Alright, stop. Collaborate and listen. Not only is this a bad 90s lyric form a one-time rapper, it is also sage business advice for anyone looking to work with a remote team and a virtual office. Collaboration tools – thanks to the work of all those people in the technology space – have become so functional and easy to use that it really is in the palm of your hands these days – literally. There are a number of benefits to using a virtual office and the associated collaboration tools. But first things first, the most important thing you must find is a great provider for your virtual office. This is the fundamental basis on which you should be able to grow your business and grow your team. Once you have this foundation laid, you can then choose which online collaboration tools you will use to grow you business.
This project management tool is perfect for the team who convenes online but lives all about the world. It is a customisable to-do list that people around the world can access at any given time – the whole of your team on a single user interface. There are a series of functions that allow the users to track where projects are at and use cool sticky-notes to keep the other team abreast of what is happening. Plus; it’s free!
2) Yammer
It’s like Facebook… but for your business. This social networking site allows your tea m to chat, share ideas and collaborate all within the safety of Yammer’s platform. Employees sign in via a company email address, and can use the platform via web, desktop or mobile. This is one of the best networking tools with more than seven million users.
This platform is designed for meeting with colleagues, customers and between people internally within a company. The platform was designed to host meetings. Through this program, you can launch a meeting from anywhere in the world, through a number of different systems that the platform uses. There are a whole suite of other functions that the program allows for, such as the ability to give control of your computer over to someone else (for all of those pesky IT issues), and one function that allows you to host a meeting and record at the same time.
This is the place where your team can go to create, communicate, collaborate and get that work done! This suite houses all of the apps that you would use (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, OneDrive—and on your PC, Publisher and Access) but with the ability to stay mobile. With an Office 365 subscription, all of the apps will be updated all of the time! This means that you and your team will never again be working on an outdated system. The system goes across the platforms – on your computer, on your tablet and even on your phone!
If you are going to scale or continue with your business, it makes sense to understand how to use this kind of technology. If you do look to work on some of these online platforms, just remember a few key things:
Protect your interests: Protect yourself against cybersecurity and ensure that you protect your passwords and make sure you are projecting your business interests such as credit cards and etcetera.
Create a processes document: Sometimes when new staff members are coming on or older staff members are leaving, things can get lost in translation. Make sure your processes are in order!
