Seven Remote Work Tools For Staying Productive While Working From Home

Working from home these days? You’re not the only one! Here are seven different tools that we’d recommend for your office. They’ll maximize your productivity as we all adjust to digital workflows for a while.

And we promise, they’re not paying us to say this (not yet, anyway). These just happen to be the programs that we ourselves at IndustrialSage know and love the most.

1. G-Suite

Tired of a dozen different versions of the same file floating around in the ether? Collaborative document editing systems like Google’s drive documents or Microsoft’s Office 365 will allow multiple people in multiple locations to always access the latest version of any document they need. And, you can check revisions as well to see a record of all the changes anybody has made!

2. Dropbox

If you need to share files of all kinds across long distances, Dropbox is an excellent file-sharing system. It keeps all your important documents online and accessible when you can’t get to your work computer, or when you and an entire team need access to the same materials. Best of all, it’s an invaluable cloud backup if your computer or server goes down.

3. Slack

Sometimes a chat and instant-messaging system like this isn’t that vital when you’re in an office environment. Why send messages if you can pop down the hall and talk in person? But, in a world of social distancing and working from home, Slack or Basecamp are great ways to send quick snippets of information and categorize everything by project, instead of getting lost in yet another unnecessary email chain.

4. Zoom

Everybody’s become Zoom’s biggest fan nowadays– and it’s little wonder why. They’re one of the most popular video-conferencing systems in the world, and you can also use them to set up and record phone meetings. They’ve even updated their programs to allow for video playback now. Other systems you can try include UberConference, RingCentral, GoToMeeting, or WebEx.

5. Wrike

Less well-known but surprisingly helpful, Wrike is an in-depth, highly detailed project management system. It’s a bit like Basecamp and a little like Zoho, but it allows for extra-granular task tracking and time tracking that can be important if you have multiple clients with multiple projects with multiple deliverables with multiple tasks, and… you get the idea.

6. Hubspot

It’s no secret we’re Hubspot lovers, but we’re going to say it again anyway. A CRM or marketing automation program was extremely important in the digital age ten years ago– and now in a world of more and more remote working from home it’s positively vital. Whether you choose Pardot or Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics or Harvest or Nutshell or Nimble or any other one of the countless CRM programs available… you need a place where all your sales teams can access client information, track communications, and hopefully set up email messages and even social media posts with ease.

7. Dubb

This is a pretty new program to us, but the concept it represents is a little more familiar! If you can’t meet people in person because you’re confined to working from home for the foreseeable future, then video is the next best thing– specifically video voicemails and video messaging software! Programs like Dubb, Vidyard, Wistia Soapbox, and BombBomb provide easy ways for sales teams to send individualized video messages that are far less intrusive and far more personable than phone calls.

 

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