. Financial and Healthcare companies are big fans and the ability to create personalised home pages that put the most relevant business information in front of employees when they sign in, is one of its stand-out features.
The ‘collaboration hub’ also includes a Recommender Engine that uses device learning to personalise content and an Open Search feature covering OneDrive storage and Jive Communities, so if feels smart and intuitive.
The software even acknowledges who’s connecting on a team and departmental level, helping administrators pinpoint highs and lows in productivity and cross-team interaction.
Chief executive Elisa Steele talks about Jive allowing businesses to be ‘contextually aware’ of their workforce, so it’s not just making collaboration easier, it highlights where the business is making real gains as a result.
That’s just seven, but there’s a whole lot more offering similar services with free trials and competitive rates. Good news all-round for employers willing to embrace technology to save money, improve efficiency and add a dash more flexibility than the competitor eyeballing their best employees.
Discover how these tools and other IT upgrades can help your organisation reach its potential and future-proof the business by downloading our free eBook on The Role Of IT In Your Growing Agency.
