The quarantine affected many companies, and so did IT-Kitchen. So we decided to work remotely for a while. And we want to talk about our first experience with remote communication.
If you are accustomed to communicating with your colleagues and working side by side in the same open space, it can be difficult to reconfigure business processes to a new mode and work in a remote format. There seems to be a loss of control. In fact, distance can be effective and disciplined. Here’s what we recommend:
Messenger Slack
Our main working tool for daily communication. In the office, we use Slack mainly to avoid unnecessary noise, exchange files and links, contact our colleagues «at the exit». Now it’s 100% gone. We chose Slack because this messenger is easy to use if there are more than 10 employees, there are many possibilities for customization.
To connect several people, we create a common channel, like a chat. To attract attention, we use the following commands:
On the desktop version of Slack, you can share your PC screen. For this purpose: enter any discussion, click on the icon «phone» and select the icon showing the monitor (Share your screen). It’s an interactive tool, so not only your colleagues can look at the screen, but they can also make some changes. For example, print text, draw. It’s effective if you have to work together on design elements, documents, presentations. Please note that the screen-sharing function is only available in the paid version of Slack.
Audio and video calls. Slack has a conference service for a group of up to 15 people, but this option is only available for pay rates. If you use the messenger for free, the voice dialog is only one-to-one, like on the phone.
Zoom
This video conferencing service is interesting for us because it is possible to integrate with Slack. We use recently but have already appreciated all the amenities.
How does this work? The organizer registers an account with Zoom. Approves Slack on the Zoom Marketplace and installs the Zoom application in the corporate messenger. After adding the service to the Slack workspace, all participants see the conference identifier number – this is an invitation from the organizer to join the discussion. Each member of the videoconference is authorized – through registration, Google account or Facebook.
We get the result:
Skype
A familiar tool for voice and video calls, including team meetings. You can invite up to 50 people free of charge without time limits. We use it from time to time, mainly for interviews with foreign clients.
Jira
Our usual and daily tool for problem-setting and work planning. What was our choice? This board is specifically designed for IT commands, plus there is a time tracker function – to track the execution time of a task.
Google Docs
Let’s not go into all the advantages of Google Documents – it’s a rather famous tool. This service is convenient for us due to the general editing feature and the possibility to create comment windows. For example, four people worked on this article. And sending Word files back and forth is very unproductive.
That’s a little view. Yes, we use few services to organize group cooperation, but the main thing is quality, not quantity. The most important thing is that these tools are convenient for every employee and make our work coherent under all conditions.