Remote Solutions to Help Teams Survive in the Covid-19 World

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the world. Remote work has become the reality everyone has learned to live with. Though it may sound surprising, there were already 4.7 million employees working remotely in the U.S. before the pandemic hit us. So it isn’t something to feel uncomfortable about. Still, the transition is easier said than done for organisations that have never worked this way before.

While you may have done everything for a smooth transition to the work-from-home model, every day is a new challenge. Before understanding how you can use tech-based remote solutions to overcome the problems, it’s important to understand their scope in the first place. Some of these areas are:

– Glitches in communication

– Lack of transparency

– Trust issues

– Problems related to accountability

– People not getting along

– Potential for errors

There are plenty of challenges coming our way and the only way to solve them is remote solutions.

Thankfully, there are several remote solutions that you can leverage and will help you make your business function smoothly in the pandemic era. These solutions allow processes to run seamlessly with effective collaboration despite a physical chasm.

Don’t worry—remote solutions come to the rescue

“Never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that is, it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.” — Rahm Emanuel, the former mayor of Chicago.  

The crisis is big, the problems bigger. Thankfully, businesses are willing to treat the situation as an opportunity and have enough resilience to beat the adversity. Most companies have already embraced powerful remote solutions to overcome the aforementioned challenges.

The best part is that many of these team collaboration software solutions are not new for organisations—some of these tools had been in place even before the pandemic era. However, back then the objective was quite different. While some software were meant to improve business processes, others were focussed on serving clients more efficiently.

The bottom line is that the right remote solutions can be a true saviour when it comes to handling crises or taking your business to the next level.

Looking to beat the COVID blues? Here is a list of must-have solutions for business to empower themselves:

Communication tools 

Whether you have a team with a few resources or hundreds of people, good communication is  essential to work smoothly. Video conferencing tools are great remote solutions for bringing together people who are physically separated. These apps let you bring all your team members on the same platform, at the same time. Not only will everyone be abreast in terms of work, they will also foster interpersonal connections that can boost the mental health of the team members.

It is a great idea to implement a virtual call center software if you want to stay on track with seamless customer communication. Having this solution in place empowers your sales and customer support teams to take calls from anywhere and be available to them at all times.

Group thinking apps 

Apart from the usual work, weekly meetings, and monthly conferences, you may also want your team to participate in creative brainstorming from time to time. It is tough to be clever and innovative if your team is thinking alone without a soundboard for ideas. However, you can look for a new meeting facilitator like Google Meet, Zoom or Microsoft Teams with a powerful remote solution for a team to be creative together.

Project management tools

While staying in touch is vital to collaborate as a team, you cannot ignore the significance of keeping the projects on track. When a number of people work on a project, everyone must be aware of the team’s progress and rate of completion. A reliable project management tool enables productivity tracking and lets everyone access what their teammates are working on. It also helps managers create assignments, track progress, review results, and monitor the productivity of the team, irrespective of their location.

If you are able to leverage it well enough, this solution can serve more accurate and reliable results than your traditional office solutions.

Information management system

Another aspect of team collaboration that you cannot overlook is information management. Email attachments may not be the best way to share files with teammates when working remotely because they can cause unnecessary chaos. Switching to cloud-based solutions as quickly as possible is the best thing to do.

These applications host a single version of each file or document, which the members of the remote team can edit and update collectively in real-time. The information hosted could include anything, from meeting notes to project deliverables, employee paperwork, company records and so much more.

Information security solutions 

While you would want to empower teams to share information collectively, you cannot compromise on security. After all, it isn’t wise to risk confidential business and customer data. This risk gets higher when people are accessing information remotely on the cloud.

So, protecting your virtual office with dependable information security solutions becomes imperative. While the right security tools are vital in this context, you also need to have a maintenance schedule in place. Additionally, employee training goes a long way in protecting information even when they work from home.

Feedback solutions 

When people work from home, it is impossible to see and connect with co-workers for something as simple as small talk. They may end up missing out on nonverbal cues that indicate the need for logistical or emotional support. Status check platforms can offer extensive benefits as they let you empathetically collect feedback from the employees and clients. This is important in the current context as it can help you mitigate the adverse effects of social isolation. Moreover, the initiative can help you keep employee morale up and also strengthen the connections with your clients.

What’s Next?

Now that you know all about the remote team collaboration solutions that can empower your business, it’s time to pick the right ones for your business. The choice depends on your situation and the challenges that you may be facing. For example, installing a virtual call center software would be a smart decision if you are a service-focussed business that greatly relies on customer support functions.

At the same time, there are some tools everyone must invest in, like a video conferencing solution that keeps the team connected throughout. Considering the current situation, the future of work is now location-irrelevant as you might not be able return to office in the foreseeable future. It makes sense to embrace innovation and build a digital workspace that excels on all fronts.

It is important to choose your remote service provider with great care. You need a product that offers quality tools with reliable support to keep your business up and running at all times.