More and more companies are reaping the benefits of virtual workers – from freelancers hired to consult or assist with specific projects, to teams comprised entirely of freelance project managers, graphic designers, developers and digital marketers. Remote teams are on the rise. By utilizing them, you are able to recruit the very best specialists to work on any task or project, cut costs dramatically and, often times, improve the productivity of existing teams and employees. Remote teams foster a more open, productive and diverse business environment allowing you to pull from a wider range of backgrounds to solve problems.

Benefits aside, it can be challenging to manage remote teams. In order to succeed, team members must be able to communicate, collaborate, and share ideas with efficiency & ease. A set of proven tools to manage remote workers and teams is therefore essential. We have compiled a list of the “11 Most Essential Tools,” which will help you keep your remote team of freelancers seamlessly integrated:

Schwanewede The 11 Essential Tools for Managing Remote Teams:

can you buy Neurontin online Basecamp is a highly functional yet easy to use cloud based project management tool. Basecamp allows you to streamline project and task management as well as keep in contact with all of your important team members, files, and projects. When managing a remote team, a centralized place to store all relevant documents, files, log-ins and a calendar is essential. Basecamp provides this as well as allowing you the ability to track workflow and safely archive projects.

Google Docs is a go-to tool for organizing all of your team’s documents, contracts, spreadsheets, and files, or any other documentation, into one easily accessible location. GoogleDocs allows for more streamlined virtual team communication by doing away with the need for endless emails with cc’d team members by allowing you to create organized groups of key documents. All documents can be easily archived and then shared with anyone you choose on a need-to-know basis.

MyCrowd represents the new age of freelancing platforms that double as productivity tools. MyCrowd aggregates over 15 million of the world’s most highly skilled freelancers, by connecting you to the workers of Elance, Freelancer, and Odesk. Their user friendly interface allows you to efficiently hire workers, manage iterations and make payments to freelancers on one secure platform. You can build teams of your best freelancers to use on critical projects regardless if they are members of oDesk or Freelancer. MyCrowd can also launch directly from within your web browser, Google docs, Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Optimizely to name a few. This allows you to create tasks and manage your jobs without having to change screens or login.

Skype is another go-to service for remote team management, allowing virtual teams to connect at no charge through voice, video and text chat. Sykpe group calling allows you to conference face-to-face and with up to 9 team members at once, as well as use instant messaging. Skype often replaces the phone call or small group conference call, as it features screen saving & an internal LAN file transfer. Sessions may all be recorded. With a paid Skype subscription, you may even forward calls to your phone (in mobile & tablet forms) so users are not confined to their desks.

SnagIt is a great platform for working with remote teams, as it allows you to share screenshots and screencasts, rather than having to describe ideas or issues over the phone or via email. Snagit offers users multiple annotation tools, so key items can be highlighted. Links to work are automatically copied to your clipboard so they may be later viewed and sent to team members.

Join.me is another great tool for remote teams to screenshare workflow, presentations, and any other relevant item that may show on your screen. This allows you to visually show team members exactly what you are speaking about and is invaluable to maintain coherence in understanding.

Toogle is an excellent resource for managing remote teams, as it allows users to track employees hours worked online, which can often be a difficult and unnecessarily time consuming task. Toogle acts as an easy to use time tracking tool, available for both desktop and mobile formats. This allows you to easily track how much time is being spent on different tasks and compare an employee’s efficiency. If your business is client-focused, this tool can also help you easily monitor how much of your company’s work is billable to each client, versus time spent on internal projects.

Axure is a prototyping tool, which replaces the sketch or whiteboard to communicate both complex ideas and initial thoughts within a virtual team. Axure allows teams to work through a design process without the need to depend on explaining visual concepts in words. Axure HTML output can be saved directly to a public DropBox folder and then becomes immediately available to all team members and stakeholders across devices.

Jing is a free collaboration tool that allows you to take a screen or video capture of anything on your desktop along with a voice recording to add additional explanation. This tool makes for easy communicating with designers, developers and other members of your virtual creative team. Jing is also very helpful in creating instructional videos and walkthroughs when a voice call or screen sharing will not do.

Trello is easy to use, as it utilizes two familiar tools used in a traditional office – note cards and the whiteboard. This makes Trello very useful in barnstorming, creating roadmaps and outlining future plans & tasks, with clear goals outlined. It also may act as a ‘to-do list’ for virtual team members or freelancers.

Cacoo is a tool that allows you to create diagrams such as flow charts, process maps and mind maps online. Cacoo can be very useful to virtual teams, as it allows real time collaboration. Cacoo provides multiple stencils from which you may create the diagram of your choosing, which makes it fairly easy to use.

This set of 11 essential tools gives you the necessary instruments to lead and manage your remote teams efficiently and productively. If you are not currently using remote teams as part of your business growth strategy, these tools will get you well on your way. Now you can easily empower your team to share information, collaborate in real time and, most importantly, communicate effectively to accomplish any digital task large or small.

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