Tools for a virtual team

According to Forrester’s US Telecommuting forecast an additional 29 million telecommuters will enter the remote workforce by 2016, totaling 43% of US workers. Technology has evolved so quickly that the tools we use as remote workers are the same tools we use at the office. It is estimated that 60% of office based employees use virtual teaming technologies daily. Here are some of the tools you can use when managing remote project teams.

The 1st tool required for virtual teams is a central calendar for all team members to post vacations, milestone, schedule meetings etc. When using a central calendar establish some basic standards on nomecalture, language etc so everybody can use it effectively.

Another valuable tool for virtual teams is a common project document repository such as sharepoint or dropbox. Use a check in and check out model for the document repository to prevent accidental overwrites and notify others when a document changes.

Video conferencing is another effective tool for virtual teams. It helps to build better interactions among the team. You don't always need high end video conferencing tools for things like one on one meetings. If your company allows consider Skype or OOVOO.

Another useful tool for virtual teams is web based conferecing such as Go To Meeting or WebEx. Make sure to establish rules for the use of web based conference tools as well as standards for how to conduct a virtual meeting.

When managing a virtual team consider using a project management and colaboration tool. This helps with task assignment and tracking.When using a project management tool make sure to enable the email function so as to notify team members when a task is assigned to them.

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