Suddenly found yourself with the need to quickly implement work from home for the first time as a part of the Coronavirus social distancing efforts? Creating an environment to enable fluid communication and collaboration through remote work can be challenging and confusing with the seemingly endless array of online tools.

We believe there are five essential categories of online tools you’ll need to implement effective work from home policies, and we’ll break down the best option from each category to equip your COVID-19 work-from-home starter kit.

Team Chat - Slack

Having quick access to team members and resources is one of the best assets of an office environment; however, without your teammates in shouting distance, the next best thing is a Team Chat tool to keep communication alive. 

With a simple, easy to use layout,  Slack offers you instant access to your team via chat with useful ways to organize your conversations via channels and hashtags. 

The chat platform also has a list of integrations as long as your arm to boost your work from home productivity like G-Suite, Jira,  and Hangouts.

Check out Slack here.

Other great options: Microsoft Teams, Convo

Meetings and Video Chat - Google Hangouts

Some conversations are best handled face-to-face in a team huddle or one-on-one in an office or getaway room. 

The best virtual alternative is a tool to conduct meetings online via video conference where you can share screens and files to assist in your collaboration.

With Hangouts having widespread adoption, inviting colleagues, clients, and prospects to join you on a Hangout ensures you’re leveraging a platform with a wide enough audience to serve most meetings.

Google is even offering its Hangouts Premium version for free until July 1. Learn more

Other great options: Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Whereby

Project Management - ProofHub

Losing momentum on team projects might be the first thing you notice in your social distancing efforts. 

Having a tool to help your task management for the work you are collaborating on is what Trello was built for. 

Proofhub makes task management for remote workers a breeze. Like many task management tools, Proofhub has Kanban workflows and task management checklists; however, they also feature useful proofing tools and analytics. 

Quick collaboration in real-time as well as insights into your team’s progress while working remotely is critical to maintaining momentum; two key components of this tool’s value.

Learn more about ProofHub here.

Other great options: Asana, Monday.com, Jira Align, Trello

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Cloud CRM

Salesforce

As a remote worker, your CRM will still be the center of your customer engagements, and you’ll quickly realize just how important it is to have accurate reporting on the latest projects and deals for your accounts while working from home. 

As a cloud-based CRM, Salesforce has a solution for nearly every facet of a business ranging from Sales and Service to Marketing and eCommerce. It’s the most widely adopted in the industry for a reason.

Learn more about Salesforce here.
Other great options: Hubspot, Pipedrive, Close.io

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Cloud Phone System - PhoneIQ

No doubt you’ll need to continue using a phone for work. However, if you’re using an on-premise phone system, this is the most challenging part of your productivity suite to bring home.

A proper cloud phone system will allow you to reach your customers from anywhere you have an internet connection while providing tight integration with the tools you use most.

PhoneIQ is best known for having a premium cloud phone system and call center solution that’s deeply integrated with Salesforce, which can easily be extended to an entire organization via our “Office” license that includes a Softphone to handle calls, voice and video conferencing system for meetings, as well as an internal team chat and collaboration solution.

Whether looking for the best way to manage communications through your Salesforce deployment or simply need an all-inclusive cloud phone system to help you transition as a remote worker, PhoneIQ is a must for your work from home productivity suite.

Learn more about PhoneIQ here.

Other great options: Dialpad, Aircall, Ringcentral.

To help businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, PhoneIQ is offering its Standard Licenses free of charge and without commitment for 60 days. Learn more.