You’re managing a remote team. What mobile communication tools do you need?

One point that is often overlooked is what to do when Internet fails. Always have a coop of carrier pigeons available. Also, for shorter range messaging, an alpine horn or yodelling skills can be useful.

Sometimes a phonecall is invaluable when your Internet connectivity is poor ... and that phonecall is better than a text / email message when the recipient could misunderstand or misinterpret the communication....

Internet & phone signal otherwise your dead in the water, simple as that. No comms no communition with your team. Been there, seen it, done it!!

MS Team very useful tool, well integrated with SharePoint and easy access to OneNote and Azure DevOps. Ideal for meeting, managing teams communications and overall keep things on one place.

In my line of work we use real communication through online and virtual meetings, screen sharing and presentations, file sharing, virtual office. We also make available a range of devices to enable our team to work from anywhere, meeting recordings to stay up to date even for those who miss the meetings and finally Data security and encrypted infrastructure to safeguard company and client information and In-app support to resolve issues fast.

Slack: For real-time messaging and collaboration. Zoom or Microsoft Teams: For video conferencing and virtual meetings. Trello or Asana: For project management and task tracking. Google Workspace (formerly G Suite): For email, document collaboration, and calendar management. WhatsApp or Signal: For quick team updates and informal communication. Notion or Evernote: For note-taking, documentation, and knowledge sharing. Telegram or Discord: For group chats and communities.

For effective project management in remote teams, essential tools include Trello or Asana for task assignment and tracking, Monday.com or Basecamp for centralized communication and workflow management, and Jira or ClickUp for advanced project tracking and agile planning. These platforms enable seamless collaboration, promote transparency, and enhance productivity within distributed teams.

In our field we use excel, google sheets and client or customer data management tools to effectively track project to meet deadlines, to forecast and reforecast the progress of the projects. This allow on the team members to see clearly the status of any ongoing projects. This eliminates any micromanaging others task, and allow the workflow to move through out the steps. Microsoft Teams, Sharefiles and Slack allow remote workers to access and share documents, reports, trackers and other project documents. Icloud allows easy access and upload for those in the filed to sent documentation, pictures and investigative reports. Google Earth, Parlay & Land Glide are tools that allow the field staff to collect data and share property reports.

For seamless video conferencing in remote teams, essential tools include Google Meet for high-quality video calls, Microsoft Teams or Slack for integrated communication features, and Skype for Business or Cisco Webex for enterprise-level security and reliability. These platforms facilitate real-time collaboration, enable virtual meetings, and enhance team connectivity, ensuring effective communication and engagement across distributed teams.

Video conferencing is useful for many to many or one to many (eg remote team meetings with a large group) and particularly useful for lengthy meetings or workshops where physical presence is not required. One important aspect of video conferencing is not to overfill a room more than the capacity so all participants can be heard and seen. I have usually found, for example, a room with a capacity of 12 has 18 and it loses the full video experience.

Whichever apps or platforms are used need to be stable and robust to function trouble-free on a day to day basis. Nothing can be more frustrating than having a conferencing app crash just as you are about to make a salient point on a call. Or sending an e-mail to someone on your team and they not receive it due to a bug or unreliable platform.

You can try to integrate the Video conference feature in the same App with the messaging to be more handy & efficient and there are a lot of Apps that support both messaging & Video conference such as Microsoft Teams.

Videokonferenzen sind wichtig wenn das Team verteilt ist. Es ist wichtig sich ab und zu pers?nlich zu sehen, auch wenn es nur virtuell ist. Das st?rkt die Verbindung im Team. Auch hier bietet sich MS Teams an, aber letztendlich ist jedes andere Tool auch OK.

Again MS teams fits and gives what exactly one needs to mange remote teams. The mobile app gives both the tools and the experience you need to work effectively with your teams.

I definitely recommend the Microsoft Teams app. The mobile experience is very covenient and useful on the move, for example when a colleague is doing a desktop or app sharing during a meeting. Switching from Microsoft Teams mobile app to Microsoft Teams installed on your computer is seamless and invisible to other meeting participants, ensuring a seamless user experience !

We do not use social application or tools are part of work area, as it can be a distraction. We do use MS Teams to chat, share information, host training for work. We encourage staff to the join the association in our field, attend charity events, which some are paid for by the company. During the holiday season we attend the our local association charity events. This allows remote staff to join in at these events. We do lunch gathering in & out of the office, to spend time together outside of the office.

This is key as remote teams usually focus their comms solely on work, so there's never any socialization which builds bonds among the team. It's important to set some time aside to know colleagues in a social setting, such as by hosting virtual happy hours.

Providing Social tool for your team members to be able to connect & gather virtually is so important and the most effective tool is the Workplace App from facebook.

Já imaginou sua empresa tendo um espa?o exclusivo no facebook para publica??es e intera??o social? Afinal de contas, quem aqui n?o possuí Facebook/Instagram hoje em dia? Pois é, a META também pensou isso e criou o Workplace, a rede social de sua empresa. Todos com o domínio de sua empresa poder?o acessar, sendo um espa?o livre mas também controlado pelos administradores, tornando a experiência ainda mais positiva! Recomendo muito o uso, principalmente para a??es de endomarketing em um time remoto!

If there are any doubts, follow up any meetings with a set of notes, confirming takeaways and specifically action items, owners and due dates. As time passes, the outcome of a meeting can get blurred and/or there can be disagreements regarding what happened. The notes can help get everyone on the same page with a written record.

Bei verteilten Teams ist die Art der Kommunikation sehr wichtig. Beim sprechen transportiert man mit Stimme, Mimik und Gestik mehr informationen als mit dem gesprochenen Wort. Diese Informationen fehlen beim schreiben, das darf man nicht vergessen. Auch lohnt es sich einfach mal zum H?rer bzw. Headset zu greifen und Themen pers?nlich zu besprechen. Das geht oft schneller und führt seltener zu Missverst?ndnissen.

You will need your ears, your mouth. Your heart and your brain. You need to trust and let go. Give guidance, manage expectations. Provide context, a north star. You need patience, empathy. Create psychological safety. And you need a sense of humour

When working remotely, the infrastructure plays a much more important role than the apps you are using. If you frequently work from certain locations (home office, client office, etc.), it's more critical to ensure that there is ample mobile coverage from where you are or supplement it with a secure, robust Wi-Fi. The same applies for the rest of the team, so it is important they ensure to log in from reliable locations.