Best Tools for Remote Teams

Jun 23, 2022 | Cybersecurity

Best Tools for Remote Teams

Remote work has never been easier than today with a plethora of remote collaboration tools available for businesses. But this abundance creates a problem: which set of tools to choose to maximize productivity and maintain the happiness of your team? 

Some companies use a trial-and-error approach, testing and scrapping dozens of tools. Of course, it involves some time and money losses, but those losses can be mitigated and even avoided if you choose the right tools from the start.

We are here to help and provide you with a list of great proven tools for remote teams. Let’s start!

Remote Work Suites

Remote Work Suites are the all-encompassing solutions that offer all the remote work tools you need in one place. 

Google Workspace

  • Main Features – Google’s ecosystem can cover most of your team’s needs. They can exchange emails in Gmail, create documents in Google Docs, share files on Google Drive, create presentations and reports with Google Slides, and have video meetings in Hangouts. 
  • What We Like About It – Google’s web apps work very smoothly.
  • Pricing – Starts from $6/user per month

Microsoft Office 365

  • Main Features – Again, this suite includes most of the tools your team may probably need – and some more! What’s even better, the majority of your team is likely already familiar with Office products from long ago, so the user learning curve should be minimal.
  • What we like about it – Working offline is a viable option for Office 365 as long as you have all the programs installed on your computer.
  • Pricing – Starts from $6/user per month

Communication

To stay in touch with your team, you need a reliable solution. Thankfully, there are plenty of those on the market. 

Slack

  • Main Features – Slack is a great messaging app. It is primarily used for text chatting, but video calls are also available (only one-on-one for the free plan, up to 15 participants with a paid one). It’s a versatile tool that is fun and easy to use.
  • What we like about it – Slack is easily integrated with other collaboration tools such as Google Workspace and Salesforce.
  • Pricing – Free plan available

Zoom

Let’s not pretend that someone here does not know what Zoom is. After all, it became the industry standard for video conferencing software thanks in part to the immediate meeting needs brought on by the pandemic and the move to remote work. 

It just works, and it works great.

  • Main Features – Zoom is a video messaging app that can be used for one to one, one to many, and many to many video conferencing needs. Paid versions offer enhanced functionality and can be used for webinars if need be. You can record and integrate it with lots of apps like O365, GSuite, Calendly, and more. 
  • What we like about it – Good video and sound quality. Most people will also have it installed, and if not, it is quick and easy to get it working. 
  • Pricing – Free plan available

Task Tracking and Management

Setting tasks and tracking their progress are vital for remote teams. Here are a few options to pick from.

Asana

  • Main Features – Apart from creating and assigning tasks, Asana allows you to build workflows, create reports and automate mundane tasks. Tracking each team member’s workload and creating reports is as easy as it gets.
  • What we like about it – Asana is versatile and customizable with different layouts and plenty of personalization options which make keeping your team and workload organized a snap.
  • Pricing – Free plan available

Trello

  • Main Features – Trello is basically a virtual Kanban board that allows you to assign and track tasks in a simple and streamlined manner. It may have less advanced features than Asana but still may be a perfect fit for your team.
  • What we like about it – Minimalistic design and ease of use.
  • Pricing – Free plan available

Cloud Storage

If your team members share sensitive information, then you should consider implementing a secure storage and sharing solution such as CompleteCloud. But for day-to-day activities and not-so-important files, one of the following services may be of help.

Dropbox

  • Main Features – This is your go-to service to share files (if you don’t use Microsoft OneDrive or Google Drive included in the respective suites, of course). Dropbox offers you such nice features as complete computer cloud backup and large file transfer. Just be careful and make certain to have security and login protocols in place. Dropbox is not ideal for sharing sensitive information.
  • What we like about it – File recovery and version history are great features that allow you to restore accidentally deleted or modified files.
  • Pricing – Starts from $15/user per month

Sync.com

  • Main Features – Sync.com is in many ways similar to Dropbox but has no file size limit which may come in handy in some situations. Same security warnings apply.
  • What we like about it – Sync’s UI looks more appealing and is easier to use in our opinion.
  • Pricing – Starts from $6/user per month

Password Sharing

Security is king when it comes to remote work. Sharing passwords with your team members over messengers or emails is not the brightest idea. In fact, this is how a lot of security breaches happen. 

For industries like Financial Services, compliance is very important. Poor password protocols are a sure-fire way to become out of compliance

Here are a couple of solutions that will help you manage this issue.

LastPass

  • Main Features – LastPass allows you to generate and share passwords with your team members in a few clicks. It offers extensions for all the most popular browsers as well as desktop and mobile apps.
  • What we like about it – Even if you forget your master password, there is still a way to recover your LastPass account using a trusted device.
  • Pricing – Starts from $4/user per month

1password

  • Main Features – Similar to LastPass in many ways, 1password offers the same wide range of features including password generation and auto-filling. Travel Mode is a unique one though: it allows you to remove certain vaults from your device when you travel abroad. Pretty handy!
  • What we like about it – 1password’s Insights dashboard provides your team’s usage stats and identifies potential issues such as breaches.
  • Pricing – Starts from $7.99/user per month; There is a plan for teams up to 10 users with a flat rate of $19.95/team per month

As we said at the beginning, there are literally thousands of great remote work tools out there and you can spend months and thousands of dollars trying to find the perfect combination. 

We strongly advise working with a team of technology experts to help you have that time and those thousands. Want a custom end-to-end solution that will cover all your remote team’s needs? Let’s talk about it!