THE BENEFITS

Simply posing a question or checking how your colleagues are doing during a coffee break is a challenge when working virtually. However, by choosing the right tools, disadvantages can be overcome easily and without much effort. Here is an overview of useful tools:

At a glance:

Online meeting

–          Zoom: Widely used tool for video telephony in companies

–          Microsoft Teams: Platform including chat, video telephony and notes as part of the Office 365 package

–          Tencenmeeting: video conference tool that can be used free of charge for 300 participants due to Corona

–          Uberconference: Video conference via web browser, can be used without downloading it

–          Jitsi: Data-minimizing video conference via web browser

–          Nextcloud Talk: All functionalities without much data consumption

–          8×8: Free video conference tool via web browser

–          Webex: Online tool with many additional products and functionalities

–          Teamviewer: specialist for home office, remote maintenance and remote access

–          Houseparty: Social media video tool for the after-work drinks

Webinar Tools

–          GoToMeeting: Widely used tool – not supported by all browsers

–          Adobe Connect: Wide range of functionalities for online events

–          Edudip: marketplace for buying and selling webinars. Webinars are free of charge for up to 10 participants for 45 minutes including whiteboard and survey functionality

–          WebinarJam: easily customizable with the PageBuilder, up to six moderators and free of charge for an indefinite time  

–          Clickmeeting: Browser-based tool with many possibilities for user interactions, such as whiteboard etc.

Mindmapping

–          Miro: Tool for ideation, brainstorming, mapping and planning with good visual presentation

–          Mindmeister: Easy handling in the web browser

–          Wisemapping: Free web-based tool including import and export function

–          GroupMap: For brainstorming and decision making

–          Freehand from InVison: Among other things, collaborative whiteboard, which can for example be integrated in Microsoft teams.

Team agreement

–          Calendly: Easy appointment management

–          Doodle: Tool for determining a group appointment

 Communication tools

–          Slack: Communication platform for individual and group discussions with a variety of integration possibilities

–          Microsoft Teams: Communication platform as part of the Office 365 package

–          Chanty: Simple and inexpensive communication tool

–          RocketChat: Team communication tool as a more cost-effective alternative

–          Cisco Jabber: Comprehensive collaboration solution including Webex

Project Management

–          Master task: Simple task and project management tool incl. Kanban Board

–          Trello: Kanban board incl. plugin functions for Slack, Dropbox etc.

–          Jira: Project management tool with Kanban board and Scrum system

–          Asana: Visual project management tool including the assignment of responsibilities

–          Basecamp: Project management and team communication tool

–          Clickup: Tool for task management incl. Kanban board

Remote access:

–          Anydesk/ Teamviewer/ Google remote desktop: For remote control of a desktop

PLEASE CONSIDER

When choosing tools, less is usually more. A holistic implementation of some tools that provide full functionality is more efficient than the redundant use of two tools. A common mistake: The parallel use of different web-based tools for the same topic.

(All links and mentioned tools represent unpaid advertising)