Companies, schools, and organizations around the globe have begun to work remotely as the world adapts to the COVID-19 pandemic. There is no way to predict how long remote working will continue. Organizations must adopt new technologies and develop new methods of work in order to remain productive.
Unprepared organizations can find the sudden shift to remote working overwhelming. We’ve been using a remote workforce at Eventene since day one, and we can learn from this experience.
Tools for Remote Work
We are a software firm divided into two groups: A software development team and an operations group that includes marketing, sales, and support. Our team is located in California, Brazil, and Italy. We have employees on three continents. We need cost-effective online tools that are available worldwide to function as a cohesive team.
We evaluated many different services and apps when we launched our company in 2016. Microsoft Office 365 was chosen over Google G-Suite for general productivity (word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations). Microsoft Office 365’s Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps are industry standards, offer excellent web versions, are cost-effective, and have a wide range of features. Microsoft Office 365 includes Teams as a vital communication tool that allows for daily chats, document sharing, and virtual whiteboarding.
We chose Trello by Atlassian for project management, as it is entirely web-based and allows team members to interact in real-time during our weekly video conferences. Trello is best suited for agile development teams. Trello uses a list, board, and card system to track design, development, and testing workflows. Team members can use the cards to leave questions and answers. You can easily switch from a high-level view of the project to a detailed look at one issue. Trello is our virtual project manager.
Eventide is a cloud-based event planning service that consists of mobile and web-based front-end clients, servers, and databases on Amazon Web Services. All components are in the cloud and can be accessed from anywhere. Our developers can work from anywhere by using a cloud-based system. All of our third-party service providers, such as Stripe and SendGrid (e.g., Stripe, SendGrid, and Freshdesk are cloud-based services, which allows our employees to use them remotely.
We use GitHub to manage our source code. It is a hosted service from Microsoft. The service offers full versioning and is a great tool for remote teams that are submitting and reviewing changes to our codebase. We could not manage a complex system like Eventene without a service like GitHub.
Team Communications
Meeting live is difficult to replace. We’ve developed some traditions that replicate the feeling of camaraderie, teamwork, and cohesion that is created by seeing traditional workplaces. On our Monday morning call, each member of the team shares their weekend events. This call takes place in three different time zones: 9 am Pacific Time, 1 pm Brazilian Time, and 6 pm European. The callers each share for a few moments how their weekend was and what’s going on in their lives. This is a wonderful way to begin each week by reinforcing personal connections. It’s also a good way to keep up with what’s happening around the globe.
Our team uses Microsoft Teams for the rest of the work week. This allows us to communicate instantly with one another and to gather a few members to have a quick group chat. The whole team can switch from voice chat to ad hoc video conferences with a single click.
As the team leader, besides the weekly calls, I visit everyone in person once or twice a month. It is important to meet the remote team members in person when you are starting a new business and hiring them. If you get to know your team members, the virtual meetings will be more effective.
Marketing, Sales, and Operation
We use Office 365 for marketing and sales. This suite allows us to create documents, communicate, and analyze data. HubSpot is used to track customer relationships and sales pipelines. HubSpot, like Trello, is a cloud app that allows for easy collaboration among team members. The ability to track the potential customer through the sales cycle, transfer responsibility to other team members, and get a good overview of the sales pipeline is a great feature.
Grasshopper is also used for our virtual telephone system. This provides a free number that customers can call to leave messages. The software allows us to check our voicemails anywhere, and it replaces the traditional private branch exchange system (PBS). We recorded our greetings with a British voice actress to add authenticity and flair!
Freshdesk is the cloud-based support center that we use. It provides email communication with customers and trouble tickets. Freshdesk, which is cloud-based as well, allows our support staff to process and review trouble tickets from anywhere. Also, our help center writers are able to review and edit documents anywhere.
The conclusion of the article is:
Without great communication and productivity tools, we could not work remotely as a group. The needs of every organization are unique, but sharing the tools that Eventene uses may help you and your organization transition to a more remote environment. We’ve maintained a lean organization by relying on cloud-based tools for collaboration. Each team member shares only a fraction in terms of project management and overhead. This allows us to save money that can be used elsewhere. This will enable us to maintain communication and productivity as we address the COVID-19 epidemic.
Please reach out to us if you would like to know more about our remote working processes.