Tag Archive for: remote management

Remote Work And Apps: 5 Reasons Why You Need One

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The remote work revolution is well underway as we enter the post-COVID-19 era. Small businesses, massive enterprises, and government institutions realize that the old way of doing business is no longer feasible. With a shift towards environmental sustainability and more employees preferring to work from home — remote work is here to stay!

Furthermore, all organizations benefit from reducing their floor space, which inevitably reduces rental and energy costs. And as they streamline their operations, they can tap into a vast talent pool. With the right kinds of apps, it’s possible to work effectively with employees, contractors, and freelancers spread across the country or the globe. 

Below, we unveil why you need remote work apps and how your business can benefit from these.

1. Remote Work Apps Help Your Team Stay Organized

It may seem challenging to keep your team organized when they’re in different locations and time zones, right? That may have been a problem over a decade ago, but that’s no longer the case. Take Trello as an example, a web-based application ideal for managing projects and facilitating collaboration between team members.

The app’s easy-to-learn Kanban-style list-making features and intuitive Trello boards and cards help get everyone on the same page. And while it’s not suitable for massive projects, it’s ideal for smaller projects and organizations. Furthermore, Trello is also available as a mobile app for Android and iOS devices.

2. Video Conferencing Apps Keep Your Team Connected

All remote work teams need reliable video conferencing apps. After all, it’s necessary to have those face-to-face conversations and meetings at a regular cadence. Fortunately, there are many good video conferencing platforms available. One could even say that there are too many options in this space. 

Apps such as BlueJeans, Google Meet, GoToMeeting, Microsoft Teams, Skype, Slack, Webex by Cisco, and Whereby are only a few of the options available. On top of that, the privacy-respecting browser Brave has introduced Brave Talk, which is a viable video conferencing alternative.

3. Email Remains Essential For Remote Work 

No organization can run effectively without email. It’s the ultimate tool for communicating with on-site staff, remote workers, customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders. And considering the speed, reliability, and relative security offered by email protocols, it’s no wonder that email remains so popular today. 

And there are also many excellent email clients and platforms available such as Gmail, iOS Mail, K-9 Mail, Microsoft Outlook, ProtonMail, Spark, and TypeApp mail.

4. Cloud Storage Services Improve Workflow

As with email, no organization can function effectively without cloud storage and file-sharing services. If you’ve ever wondered why services such as Dropbox and Google Drive are so popular, it’s because there’s hardly an organization that doesn’t need to store and share digital files on the cloud. 

Moreover, these services make it incredibly easy and quick for remote work teams to share and update almost any type of file in real-time. And that helps keep teams in sync since they don’t have to wait long durations to access mission-critical files. 

5. The Code Repository Has Become Indispensable 

Tech companies and developers use code repositories daily. And that makes sense, as it’s an effective way to keep source code and the associated documentation safe. Furthermore, it simplifies the collaborative process between remote development teams and tracking any code changes.

But even non-tech companies that need to maintain and update code also need to use repositories. And in this area, there are several good options available such as Apache Subversion, BitBucket, GitHub, GitLab, and SourceForge.

In Conclusion

With the plethora of excellent remote work apps in the marketplace, there’s no reason for any organization to be left behind. And while most organizations will use web-based apps, Android and iOS versions are available for remote workers that rely on their mobile devices. Contact NS804 to learn how we’ll help you build powerful apps to empower remote work teams worldwide!

Improving Remote Team Communication For Remote Workers

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Improving Communication and Collaboration for Remote Workers

The digital era saw a hyper acceleration through COVID-19 and the events of 2020. Because of the pandemic and the major shift toward a digital era, remote workers and remote staff quickly became the norm. This subsequently forced businesses and organizations to embrace a digital world with remote workers. Before the pandemic, there was already a lot of buzz and excitement around the future of remote work. In fact, some companies like NomadX sought out to create entire business plans based around planning travelling work trips for the remote-worker. In any case, whether prepared for the digital era or not, the transition started in the blink of an eye.

Now, remote work and remote workers seem absolutely normal. As if it were always the way things were. However, many organizations and businesses are still adjusting to the new remote landscape and digital economy. And the companies that were already in position for a digital transition, are still looking for ways to improve their current remote-work environment.

One of the most important aspects in a business is communication; internal communication between teams, external communications with partners, suppliers, and consumers, and internal communication between staff and management as well. Especially in a remote-work-environment, then, prioritizing effective and efficient communication tools is more than necessary.

Keeping Remote Workers Looped In

Remote workers need to be able to communicate. Plain and simple as that. Yet, communication can mean a lot of things; and in today’s world businesses utilize everything from social media platforms, to email, IM, and phone calls to correspond and communicate. Therefore, building a suite of communication tools that keeps your remote staff in the loop is a daunting task.

When addressing the communication solutions for your remote workers it’s important that you keep their needs, workflows, and operations in mind. You don’t want to give a carpenter a painters toolbox and the same applies to your remote workers. Building an enterprise application from scratch for your organization won’t only help you customize the features and tools that your remote staff can access; but will also lead to boosted efficiency and higher rates of productivity from your staff.

Encouraging Communication

While developing your enterprise business application to address the communication needs of your remote workers; consider push notifications to encourage and boost communication efforts between team members. By enabling push notifications at a reasonable rate, your enterprise application will become more than a simple business tool. Rather, it will add value to the c0-worker relationships that exist and develop within your firm, boost productivity, and lead to higher rates of efficiency from your team.

In addition to boosting important business KPIs; having an organization-wide enterprise application for communication supports team-building and team bonding. By acting as a medium and platform for digital and remote team-building exercises, by investing in a custom enterprise application, you’re really investing in the people of your firm.

