Inc has an article on how the major service providers with tools for remote work are all jumping in around the Coronavirus situation, by offering free trials of various services. Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts and LogMeIn are all looking to gain market share with the free offers. The moves are smart marketing as "stimulating trial" is one of the most successful tactics that can be deployed by a brand. The offers also have a second benefit. They may promote some brand switching as a result because now if you're a Slack based organization, but a Microsoft house, you have no excuse to not give Teams a shot. And if you're a G Suite user, you may want to see what's up with it.
For Cisco, it's an opportunity to showoff and possibly win back some former WebEx users. A lot has changed with WebEx over the past few years, so capitalizing on Covid-19 to get some traction isn't a bad move at all.
But remote work is going to need more than Teams, GoToMeeting, Hangouts, Zoom and WebEx to make people "productie remote workers." The sharing of files, uploading of documents, notifications about actions, all have to be integrated too. New zaps from Zapier that enable richer notifications, updates to documents, and other alerts will start to become the norm. Tracking all this in some reference capable format will be needed. Documentation of who did what, who said what will also become a necessity, as remoteness can lead to both freewheeling, or overlooking of the details.
While Zapier can be looked at as the connectivity between apps that automates routine tasks, the platform is really the connective tissue of so much data being moved from one bucket to another, all in a way that anyone with a basic sense of moving this from here to there can master. Tools like HighTail, WeTransfer, TransferNow, Firefox Send and more are going to see more use too as people working remotely find that not being on the same LAN is slowing them down when it comes to sharing. Slack's file upload to a thread, group or individual is also good as is their integration with Google Drive and Microsoft's OneDrive.
For coordination between home and work balance, tools like Calendly and Woven will take on new uses. Before when mom or dad was working in the office, hours were pretty well set in place. Now, with parents or spouses working from home, family members and even neighbors need to understand that WFH doesn't mean a day off. Using preset calendaring tool links will make it easier for family and friends to see when mom or dad can help with something, like a ride to school, a pick up after or a lift to meet up with friends. It will also allow kids to not schedule friends over who could be making more noise than mom or dad is used to when working in the traditional office.
Tools that help make remote work happen aren't the end of the solution. It's about putting all the pieces together to allow for home/work balance and easing the frustration that the new remote workers may experience from the start.
P.S. It was fun to read Shelly Palmer's article on becoming a remote working badass. In reading it I was checking off how much of what he's suggesting I've been doing or the services we're using for as long as most have been around. Here's my list of what I've done or are doing personally, and within the business:
- Workspace
- Hours
- Rules for Others
- Morning Ritual (I have end of day rituals for different days too)
- Time Management
- Daily Quitting Time (it varies by day, time zone or location)
- Different Phone Number (Google Voice is ideal for this)
- Conference Calls
- Solid Broadband Connection (I once bought a house based on who the provider wasn't)
- Collaborative and Messaging Tools (I can still remember when introducing Slack to the team and Skype as our primary way to communicate)
- Project Management-We have been using Basecamp since Basecamp 1
- GSuite-what a war it was to get some people off of Office or Outlook.
- Acting like you're in the office -now in an apartment building vs. a freestanding house this is key for deliveries and more
- Scheduling calls like meetings -I use UberConference for most of my scheduled calls, sometimes Zoom and even Skype or
- Signal depending on who I'm talking to and have for years.
- Voice check ins--it's like managing by walking around without the exercise
- Daily Stand Ups-even when we don't talk, a short chat solves a lot of issues before they arise. We hold one every day 30 minutes everyone has officially started their day.
I'll add a few more:
- Softphone for your laptop or desktop
- Quality headset
- Desktop lighting to look good on a conference call
- Mobile app connected to your cloud voice provider's phone system
- Desktop or travel size speakerphone
- HD webcam, not just what's in your laptop or tablet
- iPad -my mini is my all around mobile device of choice
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