Before 2020, remote working appeared to be the preserve of sun-kissed digital nomads and unconventional startups. The Covid-19 pandemic has changed that, and adapting to remote teams has become a necessity in today’s business environment.
For many traditional businesses, the switch from the office to the spare room has been a struggle. Thankfully, plenty of business apps are available to make continuing your business remotely easier and more effective.
Keeper: For storing and sharing credentials securely
There is a huge range of password managers out there, from open-source platforms like BitWarden to user-friendly services like LastPass and 1Password. Although they all enable users to securely store passwords and other credentials, Keeper is purpose-built for enterprise use.
One of the challenges of working as a dispersed company is securely storing and sharing passwords and other credentials for critical business services. Keeper excels as an enterprise-grade password manager because of its advanced admin and password management functions.
Individual users can benefit from a secure password vault, but at a higher level, management can do much more. Admins can create folders, sub-folders, assign passwords to teams, departments, or individuals, and limit sharing capabilities. Cybersecurity is a concern in and out of the office, and a password manager like Keeper will ensure that users don’t provide an easy way for cybercriminals to attack.
Basecamp: For remote project management
Managing projects across departments are difficult in an on-prem situation. However, when these responsibilities are dispersed across a remote team, the task can easily become overwhelming.
Project management tools like Basecamp make these tasks far easier to handle. Basecamp stands out because of its simple pricing mechanism. Instead of charging per user, Basecamp has a single price for a monthly subscription regardless of how many people in your team use the platform.
What’s more, the service is marketed as an all-in-one project management tool. Instead of using multiple project management tools, such as Slack for team chat, or Trello for project management workflows, Basecamp enables you to do everything from one place. Users can store data, edit documents, manage workflows, communicate with team members, and more.
Pocket: For inspiration and innovation
Pocket falls under the category of a read it later app. When your team is working remotely, it can be difficult to muster the inspiration required to make better business decisions. Pocket enables users to save articles, videos, and other content from websites and apps.
The content is curated into a bespoke space and available to read later online or offline. From a business perspective, users can focus their research on industry-specific content and use the app to develop ideas and inspiration without the benefit of a physical collaborative working environment.
Google Drive: For collaborative documents
Most people will be familiar with Google Drive. This ground-breaking service enables storage and collaboration at an enterprise level, whilst remaining intuitive and easy to use.
Constantly evolving, Google Drive now incorporates alternatives to everything you’ll find on Microsoft Office. And it integrates with the Office suite too so you don’t have to convert files if you wish to continue working on the original documents you’ve created.
As well as being able to create, store, and collaborate on documents in multiple formats, Google Drive provides users with a means to find documents more quickly thanks to a lighting fast, AI-driven search function. For remote teams, Google Drive is invaluable and has revolutionized the way people can collaborate whilst away from their desks.
TeamViewer: For remote access
There are some scenarios where simply collaborating on a document isn’t enough. You might wish to jump on board and take over a device. In the office, this would be a simple matter of asking a colleague to let you hop on their desktop, for remote teams this can be a little more difficult.
TeamViewer is a remote access software that enables users to do just that. Users can operate a computer from anywhere in the world just as if it was in front of them. With TeamViewer, you can provide users with a link that enables them to give you remote access by downloading the app to their device. Users can also use the technology to access their own desktop whilst away from their office.
TeamViewer is a business-focused alternative to some of the other remote access software platforms out there such as GoToMyPC. Users can benefit from a well-designed management portal so juggling multiple team members is relatively straightforward.
Clockify: For time management
Managing your time when working from home can be difficult. With no set routine to speak of, focusing on tasks requires a little extra effort.
Clockify is a free, time tracking software that enables users to track the time they spend on individual projects. You can have multiple projects running in unison and an inbuilt calendar makes it easy to schedule tasks and workloads.
From a user perspective, the app’s timesheet function makes calculating billable hours easy. From an employer’s perspective, Clockify enables business owners and managers to track hours, manage leave and sick days, create user reports, and more.
Jitsi Meet: For remote meetings
One thing that is critical for remote teams is the ability to meet and communicate virtually and effectively. Alongside the main players in the virtual conferencing sector like Zoom, Skype, and Microsoft Teams, is Jitsi Meet.
Although relatively new, Jitsi Meet’s unique approach makes it a good option for remote teams, especially those that have recently moved out of office. There is no requirement to sign up for an account. You just need to enter a meeting name to start a conference call. And to invite new participants all you need to do is send a link.
Jitsi Meet is an open-source platform and includes particularly advanced security features. With many users exchanging sensitive and confidential information, this enhanced degree of security will likely be welcomed by businesses owners.
