Remote business is convenient and in some cases even necessary. As practice showed in 2020, with remote work, efficiency does not suffer at all. Moreover, the pandemic served as a trigger for many companies and made people think about what an office is - an organizing factor or an excuse to spend on rent?
Perhaps you are only planning to open a business focused on remote interaction with employees. In such cases, it may seem that it is enough to organize communication by email and instant messengers, as well as create a working account on Google Drive. But will such an approach ensure the effectiveness of business processes? Definitely not, especially since everything we have mentioned is not enough even in office mode. Moreover, considering everything in this way, you miss another important factor - safety.
It is great that we do not live at the dawn of digital technology; nowadays, there are many ready-made solutions for doing business remotely. Many of them are used in offices, others are aimed specifically at remote work. There is a number of specific solutions, designed for specific areas of business. For different areas, be it microfinance, real estate, or food delivery, there are separate software products. We have assembled basic solutions that will help you to organize your business remotely, regardless of which industry you work in.
Remote business tools
First of all, each employee should have access to the network, but the Internet alone is not enough. For remote work to be effective, it must be made as close to the office work as possible. To do this, you need to organize a workspace, establish communication between employees, and choose the best way to manage tasks. There are many solutions and tools, and we will consider some of them further.
Remote workplace organization
A profitable option for remote business is virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). We have already discussed the advantages of this technology earlier. In brief, VDI involves separating a server, physical or virtual, into several remote desktops. All of them will be isolated, so employees will be able to deal with their tasks. Each desktop is a virtual environment that you can connect to over the Internet using the RDP protocol. A user can access the desktop from anywhere in the world if he has the opportunity to enter the network. It is possible to connect through PCs, smartphones, tablets, "thin" clients.
There is only one caveat: VDI is most profitable to use if your company has a large staff. For small businesses, costs may not pay back enough, but in large organizations that work remotely, using VDI is more than justified.
Task management
So, you are working on the current project and have assigned tasks to employees. Let us present a "budget" version of such work. You create a table on Google Disk where you spell out employee tasks and note what has already been completed and what is still in the process of work. This is free, but inconvenient both for the manager and for employees.
For task management to be convenient, it is worth using task managers. These are software products that simplify the maintenance of individual projects and business as a whole at times. There are many solutions in the market nowadays. The most well-known ones include:
- Jira;
- Trello;
- Asana;
- Monday.
You can choose the most convenient option for your business, based on the cost of use, the number of functions, or the interface. Small companies don't even have to pay. For example, you can use Jira together with a team of up to 10 people for free.
Data storage
In the matter of data storage, information security is extremely important, which implies the following:
- integrity - storage of the entire array of data you use for your business;
- confidentiality - protection against access by third parties;
- availability - the ability to work seamlessly with data if you have the right to access it.
In simple words, it is necessary to provide easy access to data from employee devices, protect information from leakage, and provide the possibility of backup.
There are two options you can use to store data that meet all three factors we have described. Those include:
- cloud;
- storage server.
Nevertheless, there are some nuances. Although cloud services are convenient for remote businesses, they do not provide the right level of protection. They are often compared with servers, even equated, but we have already explained why this is not so.
We are convinced that the storage server is the best option for business. Moreover, in King Servers you can choose the optimal rate for the needs of your company. This way of storing data is much more secure than free services such as Google Drive and even private clouds.
Communication between employees
Any business involves teamwork. In order for tasks to be completed in a timely manner, it is necessary to ensure the effective and uninterrupted interaction of employees.
Communication between employees is important in the office. Imagine a small startup in which 3-5 people participate. All of them work in a small rented room, so they can communicate even verbally, addressing each other from behind their desktops. A larger company with a staff of 20-30 employees and several departments is already a full-fledged enterprise, and virtual communication cannot be done here. No one will want to go to another office or call the phone to clarify some work nuance. There are also large corporations whose offices are located in different cities. Employees from different branches resolve work issues, so they are forced to exchange information regularly.
Both in the case of a small startup and speaking about a large corporation, virtual employee communication is certainly important. And this is not only about convenience. Messages will be fixed, sending and receiving is carried out without any delays, which is better than alternative methods of communication.
Speaking about remote business, it will not be possible to do without software products for the communication of employees.
The most successful solutions include:
- Corporate messengers. We use messengers in everyday life. Similar products (Telegram, WhatsApp, Viber) can be used for corporate purposes. These are solutions with a sufficiently high level of protection that makes it possible to transfer confidential information safely and without any fears. As for business, team chats are certainly the best option. They differ from ordinary messengers in advanced capabilities, for example, integration with task control systems. We have already reviewed popular team chats and highlighted the top 5 - Microsoft Teams, Rocket Chat, Slack, Chanty, and Mattermost.
- Video conferencing services. Daily meetings are one of the important components of effective work. In the office, it is enough to gather employees to discuss work issues and current tasks. As for remote work, there is also an organizing factor - daily meetings will help to make sure that all employees are already at their computers, all ready to start working. If you do business remotely, you need to choose a convenient tool for conferences. It can be something traditional, like Skype, Hangouts, or messengers, or Zoom, the popularity of which increased during the quarantine. You can also use a virtual PBX and just call people by phone. But this method has a minus - the lack of video communication. If you want to not only hear, but also see employees, then a virtual PBX will not suit you. On the other hand, you will be able to record calls, which will help to record the important points mentioned in the conversation.
- E-mail. You can use ordinary Gmail or other analogs for communication. Popular services offer paid business solutions, which are more functional and expanded than standard free mail service. You can also create an email on your own domain. When working with customers and partners, it contributes to the recognition of the company, although this is not fundamental in the context of employee communication. Corporate mail can be linked to the same Gmail, placed on a hosting, or on your own server.
Depending on the activity, geographical position, and other factors, you can choose one acceptable option or use all of them.
