What Apps and Services Should Remote Workers Use?

Every modern business that you could possible visit nowadays will definitely be using at least one type of application or service to support their work. With so much information being hosted and exchanged online, not using digital apps and services would mean not being able to tap into all the resources available to you.

When we spoke with some tech-savvy companies – for example, a Microsoft-partnered business providing IT support services in London – they pointed out that, since the trend of remote working has become accelerated due to COVID-19, apps and digital services have become even more crucial to work.

What Do Remote Workers Need?

With so many more people nowadays working remotely, it is important that every business understands the needs of the remote worker – because they are understandably different to the needs of office-based workers. When we spoke to the company that provides outsourced IT support London businesses use, they stated that many of their clients used their services to enable remote work, which gives you an idea of what remote workers need – from robust remote communications, to the ability to access company resources remotely, and more.

Below is a brief summary of the key needs of remote workers, and what apps and services can be used to support those needs.

1. Robust Communication

Firstly, as one could imagine, remote workers need to have excellent communications channels to stay in touch, and on the same page with their colleagues and bosses. Emails are the same in or out of the office; but in the absence of immediate, face-to-face communications, an alternative needs to b organised – and usually, this means a combination of instant messaging, videoconferencing, and telephony.

Apps & Services: Slack, Zoho, or Google Chat are all great messagin solutions. As for integrating messaging, videoconferencing, and telephony, Microsoft Teams is ideal, but Slack also supports all of these forms of communication (though via third-party integrations).

2. Productivity Software

The apps and programs that you use everyday to complete your daily tasks and responsibilities are what we call productivity apps, or sometimes an office suite. These usually include word processing and other content creation capabilities, note-taking, etc. 

Apps & Services: The most famous productivity apps are of course Microsoft Office (or Office 365 if you pay for a rolling subscription). That said, there are other options out there, such as Google Workspaces; there are even free office suites, such as LibreOffice, that support all the same file types as the premium versions.

3. Project & Task Management

While project and task management solutions ought to be used by all workers, in office or out, they are especially important for remote workers, who are expected to work self-directed at all times. The overwhelming consensus is that remote work makes people more productive, but there are some who have cited struggles with focus and time management – hence why a good work management solution is worthwhile.

Apps & Services: Basecamp, Todoist, Clickup, and Trello are all great examples of task and project management solutions that are suitable for businesses.

4. Network Security

Businesses setup their own internet network in the office, because it is much easier to control traffic and put security measures in place to protect the company and their users’ data. However, this is much harder to manage with people working from home; they will usually be using their own home Wi-Fi, which can be easier to compromise. Therefore, additional measures should be provided for remote workers to help protect the company’s data.

Apps and Services: The primary solution for remote workers is a Virtual Private Network client. There are plenty of great VPN clients that add layers of protection to an internet connection, such as NordVPN, Surfshark, and ExpressVPN.

5. Remote Support

Of course, when a remote worker experience technical issues, it can feel much more hopeless – they can’t just call the in-house IT engineer and have them come to their desk to investigate the issue; which is why remote support is a great solution to have in place.

There are no specific apps or services you can download or sign up to in order to overcome this challenge. The company you work for needs to have remote support enabled, or be partnered with an outsourced IT support provider who can deliver remote support to their clients.