Covid-19 has raised a lot of new awareness about how we interact with one another. Many businesses are struggling or at least missing out on important chances because of the pandemic. To lend a hand, we at NerdBrand are sharing our top work apps that can help boost teamwork and productivity while working remotely.
Here are a few helpful apps your company may want to give a spin if you’re adjusting to a new work-from-home format.
Slack
Team communication and efficiency are among the two most important contributors to success as a remote work company.
Slack is an online communication tool — essentially instant messaging — that keeps your team connected for maintaining work-related discussions, coordinating with you team to move projects forward, and sharing a light-hearted laugh.
With more than 10 million users, Slack is a major player in marketing and facilitating remote workspaces.
Slack offers lots of useful features. Your organization can establish different channels for each business unit, team, or project, so everyone is in the loop when conversations happen.
Aside from the channels, you can send Direct Messages to individuals, allowing for 1-on-1 conversations.
The ability to connect almost any API makes it even more powerful, as you can streamline your tools like Google Drive, Dropbox, Salesforce, Zendesk, Jira, and more — creating a “hub” for your remote team communication.
Zapier
Zapier allows you to create “Zaps” that connect other apps online, thus creating workflows. If you are repeating tasks a lot, and if the app you want to connect has the ability for that task, you can connect it via Zapier.
The result is a happier and more efficient team able to accomplish critical tasks in a fraction of the time.
Zapier isn’t free, but it does offer monthly plans, so it’s worth checking out.
Zoom
Zoom is a go-to platform for video conferencing and web communication. The Zoom app can be used on your phones, tablets, and laptops. In the current situation, it’s being used by educators to offer remote learning online for students.
Given the increase in demand, it’s no surprise that negative reviews have shot up. Some of these have been removed from the reviews in the Android app store.
In our view, Zoom is among the top video conferencing applications available.
Dropbox
Yes, our old friend Dropbox. While there are other alternatives, Dropbox is still popular and is top-of-mind for most. It isn’t a free app, but pricing varies based on the amount of files you need to store.
Other solutions are Google Drive and WeTransfer. Both offer free storage (limited), as well as paid plans. This gives you the ability to share digital files and keep projects on track, while maintaining the oft-mentioned social distancing.
Evernote
Ever find yourself scribbling notes on three different pads, Post-Its, and in Word on your computer…
Only to struggle finding them later when they’re most needed?
Same.
Evernote is a most useful tool for keeping notes, creating digital lists, or writing anything that comes to mind, and then sharing it.
Its ability to sync across devices, much like Google Docs, makes it a winner. Easily jot down notes on your Evernote mobile app and it will automatically sync to Evernote on your computer.
Working together on Evernote is easy. You can share notebooks, send single notes, chat with coworkers instantly, and more. It’s a great tool if you need to create or publish content with a team. As of July 2016, Evernote had over 200 million users on its app.