Guide to team collaboration for remote teams.

Boost your team’s productivity and communication with these top-rated collaboration tools for remote teams.

It has become commonplace for teams to be distributed across various locations, making teamwork challenging.

Remote collaboration tools can help teams overcome that challenge. They allow people to work together over the Internet, whether at home, in the office, or while traveling. Let’s explore remote collaboration tools and how they can help your team.

What are remote collaboration tools?

Remote collaboration tools are any software that lets people work together online. They include everything from chat apps and video conferences to specialized business tools and online data storage systems.

Collaborative tools help teams be more efficient. They facilitate smooth communication, which helps teams establish clear goals. They save time and money by making sharing information fast and easy. Also, they allow people to see the results of their work in real time and keep the team motivated.

Now that you know what remote collaboration tools are, it’s important to understand how to use collaboration tools to improve team communication.

How can you use collaboration tools to improve team communication?

As a remote team, it’s essential to establish communication tools and best practices from the start to set the tone for your company.

Remote work collaboration tools can help team communication in the following ways and more:

• Keeps conversations focused and relevant. Collaboration tools with messaging and commenting abilities encourage quick, to-the-point messages to prevent veering off topic.
• Promotes transparency. Files and folders are more easily accessible to all team members, keeping everyone involved and on the same page. Making everyone feel involved and included also boosts morale.
• Leads to fewer conflicts. Feeling uncertain about which files were shared, what was said in a meeting, and which email to look at can be frustrating. Virtual collaboration tools are easily searchable, so you can easily find important documents and conversations.

How important are remote collaboration tools?

Remote work collaboration tools are essential for efficient communication and transparency when it comes to file accessibility. In a company that is spread across different locations, remote work collaboration tools can help team members stay connected and in the loop on current projects and initiatives.

What makes for good collaboration tools for remote teams?

Many free collaboration tools for remote teams are available, so it’s easy to get started with online collaboration. However, free tools often come with limited features. To get the most out of them, you’ll have to look for purpose-built or industry-standard software.

To determine whether your tools are right for your business circumstances, ask yourself:

• “Does this tool make working together easier?”
• “Is the content easily accessible for all team members?”

If the answer is yes, you’re all set. If you answered negatively, it might be smart to explore other options. And remember — just because a tool works for a colleague or another business doesn’t mean it’s right for you.

Tips for effective collaboration using remote collaboration tools.

Working across different locations requires focused communication and effective collaboration.

Here are a few tips for effective collaboration when using remote collaboration tools:

1. Use video tools to communicate. In a work environment where people don’t meet in person, getting face-to-face time with team members is essential. Communication can get skewed when only done over messaging. A quick meeting can keep everyone on the same page.
2. Record meetings. Recording important meetings can ensure everyone has access to the same information and gives team members a conversation to reflect back on if needed.
3. Ask for feedback. You can create a stronger team by continually asking for feedback and improving the company experience.
4. Empower team members to access information. Collaboration tools will not work as intended unless people are actually using the resources available to them. If a team member feels lost, encourage them to look at files and folders stored in the shared company drive.

You can purchase a remote collaboration tool for your team, but without proper use, there is no point. Establishing expectations upfront is an important component of remote collaboration.

Uses for remote collaboration tools.

Collaboration tools have a variety of uses that can best serve your individual company needs. They can help with business management, serve as an email provider, be a messaging tool, or help with file editing.

Remote work collaboration tools for business management.

When you need to keep track of projects and initiatives, the following tools can be helpful:

1. Asana. This is one of the most well-known project management platforms. Users can assign tasks to team members and add other people to projects to keep track of deadlines.
2. Trello. Trello is easy to learn, and projects can be easily tracked with tasks and projects visible in a solitaire way. The projects look like cards, and you can drag tasks across them in a solitaire manner.
3. Adobe Workfront. This enterprise work management software allows you to manage the complete lifecycle of projects, streamlining collaboration with strategic goals. Workfront integrates people, data, processes, and technology across teams, centralizing workflows and improving visibility.

Emails providers and platforms with remote work collaboration tools.

Email is an important communication tool in any business. The following platforms can be helpful for your remote teams:

1. Microsoft 365. This platform includes Microsoft Outlook email software. The suite has essential business document creation tools, such as Microsoft Excel, Word, and PowerPoint, that you can use to create and send files to co-workers easily.
2. Google Workspace. This collaborative suite not only comes with the Gmail app but also has document creation abilities through Google Docs, a video conferencing method through Google Meet, and more tools that help your team move with efficiency. With Gmail, you can easily create custom business emails for team members.

Remote work collaboration tools for messaging and chat.

While email is important for conveying company messages, a quick check-in is sometimes all that is needed.

The following tools can be helpful for messaging team members:

1. Slack. This software offers instant messaging capabilities, file sharing, and easy searchability. It hosts a variety of features and many integration options.
2. Microsoft Teams. If you have a business-level Microsoft 365 subscription, you should have access to Microsoft Teams. In addition to messaging, you can schedule calls and easily share files.

Remote work collaboration tools for file editing.

Sharing files is what keeps a business running. Check out these remote collaboration tools for efficient file editing:

1. Google Docs. Team members can easily edit files at the same time, and any changes are saved automatically.
2. Microsoft SharePoint. Your team can share and edit files while easily viewing any changes made to the document as your projects progress.
3. Adobe Acrobat. This platform has all the tools you need to edit, share, and collaborate on documents with your team. You can easily comment on and annotate PDFs to make them presentation ready. Acrobat also has a variety of security features, so you can ensure your confidential company PDFs are only available to team members.

With file collaboration tools, remote work efficiency can be the norm for your business.

How can I get started with remote work collaboration?

Acrobat makes it easy to collaborate remotely on PDF documents. You can quickly add comments and annotations, convert PNG to PDF, share and track PDFs, protect files with passwords, and much more.

More resources on tools.

Now that you’ve discovered helpful remote collaboration tools, here are more resources for remote work:

• Learn about remote work productivity tools.
• Discover how to manage remote teams.
• Learn about remote digitization software.
• Learn about remote collaboration.
• Discover what virtual assistants do.

Find out how to work with PDFs online. Discover what more Acrobat can do to help your team collaborate effectively — remotely. You can also experience the convenience of accessing and viewing your files on the move using Acrobat Reader for mobile.