Today’s world has brought about some popular work trends into the limelight, including telecommuting tools, e-commuting practices or work-from-home. 

Thanks to these trends, organizations are able to operate from anywhere and on any device. Employees can now stay connected to their work through the device of their choice and a good internet connection. Research has been indicating that opportunities like telecommuting and work-from-home can keep people more productive and engaged with their work—not to mention the safety they assure. 

Organizations are now putting more effort into creating a conducive environment for remote work. And one of the biggest challenges they face working with remote teams is communication. However, tons of new-age remote working tools have come up that have made this task much simpler. Design, development, testing- you name it and there’s a tool. We explore some of the best telecommuting tools and resources you can use to keep in touch with your team and help track their progress. 

What tools are used to manage and complete work remotely? 

Mentioned below are the top telecommuting tools organizations and first time remote employees can use to stay on top of work with their teams, even when every employee is sitting miles away from each other.

Real-time chat/messaging tool: Slack

“Discuss, collaborate, share—work is better without the inbox”

Overview:

When it comes to mention-worthy telecommuting tools, a one-to-one/group chat is a must on the list. And there is no wonder that Slack is among the most widely used chat and messaging tools among remote teams. 

Looking for an equally equipped but more affordable Slack alternative? Try TelebuPing!

Slack is a great app to communicate and collaborate, both one-on-one and in groups. The app also provides an inbuilt voice/video calling feature. Another great feature in Slack is its ability to integrate with many different applications that make it so much easier for you to track your work across several platforms- all at one single point.

Best features: 

• Activity/news Feed
• Real-time chat 
• File sharing 
• Audio/video calls 
• Discussion threads 
• Third-party integration 

Audio and web conferencing tool: grptalk 

“Start audio conferences in 30 seconds”

Overview:

grptalk is an audio conferencing app that lets individuals, remote teams, and even large organizations connect and collaborate anywhere, anytime.

For local teams to remote ones, you can always switch to faster, hassle-free conference calling tools. Instead of depending on VoIP-based platforms, you can use grptalk—a simple and seamless audio conferencing solution that enables people to talk to as many as 1000+ people on one call in a matter of seconds. The app has a mobile version as well as a web version, you can use it depending on the size of your team and other requirements. 

Best features:

• Connects 3-1000+ people—no internet or hardware
• Upload contact via excel sheet 
• Private room discussion 
• Conference call analytics 
• Download call recording 
• Advanced conference call reports 

File storage‎ and sharing tool: Google Drive 

“A safe place for all your files”

Overview: 

Google Drive is among the most popularly used file management platforms by different organizations. It allows multiple users to create, save, edit, share, add suggestions and do a lot more. It is super easy to use and has a fair number of features to make collaboration better. 

However, sometimes when too many people are working on the document, there may be a loss of edits and suggestions due to overrides by so many different people. So, telecommuters will have to be a little more careful. Telecommuting means a lot of data sharing. And if you are looking for an alternative, Dropbox is a fantastic file management tool. It facilitates easy collaboration through the quick sharing of files and data. You can dump all your stuff in one place and Dropbox even gives you suggestions as to what you might need when you want to recover some files. 

Best feature:

• File storage 
• File editing 
• Anywhere file accessibility 
• File collaboration 
• File security 

Project/task management tool: Trello

“Trello lets you work more collaboratively and get more done” 

Overview: 

Remote teams are constantly required to keep track of where things are headed because they are unavailable for immediate meetings or conversations at the workplace. Trello is a great project management tool to share details of current, upcoming projects. It has a virtual board and you can pin your updates on it. Again, when you are a part of a geographically-scattered team, this tool is fantastic because you know what everyone is up to. 

Best feature:

• Collaboration tools 
• Milestone tracking 
• Time and expense tracking 
• Kanban board 
• Gantt charts

Video and web conferencing tool: Zoom

“Conference rooms that make it easy to run or join video meetings with a tap of a button”

Overview: 

Face-to-face communication still remains unbeaten when it comes to a few things. So, the world of video conferencing is rapidly expanding and applications are constantly trying to improve the quality of the conference call they’re providing. Zoom offers the ability to conference with 65 people at one go. And it is simple to use and provides high-quality video. 

Best feature:

• Real-time messaging 
• HD video conferencing 
• Content sharing 
• Recording and transcripts 
• Calendaring 

Not impressed? Why don’t you give Join a quick try? It’s more intuitive, it’s more affordable, and it’s probably everything you’re looking for.

Advanced automation tool: Zapier 

“Connect your apps and automate workflows”

Overview: 

When you are a part of a remote team, communication becomes your only gateway to the local office. So, you know you can’t waste too much time on other things. So, what’s a useful remote working tool that can serve the purpose here? Zapier helps bridge this gap beautifully. 

This online automation tool integrates your apps and services so that some of your repetitive tasks can be automated without the need for a developer or any kind of technical support. Zapier is extremely useful for marketing teams that need to be on multiple platforms at once, sometimes several times a day. In fact, several in-house marketing teams swear by it. 

Best feature:

• Advanced dashboard
• Good integration options

Team Planner: Timely 

“Accurate time tracking without effort”

Overview:

If you have a team that is spread across different time zones, you’re going to need this great tool. It will come in handy when you need to schedule conference calls. You just need to add the locations of the rest of the participants and World Time Buddy will get to work by suggesting a time that works for everyone. 

Timely is a fully automated team planner and time tracking tool. The tool simplifies the process of keeping everyone in sync while working on a common task or project regardless of the actual geographical location of every individual involved. 

Best feature:

• Intuitive calendar interface 
• Drag-and-drop functionality 
• Timesheet management 

Online Review & Approvals: GoVisually

“Say goodbye to endless emails. Say hello to streamlined creative review and approval.”

Overview:

GoVisually is the perfect kind of collaboration tool for creative teams, solo designers, and in-house/remote design teams. GoVisually is a tool designed to automate everything that is difficult around feedback sharing, proofing, and approvals. It eliminates chaos and unnecessary email threads from getting your and your team’s creative work reviewed and approved. 

It brings team members, clients, and reviewers under one roof. The tool allows you to invite people as reviewers with a link or email invitation, collaborate via comments, analyze each other’s feedback, and get approval in the fastest and the most collaborative way possible. 

Best features: 

• File sharing 
• Markup tools
• Version control  
• Role-Based permissions 
• Task management

Conclusion 

The purpose of all these remote-working and telecommuting tools is to help you focus on real work and more effective communication so you spend less time trying to navigate through the problems of telecommuting. They do a pretty good job at that.