9 best remote working tools

If remote working tools have become a new feature in your stack this year, welcome to the 21st century!

While COVID-19 has given many businesses a nudge towards doing more digitally and remotely, with so many tools available, it can be challenging to choose the right ones. Here are eight of our favourites.

1. Contractbook

Speaking of Contractbook, we are going to talk about ourselves very briefly. That said, we are confident that if you give us a try, you will love us!

Contractbook is contract lifecycle management made simple. If you are a small or medium-sized business with a few clients or a large one with many and automation needs, Contractbook is for you. Adding to that, we provide a service that lawyers can use to become even more client-centric!

With Contractbook, you can easily draft contracts from our database of templates, collaborate on changes as you negotiate contracts, then securely store them for as long as you need to. Create automations and enjoy dozens of integrations to bring all your work to one place.

No-one likes messy email chains or a Google Doc with every stakeholder adding comments and revisions. A camel is a horse designed by a committee, after all! 

Keep things simple and in the 21st century by using Contractbook to manage your legal documentation.

2. Zoom

2020 has seen Zoom become synonymous with video calling in much the same way we say we will Google something.

The thing is, the guys at Zoom are not just lucky they found themselves in the right place at the right time. They had an exceptional product in 2019 and for years before that.

What do we love about Zoom?

• The “free forever” tier.
• The way it scales up with you as you need more capacity on video calls.
• Superb HD quality video and audio.
• The ability to collaborate during calls and drive up your productivity.

In truth, there is not much that is not to love, and Zoom is easy to use on the go, too.

3. ClickUp

At the time of writing, the tagline on the ClickUp website said:

“One app to replace them all.”

If a Lord of the Rings reference alone does not inspire you to subscribe, nothing else we can say will!

In all seriousness, though, ClickUp is an outstanding tool if you need a collaboration platform. ClickUp lives up to its tagline, combining task management, business goals, and document collaboration into one platform, and is relevant regardless of the niche in which you work. Where ClickUp can really come to life is in bigger businesses, where you want to make sure every department is using the same systems and processes.

Still, if you are a small business, you want to grow, so why not start with ClickUp right off the bat?

ClickUp is another remote working tool with a free forever plan, and it integrates with Contractbook, too.

4. Slack

Slack is a remote messaging tool that allows you to centralise all your communication in one place. You do not have to use it for internal communication, either; here at Contractbook, we even use it as a customer service platform!

As well as sending messages, Slack can facilitate video calling and has excellent iOS and Android apps, too.

One of the best features of Slack is the ability to set up topic-specific, private channels. 

Not flooding people with messages they do not need to read is always a win. Not being on the receiving end and having to read them is even better!

Still, you are bound to have someone in the office who insists on having a Slack channel for everything. Slack's "Do Not Disturb" and group-specific notification settings come in useful here!

If you have a small team, you can even use Slack as a free remote working tool!

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5. HubSpot

People familiar with HubSpot can reel off its functions pretty quickly. Marketing, sales, and customer relationship management (CRM) are usually top of the list, with analytics and automation close behind.

While people might not think "remote working" when it comes to HubSpot, we believe it is one of its most significant advantages.

Modern businesses realise having the best marketing, CRM, and data analytics expertise around might mean your people are not all on the same continent, let alone in the same office. Using HubSpot, you can give specific team members access to the departments they work in and supercharge your productivity around the clock!

The biggest advantage? If you are a business like a SaaS company with 24-hour marketing, sales, and service operations, you can easily facilitate round the clock coverage of all bases.

6. Vanta

Cybersecurity has never been more vital.

A security breach could mean many things for your business. At a minimum, you will:

• Diminish your brand reputation.
• See customers leave you as they believe you are not trustworthy.

You might also find yourself paying a massive fine depending on the nature of any data breach.

Why leave any of this to chance?

With Vanta, you can automate a lot of your cybersecurity analysis, get checklists for things you need to fix, and eliminate guesswork from these processes.

In the modern world, it is perhaps impossible to guarantee 100% security, but Vanta will hugely reduce the chances of customer and internal business data falling into sinister hands.

7. Spatial

When it comes to video calling and remote meetings, Zoom might soon be “so 2020!”

If you have only just started to use telecommuting tools this year, you might as well go straight to the sharp end of tech and cut out the steps in between!

This is where Spatial comes in.

Spatial is a virtual-reality conferencing tool that allows you to create an avatar and digitally “sit” beside colleagues on the other side of the world. If that sounds cool, it is the features of Spatial that put it on this list, such as the ability to create and collaborate on virtual whiteboards. You can even organise lists of digital Post It notes, or upload 2D images or 3D models to show off a prototype!

If there is one downside to remote meetings, it is the ability to have "hands-on" collaboration you miss even when using the best video conferencing tools.

Spatial is the solution to that problem, and along with similar apps will revolutionise remote working this decade.

8. World Time Buddy

As someone who spent this past Monday morning on a 7 am call with people in Dubai and Hong Kong who do not understand how time zones work, I cannot recommend World Time Buddy enough!

This app is a straightforward way to make sure you can have cross-border meetings at times suitable to as many team members as possible. Wave goodbye to getting up early or taking time out of your evening.

And yes, maybe I should have declined the meeting invitation, but I equally do not need much excuse to indulge in black coffee!

9. Colorcinch

Colorcinch is a must-have tool for creatives out there. It's an easy-to-use design tool that lets you craft stunning graphics and personalized artwork. Make your images pop and transform their colors with its photo color changer.

You can crop, resize, and enhance your photos with just a few clicks. Remove background, crop and resize, add watermarks, and play around with its wide selection of tools to customize and beautify your photos.

You can apply hundreds of specialty AI-powered effects and turn your photos into cartoons, paintings, sketches, and more. 

With Colorcinch, you can quickly access your projects and resume editing from anywhere in the world -online and offline.

Which remote working tools are you using in your business?

How many of these tools are already part of your tech stack?

If you are not a heavy user of remote working tools, try them! With free forever pricing tiers or free trials, you can see the impact they can have on your operational efficiency at no cost or risk!

What are you waiting for?!