Wrapping Up

The era of the remote workers is upon us, and it isn’t going anywhere soon. Even with vaccinations rolling out world-wide, the pillar of remote work is likely here permanently.

For more information on managing remote workers, enterprise application solutions, or anything else app development, keep browsing NS804.

Garnering and Implementing Feedback From Remote Teams

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Developing Stronger Remote Teams Through Feedback

Feedback is an important element in any cycle. Especially in the context of business. Whether that feedback be between an employee and manager, between two colleagues, or from a company to a consultant; feedback is both necessary and valuable. In the last year, remote teams and remote staff quickly became the norm. This was, partially, due to the intersection of the COVID-19 pandemic and an economy already moving toward a digital age. Regardless of how we got here, though, here we are. By embracing newly established normals and the transition to a more remote workforce; it remains important to foster a comfortable, welcoming, and productive company culture.

One tactic managers and business leaders can use to nurture a functional culture, even remotely, is employee feedback. Employee feedback from remote teams is will highlight issues and problem areas in operations that could be easily overlooked by other staff with less intimate knowledge of that specific task or business activity. By encouraging employee feedback from your remote staff, however, your team opens the channel of communication allowing management and remote teams to address persistent issues together.

Build Feedback Forms Into Your Custom Enterprise App for Remote Teams

With the entire economy embracing the digital era; many companies have invested in custom enterprise applications. These applications serve a variety of functions depending on the company and their specific needs, but many of them contain a strong focus on internal and external communication. However, these custom enterprise applications also offer a rich opportunity to further cement the lines of feedback between the company and its personnel. For instance, companies can build feedback forms directly into their enterprise applications. The forms can provide anonymity to users who submit, and can be a platform for feedback of any kind.

By presenting your staff and remote teams with conveniently provided feedback forms, there’s a much higher chance that those forms be utilized. This is also the case with anonymity. Often-times, employees and staff (humans in general really), are nervous or timid about bringing forward issues in the workplace. Whether those issues are strictly operational, or deal with colleagues and co-workers; regardless, remote teams need a clear and concise way to deliver feedback to their employers, managers, and organizational leaders.

Listen, Implement, Benefit

By taking the time to listen to your remote teams and remote staff; problems within operations, innovations, and other workplace conflicts will be more evident. While airing dirty laundry, so to speak, is never exactly fun; letting it fester is much worse. By hearing your remote staff and actually implementing solutions to the feedback provided, your organization will develop longer-lasting relationships with more loyal employees.

Right now, building a reliable and dedicated staff of remote employees and remote teams will bring long-term sustainability and long-term value to your organization. The era of remote work is far from over, by creating a superb remote company culture now; your team will attract higher-tier-talent down the line.

Wrapping Up

Feedback from managers to employees is vital. Feedback, also, from employees to managers and organizational leaders is vital. Show your remote teams and remote workers that you truly are dedicated to creating a culture around them by cultivating, hearing, and implementing solutions to feedback provided.

For more information on custom enterprise application development, or anything else related to app development, keep browsing NS804’s content library.

Increase App Retention Among Remote Teams

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Remote Teams and App Retention

There’s no arguing it anymore. The digital era is here and it’s here to stay. While a more digital world has swiftly become the new normal, businesses are still adjusting. This means remote teams, digital conference calls, and no more “office hours”. That said, however, many organizations are still patching together digital solutions. Consequently, leaders, managers, and developers alike need to have their thumb on the pulse of the mobile app market. Doing so, will give your firm insight into some of the factors that drive app retention. Especially in remote teams.

When analyzing the user base of your applications, it is important to remember that the application market is a growing, evolving, and saturated one. As such, users are typically extremely quick to bounce from one application to another after a single negative experience or misstep. That being said, it’s vital that your app development team is diligent and detailed in their user base analysis.

Focus On Full Customization For Business Apps

This seems like it should be a no-brainer, but there is actually a lot of ‘plug-and-play’ type of software on the market. While that type of technology is certainly useful in specific contexts, it limits a remote team’s ability. Rather than using traditional methods or templates to create run-of-the-mill business applications, take a more customizable approach.

Developing custom enterprise applications for businesses and remote teams will enforce them to double-down on their commitment to your application. Ultimately driving app retention and creating a user base that’s less likely to jump ship. Additionally, each organization and each remote team is slightly different, and has different needs. Addressing the specific needs of any single remote team is best accomplished through personalized and customized enterprise applications on which that team can dependently rely.

Improve UX Design

Design is a major influencer in the world of consumption. Not only in art or architecture but in virtually every industry. From the cereal-box industry to the auto-industry; design is a key ingredient to the success of any product or service. The same is specifically true in app development.

The user experience is one of the most telling aspects of an application, and it starts as soon as the user opens the app. From the design of the loading screen to the flow of information on the application itself, to the ease of functionality and navigation. Prioritizing the UX design in your mobile app is sure to increase your app retention rates.

Listen To and Incorporate Feedback From Remote Teams

It’s becoming more and more accepted that people simply want to be heard. When it comes to developing enterprise applications, there is an entire well of value in mining feedback in all its forms. Combing online reviews, soliciting user surveys, and addressing user comments in application updates will show your user base that you hear them, leading to an increase in user-loyalty and app retention.

Finally, if it makes sense for your business model, there are ways you can incentivize remote teams to choose your enterprise application over your competitions.

For more information on app retention in remote teams, or anything else mobile app development, visit NS804 today. NS804 is the mobile app developer of the everyday person.