For 20 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, is completely dependent on the teams it has. The same goes with remote working. However, there are a few traits that a company should appreciate and inculcate in their remote teams.
Action orientation
Teams that are action oriented 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 is performing the functions required of it will only shift your focus from your product or your customer. Conversely, you too must display trust to the team you have hired. This improves team morale and subsequently effects 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 is shared via mediums that don’t involve a face to face conversation. Therefore, it is imperative for the organization to have good communicators in their teams.
Top 8 Remote Work Tools for Remote Teams
It is easy for a manager in a co-located facility to call for an ‘all hands on board’ session to steer the direction of the project. Such is not the case while working with a remote team. Luckily we live in the 21st century where technology now supports instant communication. Here are some of the remote team tools that can be leveraged to keep 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 that you already use along with some added features, specifically for helping improve your workplace. A combination of Gmail, Google Drive, and Hangouts form one immersive productivity powerhouse.
HubSpot
Hubspot assists 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, it also has software to assist in SEO and blogging.
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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 of word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, databases, note-taking, wikis, web conferencing, customer relationship management, project management, invoicing, and other applications
SLACK
SLACK is literally 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 can be 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 end point.
ZOOM
ZOOM is easily the best video conferencing tool for managing a remote team video calls including large groups. This enables an entire remote team to be present for the client and play an active part in value addition to the meeting.
As per report, 94% of businesses reports increased productivity through the utilization of video conferencing. Click To Tweet
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 on progress.
TRELLO
TRELLO is based on the KANBAN methodology, which basically 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.
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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 & When of their job function. Have clearly defined SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) tailored for key job functions. Proper team induction to these SOPs eliminates the risk of team members being ignorant of their Job functions. This reasonably reduces the inter-dependency of team members exponentially improving remote team performance.
Agile is the way ahead, which basically means that a project should be tackled through iterative development where the requirements of the client and solutions provided by the team evolve through collaboration. A highly efficient and disciplined project management procedure consists of –
Frequent Inspection
Frequent inspection is the norm. This enables you to detect and remove defects in software artefacts, 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 needs of the client are paramount and one must take time to understand the exact requirement from the client before beginning work. However there are times when the client requirements change during the course of the project. Here is where adaptation steps in. Leave elbow room in an ongoing project to adapt the project to the modified needs of the client.
Development Best Practices
To ensure Rapid Delivery Software development best practices such as coding style, version control, test driven development, adherence to agile methodologies etc. should be followed.
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 20 years now. As a Microsoft Gold certified Software development partner, Radixweb has worked remotely for over 2900 clients spread across 25 countries for whom we have been working 100% remotely.
It is our business to technologically transform yours no matter where you might be located. Our technophile attitude and presence on the cutting edge of technology has helped our remote teams create game changing bespoke solutions for our clients, one’s that have become crucial gears in the machinery of their success stories. Connect with us and we would be happy to build yours.
