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Collaboration and clear communication is, undoubtedly, the secret to a business’s success. However, in this era where remote working has become a new standard, coordination has become quite challenging.
As face-to-face interactions have become Zoom calls and the same project employees work in different time zones, it has become difficult for companies to keep all their distributed teams on a single page. Well, this is exactly where digital collaborative tools come to the rescue!
Collaborative tools significantly impact the performance and productivity of remote teams. They facilitate quick, clear communication and effective, error-free project management. From IP location for disruption-free internet access to Trello for effortless task coordination, various digital tools assure easy, quick, and trouble-free distributed team management.
Thus, in today’s discussion, we highlight the 6 best must-have tools for a distributed team aimed at ease, quick, and uncomplicated workflow.
Digital remote team tools are specialized software and applications that enable remotely working individual employees and teams to communicate, collaborate, and coordinate with their other co-workers quickly and effectively.
These online tools provide a single platform for all workers and integrate communication, coordination, and management tools to help teams collaborate on projects and stay efficient. According to a survey by CoSoCloud, 77% of employees reported being more productive when working remotely. Further, 55% of workers are less likely to take time off due to their flexible working arrangements.
Thus, these online tools have not only brought prominent changes to the working capabilities of employees but have also positively impacted companies. With the increased productivity, they can bring more significant revenues and create profit-generating outcomes.
Below are the capabilities of digital tools that enable effective and trouble-free communication and collaboration between distributed teams.
- Video calling for direct face-to-face communication.
- Video conferencing for communication with multiple participants.
- Screen sharing for clear coordination of projects.
- Instant messaging and calling for quick, real-time discussions.
- IP location trackers for smooth and error-free calls and messages.
- Sharing features for files and documents with various formats supported.
- Cloud-based storage for documents for quick and easy access.
- Availability indicators to view the status of employees digitally.
Digital tools provide a strong foundation for remote teams to work on. From group discussions to indicate unavailability, they are a cost-effective solution to fill the gap between physical presence and the remote working experience. Below are the 6 top digital tools that are significant for companies to manage their remote teams effectively.
1. IP Location Trackers
IP location tools are important for remote employees in order to maintain smooth and disruption-free communication with co-workers. By continuously evaluating the employees’ geographical location, these IP location tools can ensure an unrestricted, smooth, and trouble-free communication experience.
They can route the employees’ calls to the nearest servers for quick connection and manage latency disruptions to offer high-quality audio and video calls. Moreover, they also protect employees’ data by restricting their connection to unauthorized servers.
Hence, it enables quick and trouble-free communication between the teams. Whether you want to share your screen for project discussion or want to make a call quickly, integrating IP location tools moves away the chaos and provides a stress-free experience.
2. Project Management Tool
Project management tools are another significant aspect of remote working, providing focus, increased productivity, and enabling you to track your team’s performance. Some of the leading project management tools are Trello, Jira, ClickUp, Asana, Monday, Smartsheet, Basecamp, and Wrike.
These digital tools act as a complete solution for all project-related workflows. From providing instant status notifications to offering quick chatting features to team members, these platforms allow remote teams to easily manage their workflows without any limitations.
Furthermore, it helps you keep a keen eye on the project details as well as the employees’ efficiency. You can get daily reports, view the deadlines, identify possible troubles, and discuss them with your team, all at a single platform without switching applications.
3. File Sharing Tools
The remote team requires cloud-based solutions for effortless document sharing from workers from different divisions. For this, file-sharing tools like Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud, OneDrive, and Linoma Software are popular and widely used options.
In addition to storage, it also provides project organization tools for effective and smooth management. From supporting multiple file formats to protecting data, these tools are critical to the remote working environment.
The file-sharing tools facilitate different types of documents like Text Documents, Presentations, PDFs, spreadsheets, Images, Database files, Outlook email, ZIP compressed folders, MS projects, and many more. Thus, whether you want to share a proposal presentation or spreadsheets of analytics, these tools can provide you with comprehensive digitalized approaches.
4. Communication Tools
Communication tools are applications and software that enable the distributed team to carry out internal and external transmission of information. You can connect with your co-workers and have discussions via calls, messages, SMS, emails, video conferencing, etc.
The use of communication tools is essential for remote employees. They are integrated with cloud call routing systems that provide a clear, trouble-free coordinating experience. Thus, from quick instant chats to comprehensive video conferencing, they are one of the must-have tools to ensure smooth and effective collaboration of remote workers.
Some of the corporate companies ‘ most used communication tools are tools like Zoom, Skype, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Slack, Telegram, and Outlook. However, the remote teams can also use the communication features available in the project management tools.
5. Time Tracking Tools
Time management and tracking tools are a creative way to engage your clients and boost their productivity. It helps the project managers to continuously monitor the work status of the employees and keep a record of their tasks and performance.
Furthermore, the time-tracking tools also contribute to effective workload management. You can monitor the working status continuously, effectively assign tasks to the resources, and produce productive results.
Time tracking tools also help companies effectively manage the wages of their hourly-hired employees. Thus, they eliminate the risk of manual errors, ensure the workers are getting the right and deserving pay, and reduce administrative responsibilities.
6. Task Automation Tools
Task automation is one of the biggest revolutions of digitalized technologies, all thanks to the urge developed by remote working teams. These tools are used to automate workflows and improve productivity, limiting the need for human administrative command.
These tools are mostly used for repetitive tasks with calculated outcomes, like counting the working hours, calculating the wages, sending notifications, assigning tasks, and more. Through this, human resources are free to focus on high-value tasks.
The task automation tools can also integrate additional technologies like Trello, Microsoft Teams, Slack, Jira, Outlook, Buffer, WordPress, Salesforce, and Paypal to make the working process stress-free and streamlined.
Final Thoughts
The concept of remote working has evolved from a rare perk to a necessity in the modern world. However, this increased adaptability has also led to the development of new technologies that can facilitate this flexible working environment. Thus, all the above-discussed tools—whether you consider Trello for project management or Zoom for video conferencing—are an outcome of this new normal working process. All these tools aim to make the professional life of remote employees effective and productive, as well as bring profitable outcomes for the company.
Orion is a passionate writer with a love for storytelling. With a keen eye for detail and a creative mind, He crafts engaging content that captivates readers. When not writing, Orion enjoys exploring new ideas, reading, and finding inspiration in everyday life. He believes in the power of words to inspire, entertain, and connect people.