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Software to use for working from home

16. 3. 2020
Choosing software tools for working online

Whichever solution you choose, we recommend you use it consistently throughout the company. That way, all your employees will know which tool to use, how to set it up, and where to look for relevant information. Don’t forget to give them thorough training as soon as you can after implementing the new rules.

The basic prerequisite for working from home is that the employees have computers with internet connection at their homes. Such computers need to have operational and secured software tools of your choosing.

Task Planning and Work Reporting

All tasks should be well planned in advance, and the time spent working on them should subsequently be tracked. This is not just for the needs of the management, but also so that the team members are able to coordinate. We recommend the following task and project management tools:

  • Trello - simple task management on boards, lists and tabs.
  • BaseCamp - simple management of tasks by project.
  • Asana - a popular tool for project and schedule management.

Apart from task management, it is also important to track how much time the members of your team spend on each task. That way, everyone knows who is working on what. ABRA Software has a solution:

  • primaERP – tracking of work hours with a comprehensive reporting option

We offer it free of charge for 3 months to all ABRA Software customers who decide to start using primaERP. If you want to learn more, please contact us at [email protected].

Communication Software

The team should communicate using conference calls, with the option for real time screen sharing for presentations or other work. We have enjoyed using these tools:

  • MS Teams - text, voice and video communication with the option for conference calls, screen sharing, and recording calls. It has the added benefit of integration in the MS Office 365 environment, including Outlook email and calendar. If you are already using Office 365 for your employees, this is a simple and relatively inexpensive solution.
  • Slack - the functionality is basically identical to MS Teams; the integration with the MS Exchange email server could pose problems.
  • Google Hangout Meet - a complex communication and meeting organization tool; its benefit is its integration with other Google services, if you are using them. Group calls are free for up to 10 contacts.

If you don’t need to share your screen, you can use one of the more simple tools which are regularly used for private communication: Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Skype, or Viber.

For group presentations and training, there are specific tools aimed at screen sharing with good quality recordings:

  • GoToMeeting - a sophisticated tool for online training and presentations, enabling the presenter to share their screen, the participants to ask questions during the presentation, as well as video recording and exports.
  • Join.me - a simple web application for training which you also know from our webinars.

All Apple devices can also use these integrated tools:

  • FaceTime - allows for multiple users in one videoconference.
  • Screen sharing - others can join you in watching what is going on on your screen.

Software for Collaborating on a Document

Team work should be saved in a single shared location. Apart from simple storage, which you can use to save files like a hard drive, there are also sophisticated cloud tools, where all invited users can edit and comment.

Collaborative work with documents:

  • MS SharePoint – comes as part of MS Office 365 and works directly with MS Office documents.
  • Google Disk – works with its own format of Google documents, which can then be exported into MS Office format.
  • iCloud – works with its own format of Apple documents, which can then be exported into MS Office format.

Fast storage:

  • OneDrive - also MS SharePoint cloud platform, and enable collaborative work on shared documents
  • DropBox

Remote Access to the ABRA Gen ERP System

To access the ABRA Gen ERP system remotely, you need a terminal server. If you don’t have one, you can migrate the entire system into the cloud, e.g. using the ABRA online service.

Read more about giving your employees specific rules for working from home and adjusting some of your internal procedures.