With the COVID-19 outbreak, there are a lot of businesses that have instilled a temporary work from home policy. Perhaps your company is one of them, and you’re currently sitting on your couch or at your home office desk reading this blog post, looking for tips. 

While your priority is probably dealing with the consequences and improving communication with your customers, you’ll also want to make sure your teams are set up for success while they work remotely. This could include utilizing the right meeting tools, employee monitoring software, communication apps, or video presentation software. Luckily, we live in an age with tons of digital tools and enabling software that help us not only be better at our jobs but are also designed for bringing teams together and creating simpler processes. 

Here are nine tools that are sure to help your team work remotely during the COVID-19 outbreak:

1. BenchmarkONE

Having marketing automation and a CRM tool, like BenchmarkONE (formerly Hatchbuck), will assist your sales and marketing teams with eliminating redundancies in their day-to-day tasks. As your team works from home, having a tool like BenchmarkONE ensures they don’t drop the ball when it comes to adequate customer management and nurture. Your teams can email numerous prospects with ease, informing them of any protocols your organization has in place regarding COVID-19, and ensure them that you’re still available should they need you. They can also continue to send personalized content so that business can continue as normal. 

2. Slack

Working from home sounds like a luxury, and in many cases, it usually is. But given the circumstances, working from home can be daunting and disorganized, primarily if your team is used to working directly with one another. Utilize Slack, a messaging tool, to quickly touch base with one another regarding a project, or to share files quickly and easily. Instead of booking tons of meetings, Slack enables you to message or call one another quickly so you can get back to your projects and not miss a beat while you’re working from home. 

This data was assembled by Crazy Egg.

3. Benchmark Email

We’re definitely not too afraid to mention our own product. Time and time again, we’ve seen our email marketing software enable our clients to stay top of mind with their prospects and effectively track the success of their messaging. Just because your environment has changed, doesn’t mean your outreach has to. Create campaigns geared towards providing special support and communication to your customers and prospects during this trying time, and use Benchmark Email to get the job done. 

4. Zoom

You’re probably no stranger to Zoom and it’s many benefits. When it comes to bringing numerous people together from various different locations, it’s pretty perfect. This video communication tool is a necessity for remote teams. You can easily set up meetings, and since there’s a video element, it’s almost as if everyone is in the same room together. What’s more, it has chat and the ability to set up from conference rooms, desktops, and mobile devices. It’s super-efficient, which is something we can all use right now. 

5. Fyle

Recording and managing business expenses is hard enough when your favorite accountant is around to walk you through the process patiently. Remote work only makes it more tricky for employees to submit compliant reports and for companies to keep track of it all, make sense of the data in-time, and prepare accurate financial reports. The pre-accounting process is critical to the sustenance and growth of any business – especially during a pandemic.
Fyle is an expense management software that gives employees easy tools to track and report compliant expenses reports in time. With complex approvals workflows and automation features, it makes sure the right information is reaching the right stakeholders. With automatic compliance, real-time analytics, automatic card reconciliation, and tight-knit integrations with major accounting software, Fyle makes expense management easy for remote teams!

6. ProofHub

It is evident that Covid-19 has affected our jobs or work a lot as almost all types of companies, whether small or big, are embracing the idea of remote working. But without the right project management tool, this becomes almost impossible for the project managers to handle remote employees.

ProofHub is here to solve all of your problems to manage your entire team as it is an all-in-one project management and team collaboration software that enables you to use Kanban boards, Gantt charts, chat, announcements, custom fields, and customized workflows. 

ProofHub provides you full control when it comes to time tracking, task tracking, scheduling, and file management. So, you do not need multiple tools. Moreover, this tool is also available on Android and IOS systems, making it even much easier for remote teams to manage their projects. 

By using ProofHub, you would be able to save a lot of time, thus ultimately making you more productive at your work. 

7. Evernote

In times of emergency, the need to work from home is rather sudden. Forgetting supplies at the office shouldn’t hinder your workflow. Evernote is great because it helps you take notes from any location and share your ideas with whoever you need to (without a notebook or pen). You can also create to-do lists that help you segment base on priority. So even though you’re working from the confines of your home, you can easily organize and tackle individual tasks or projects. 

8. Buffer 

Don’t neglect your social publishing just because your environment has changed. Use Buffer to schedule all your social posts so that your company can maintain an active social presence. It’s essential that you continue to tap into your audience where they’re active, and that you don’t let your strategies change if you can help it. Keeping up with your social engagement will continue to benefit your company, and Buffer is a great tool to help. 

9. Scalefusion

We thrive in a competitive corporate world where the show must always go on! Scalefusion is a Mobile Device Management (MDM) software that proved to be exceptionally valuable to businesses considering the major surge in remote working during the Covid-19 pandemic. Offering a comprehensive set of features including application and content management, remote device troubleshooting, inventory monitoring, data security, and much more, Scalefusion MDM enables your organization’s IT admins to streamline and automate their operations.

10. Audext

Working remote desktop activity might be challenging for the first time, but not impossible. Remote teams can be much more effective during their meetings, especially when the meetings are recorded. With Audext, you can transcribe audio to text and send the outputs of the meetings to all the participants. This keeps everyone on the same page and allows for easy playback when needed.

11. Basecamp

Yes, we’re dealing with a bit of a global crisis right now, but certain projects must continue. To keep your team aligned and to help ensure everyone knows who is managing what, use Basecamp. Basecamp is a great project management tool that enables you to log activity, pass off projects between team members, and keep everyone updated and on-task. 

Use these nine tools to keep your team moving and your business thriving during this difficult time. Each will help employees stay organized, manage their time, and communicate effectively while they work from home. 

12. eXo Platform

eXo Platform is an open-source digital workplace solution for growing teams and enterprises, featuring tools for internal communications, team collaboration, knowledge management, productivity, and employee recognition.

eXo Platform is developed on open-source technology and supports open standards. The platform is extensible and interoperable, and all services are exposed to REST APIs. It also works seamlessly on mobile and desktop. With eXo Platform, companies can connect, engage and reward their employees, customers, and partners with its social, engagement, and gamification capabilities.

13. Teamwork

A project management software that allows you to work from anywhere and manage your remote teams with ease. Being part of a remote team can be challenging. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Teamwork gives you everything you need to stay connected, keep communication flowing, and get full visibility over your project’s progress. Get more done in less time with the kanban board and never miss a deadline again.

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by Benchmark Team