Best Tools for Managing a Remote Team

For 25 years Radixweb has deployed its teams, tools and processes to enable quality remote work. Here is an insider's look at how the cogs turn.

Given the need of the hour, remote working has become imperative for organizations today. However, it still isn’t a common structure and many companies are struggling with their remote teams. Given the scenario that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought before us companies will now need to

• Increase scale and velocity, particularly by migrating business and operations to digital channels
• There should be greater focus on costs as companies deal with an evolving and uncertain economic climate
• There will now be a surging demand for digital products and services to replace brick-and-mortar and in-person touchpoints and companies need to compensate.
• Accelerate adoption of digital technologies in the areas of collaboration, supply chain, commerce, cloud and others
• There should be organizational efforts and initiatives to boost resilience and use current learnings to prepare for future disruptions

All this will require a company to build a skilled workforce that is constantly available to them for business needs. Now Imagine a team situated in a different part of the globe yet working seamlessly towards your business goals. It might seem a little far-fetched, but that is what remote teams are all about.

So what’s the secret of a productive and efficient remote team? The answer, team composition, the tools for remote teams put in use and the process followed. Read on as we take you through how to make remote work successful.

Remote Team Collaboration

The success of any organization, irrespective of its industry vertical, depends entirely on its teams. The same goes for remote working. However, there are a few traits that a company should appreciate and develop in their remote teams-once they hire remote developer.

Action orientation

Action-oriented teams can deliver even if they are working remotely. With a slight bit of direction and guidance, an action-oriented team will get down to execution. A manager possessing the right mix of leadership qualities, dedication, and responsibility towards her/his team can do wonders even in a remote working setup.

Trustworthiness

One of the most crucial traits of a remote working team is trustworthiness. Constantly worrying whether or not the team you have deployed performs the functions required of it will only shift your focus from your product or your customer. Conversely, you, too, must display trust in the team you have hired. It improves team morale and subsequently affects productivity and efficiency.

Lucid communication

While working remotely, free-flowing and transparent communication is key to the success of the project. Most data, instructions, and feedback shared via mediums that don't involve a face to face conversation. Therefore, the organization must have good communicators in their teams.

Top 8 Remote Work Tools for Remote Teams

It is easy for a co-located facility manager to call for an 'all hands on board' session to steer the project's direction. Such is not the case if you opt for third-party team extension or dedicated development team. Luckily we live in the 21st century, where technology now supports instant communication. Here are some remote team tools that you can employ to keep the information as free-flowing as possible between clients and teams.

G-suite

G Suite is Google's collaboration and productivity app for businesses. It is a combination of all of the Google software you already use and some added features, specifically for helping improve your workplace. A variety of Gmail, Google Drive, and Hangouts form one immersive productivity powerhouse.

HubSpot

Hubspot assists in marketing, sales, and customer care. It consists of tools geared towards each of these verticals. It helps campaigns become more effective and efficient through lead generation, analytics, and market automation. Not only does it contain email trackers and a customer feedback feature, but it also has software to assist in SEO and blogging.

Need To Hire a Remote Development Team? We Are Just a click away.

Calendar

Calendar simplifies a workday by implementing an all-in-one app to help the employee get organized. Its notable features are One-Click Scheduling, Time Zone Recognition, and Easy Multi-Person Scheduling. It even provides transcripts of meetings for referral and an analytics page to summarizes time usage. It also syncs with Google and Apple calendars for ease of use

ZOHO

ZOHO is a suite of software that one can use to run an entire business. It boasts word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, databases, note-taking, wikis, web conferencing, customer relationship management, project management, invoicing, and other applications.

SLACK

SLACK is a virtual office. A messaging/communication software where you can create channels to keep the white noise down and discern between productive conversations and friendly banter, SLACK is further used to create project-specific chat rooms. At Radixweb, we generally have channels tagged as #Design team, #Digital marketing, etc., so that information flows to the right endpoint.

ZOOM

ZOOM is easily the best video conferencing tool for managing remote team video calls, including large groups. It enables an entirely remote team to be present for the client and play an active part in value addition to the meeting.

As per the report, 94% of businesses report increased productivity through the utilization of video conferencing.

ASANA

ASANA is used to improve team collaboration and management. It is an inclusive tool where teams can create projects, assign work, build timelines, communicate, and report progress.

TRELLO

TRELLO reflects the KANBAN methodology, which includes visual cues to smoothen workflow. We generally use TRELLO to create task boards with progress columns and move the tasks between them based on their status/ degree of completion.

Managing A Remote Team with Right Process

With us, it's all about the process. After all, where remote work is concerned, it is ultimately the process that gets results. Make sure that your remote assets know the What, How and When of their job function. Have clearly defined SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) tailored for crucial job functions. Good team induction to these SOPs eliminates the risk of team members being ignorant of their Job functions. It reasonably reduces the inter-dependency of team members, exponentially improving remote team performance.

Agile is the way ahead, which means that you can tackle a project through iterative development where the client's requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration. A highly efficient and disciplined project management procedure consists –

Frequent Inspection

Frequent inspection is the norm. It enables you to detect and remove defects in software artifacts, thus contributing to software quality. Subsequently, it leads to massive time benefits and budget compliance. Inspections are an integral part of the software development life cycle and the development schedule.

Adaptation

The client's needs are paramount, and one must take time to understand the client's exact requirements before beginning work. However, there are times when the client requirements change during the project. Here is where adaptation steps in. Leave the elbow room in an ongoing project to adapt the project to the client's modified needs.

Development of Best Practices

To ensure Rapid Delivery Software development, one needs to accost a software development agency and follow the best practices such as coding style, version control, test-driven development, adherence to agile methodologies, etc.

Business Approach

At Radixweb, we have a business approach that aligns development with customer needs and company goals, thus ensuring that the software we develop will be an asset to the client.

So that's how we at Radixweb tackle the challenges of managing a remote team. We have been working 'remotely' for 25 years now. As a Microsoft Gold certified Software development partner, Radixweb has operated remotely for over 2900 clients spread across 25 countries for whom we have been working 100% remotely.

It is our business to transform yours, no matter where your location is, technologically. Our technophile attitude and presence on the cutting edge of technology has helped our remote teams create game-changing bespoke solutions for our clients, ones that have become crucial gears in the machinery of their success stories. Connect with us, and we would be happy to build yours.