10 Best Work From Home/Remote Work Tools In COVID-19

The world is living in challenging times. The coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak is having a huge impact on our lives. Everyone had to adapt the way they work, and, even simpler than that, the way they behave in society, in order to keep themselves and their families safe. Work from home or remote work is a concept in business and service delivery that aims at non-stop access to digital marketing services for customers via remote means. COVID-19 has led to the closure of most institutions and organizations so working remotely is the only way to keep services interrupted.

1. Google G-Suite

Google is known for providing compelling digital solutions to most of today’s productivity challenges organizations, institutions, and even governments confront. Google G-suite is one such offering with solutions for email, word processing, spreadsheets, presentation decks, shared calendars, cloud storage, etc.

Special Pros

· Let workers in different time zones work on projects variably

· Allows communication with colleagues via Google Hangouts

· Permits comments and suggestions on specific documents via Google Sheets and Docs

· Ability to edit docs with each other in real-time, no need for real presence, everything is virtual.

· Accepts project and document collaboration plus access to specific files via Google Drive

· Information and documents sharing

· Collection of information possible via Google Forms

2. Zoom

Zoom is a new popular audio and video communications tool having easy, reliable, and stable cloud platforms for video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars across mobile devices, desktops, telephones, and room systems.

Special Pros

· Attendance in-person, via webcam or video conferencing camera, or via phone

· Zoom allows mobile screen sharing which means staying in touch with colleagues anywhere

· Ability to record meetings on devices or Zoom cloud for later reviewing

· Zoom allows sync with Slack

Employers mindset has forcefully been shifted towards online work

“Not one — not one! — study suggests that working in an office eight hours a day, five days a week maximizes employee productivity, satisfaction, or performance.” Forbes

3. Basecamp

Basecamp is a real-time communication tool letting teams stay on the same page. It enables teams to track priority and actionable items.

Special Pros

· All projects have tools all teams can work with remotely together. These are message boards, to-dos, schedules, docs, file storage, real-time group chat, and automatic check-in questions.

· Real-time group chats allow ask fast questions and get fast answers. All without reaching for a separate app,

· Private conversations with colleagues

· Client access to the chats

· Allows personalized themes to make the interface appealing

4. Adobe Creative Cloud

Specially designed to enhance web design services but also enhancing remote teamwork. Adobe Creative Cloud consists of 20+ desktop and mobile apps and services for photography, design, video, web, UX, etc. It suits web designers, UI/UX designers working remotely as it enhances team collaboration, uploading, and sharing of designs.

5. ProofHub

Projects cannot stall because of COVID-19. There are project management tools used by teams of all sizes to do their work are varied. Proofhub, however, challenges several tools as it enables planning, collaboration and management of daily tasks. The user-friendly interface simplifies the onboarding process.

Special Pros

· Assign tasks, define deadlines, and add labels to differentiate.

· Seamless real-time team collaboration via comments and chat.

· Progressive updates on assigned tasks with real-time notifications

· Track time with multiple timers or by manual log time.

· Share files, review, proof with instant approval

· Project progress and team workload to assign extra work efficiently via workload reports

6. Zoho Remotely

COVID-19 has led to the closure of several businesses and institutions over a lengthy period. This creates other problems and Zoho Remotely is an attempt at addressing some of them. Zoho Remotely combines web and mobile apps that empower remote work/work from home.

Special Pros

· Targeted for remote work/work fro home

· Allows remote online meetings and communication

· Allows plan and monitor, assign work, allocate resources, and prioritize tasks.

· Team creation, sharing, and editing of documents from varied devices

· Remote work support app

7. Grammarly

Grammarly is an online ‘writing assistant’ and ‘plagiarism checker’ that amplifies writing to professional levels and standards. It checks grammatical errors, verifies spelling, and mistakes on point. Grammarly does writing style checks by analyzing the tone and clarity of writing.

Grammarly helps in all kinds of writing, Be it emails, website copy, support replies, social media posts etc. it has a mobile and desktop app version that simplifies writing on any device

8. Google Drive

Google Drive provides an online service to store and share digital files. It’s useful and seamless in combination with other Google tools like Docs, Gmail, etc. Google Drive can also be adapted to save and work with files from other systems such as Microsoft and Apple.

Special Pros

· Access files offline and from mobile devices especially emote teams

· Re-arrange saved work by project and priority

· Set various sharing permissions for every doc, folder, or user ensuring files are safe and accessible to the right people.

9. Slack

· Slack is the popular ‘collaboration hub’ available chatroom platform for teams and individuals. It’s one of the best team communication tools with video calling, file sharing, and integration to other remote working tools such as Google Calendar and Jira. It’s user-friendly with a simple interface to either talk in groups, one-on-one in real-time.

Special Pros

· Provides asking fast questions and getting fast answers

· Effective teamwork together and even have some fun. Allows sharing favorite fun moments with precise emojis

· Allows building own online team community

10. Jira

· Jira is a project management tool perfect for issue tracking bug tracking and other uses. Vital in issue-tracking it indispensable for development and technical support teams to accomplish more work and faster.

Special Pros:

· Transparency: team tracking of daily tasks progress, allows revision in estimates, and evaluate team members.

· Eliminates the need for direct colleague contact. Simplifies communication process: notifications via email on and work and task progress

· Perfect for development and technical support teams to work more and faster

· Access to lots of out-of-the-box reports with real-time actionable insights.

The COVID-19 epidemic is a world calamity. One positive is that we have just been handed a free pass to try living our life as remote workers. Maybe you or your employer weren’t ready but now we can’t but try to make the most of it.

Unfortunately for a bad reason. But let’s all do our best during this world-wide remote work experiment and make something good come out of this.