Tools for teleworking
Leaving your employees the choice of teleworking or staying at the heart of your company while working remotely is possible thanks to communication and collaborative tools.
These tools allow the teleworker to stay informed of the activities of the company and to participate in real time in the projects in progress in the same way as if he were working within the company.
Communication tools
Many inexpensive and easy-to-use tools exist to transmit information, instructions or files between employees:
- electronic mails: now common use for all professionals, for the transmission of documents, in particular by means of attachments.
Outlook, Thunderbird
- instant messaging: to write and receive brief instructions and details in real time, communicate quickly on the progress of the work, maintain permanent contact. If you or your employees have a webcam, videophone is then possible.
MSN Messenger, Google Talk
- softphones or ToIP: to make free calls from pc to pc. These are telephony software to download and install directly on the computer. After downloading, all you have to do is enter an e-mail address that you will then communicate to your collaborators. Some softphones combine other functions: file sharing, instant messaging, video telephony.
Skype, Windows Live Call, Wengo, Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk
Skype for business
Skype and its 300 million subscribers have definitely won over Microsoft, which wants to develop a professional instant messaging application. It will be called Skype for Business and will be a cocktail of the communication features of Skype and the business dimension of Lync, formerly owned by Microsoft. On the menu of this tool available in mid-2015, call transfer, calling a person from the voicemail with a single click, internal or external to the company.
- Voice over IP: Internet access providers now almost all offer a VoIP service, to make free calls from landline to landline.
- Webconference: to conduct virtual meetings, not around a table but around a website. Features of webconferencing solutions: sharing of applications, documents, Internet browsers, online presentation and modification of documents (including PowerPoint presentations, reading shared PowerPoint article), chat, instant messaging, virtual whiteboard.
WebEx, Office Live Meeting, Raindance, Genesys
Collaboration tools
Collaborative tools allow the teleworker to participate, follow in real time the progress of projects and individual interventions, via creation and monitoring tools.
- Work-sharing tools
They allow several people to work remotely on the same working document. The advantage: the changes made do not erase the previous versions. The disadvantage: the collaborators cannot intervene at the same time on the same document, they intervene one after the other.
The wiki is a website freely modifiable by its users. In business, wikis facilitate the collaborative writing of documents, it is a space for reflection: exchange and discussion around new ideas and new projects, organization of events, development of working documents.
Exosys, Xwiki, Metawiki
Word word processing software has a tool that allows you to annotate text to suggest corrections, so it can also be a good work-sharing tool for teleworkers. P
To access this option, click on tools / option / track modifications. Make your modification, click on enter, the modification is displayed in the form of a colored insert to the right of your text. Or go to the desired location, click on Insert / Comment and write in the space that appears.
Forums are another teleworking tool. Teleworkers can find their employees around this exchange platform to share their ideas, exchange their points of view, for example on the progress of a project.
To create a free forum: xooit, forumactif.com, forumparfait.com, monforum.com.
- Information access tools
These tools allow teleworkers to quickly access all the documents and information already existing within the company.
In addition to being a space for reflection and pooling of work, the wiki is a space for storing and sharing information, it allows the free flow of information between all the employees of your company. It can group together project calendars, meeting reports, working files and documents, contact database, description of existing products and services.
With the shared address book, it is possible to pool the contacts held by each member of the company.
- Coordination tools
These task management tools facilitate the monitoring of projects and make it possible to organize interactions between contributors and between teleworkers and those responsible for validation.
Once the work has been distributed, the workflows take care of automatically creating the calendars, managing the archiving of documents, monitoring the proper execution of documents and issuing alerts if the documents are not returned on time. These solutions pay off.
WorkflowGen, W4, cmlight, workflow.com, wfmc.
The shared calendar allows teleworkers in your company to access everyone's calendar online. The shared agenda is updated in real time and everyone can organize their working time according to their employees' schedules for greater efficiency.
PartAgenda, Calendae
Teleworking platforms
Teleworking platforms for companies exist, they bring together several of the tools mentioned above. The use of these platforms is chargeable.
Ieweb, collaboration solution, Zevillage
Social or internal company networks
Operating on the same principle as professional or general public social networks, corporate social networks facilitate information sharing and communication within the company, or in a work group.
These tools generally offer “turnkey” solutions for the company and its employees. These are platforms with features that meet professional needs: document or file sharing, real-time discussion (by chat, video or voice), discussions in private groups, information sharing, etc.
Corporate social networks can encourage emulation between employees, but are also a good way to create links for employees who work remotely. They also meet the need for reliable information sent in real time, while respecting the security due to certain internal information.
It is also necessary that the establishment of this type of network be framed, and employees trained in its use.
Several platforms are dedicated to setting up an internal network for the company: Yammer, Slack, talkSpirit ...
