Tools for better communication in the home office

Due to the current situation around COVID-19 many employees are currently in the home office and communicate exclusively remotely with colleagues, teams and superiors. For some this is not a big change, for others this situation is completely new territory. To help you get started with online communication and to introduce you to tools that support you in the home office, we have compiled and categorized a list of important tools in this article.

Helpful tools for remote communication

1. Online Messenger

Messengers are the digital form of office communication. They enable targeted communication between teams, individuals or the entire company. By creating different channels and groups, conversations can be structured according to e.g. projects or responsibilities. Some messenger tools like Slack offer connections to other programs and tools like Google Drive or Outlook. 

Our Online Messenger recommendations are:

• Slack
• Microsoft Teams
• Flip

2. Video conferencing

Tools for video conferencing offer, among other things, virtual meeting rooms for meetings, training, webinars or support. They also replace face-to-face exchange with colleagues and make it easy to plan meetings.

Our tool recommendations are:

• Zoom 
• Google Hangouts

3. Data storage

Storing data in the cloud is already common practice for many companies. If this is not the case for you, or if you are looking for an alternative to storing data on your own servers due to the current situation, for example to enable external access, we recommend the following cloud storage services:

• Google Drive 
• Microsoft OneDrive 
• Dropbox 

Tip: For large data transfer we use wetransfer.

4. Project management

Tools that support you in managing your projects can be found in abundance on the Internet. It is important to choose a tool that fits your own project structure. Are you a fan of Kanban Boards? Then try Trello. You prefer to organize yourself with Gantt Charts? Then take a look at Agantty. 

Our project management software recommendations:

• Trello
• Agantty
• Asana

Tip: The Toggl Time Tracker is very suitable for your own To Do’s and their time recording.