The Best Applications for Remote Work Environments

When forming a startup business, pinpointing your business’ work environment should be a priority. With a business plan in place, you will already be aware of how many employees you can afford to pay, in addition to what type of office environment you can afford to support. To cut down on initial office costs, many startups are pursuing the route of a remote work environment, where employees can work virtually from anywhere. These employees may accept lower salaries due to not having to commute, in addition to a more flexible or part-time work schedule.

Generally, remote work environments provide certain businesses with a cost-effective solution to curbing initial costs, even if challenges exist like lack of face-to-face interaction, difficulty training new employees, and getting new team members acquainted with the various applications within remote work environments. Finding the best applications for remote work environments is key to making it work. While lacking face-to-face interaction with employees may deter some startups from utilizing a distributed work environment, there are many applications that make the process very accessible and user-friendly. The most capable team leaders employ very stable IM and chat programs, improving the fluidity of correspondence with team members.

So where do you start?

Adium and Pidgin are acclaimed chat clients used in many remote and distributed work environments. When group chats are necessary, Skype is another useful tool. Since proper training is one of the biggest challenges facing remote workers, it is also common for capable team leaders to implement Wiki pages as a tool to make training universal and easy to comprehend. MediaWiki is one of the most popular open source Wiki packages for remote teams.

Chat clients and Wiki implementation makes team building more possible, in addition to ensuring that every team member is following the same guidelines and training routine. Perhaps the most essential application in remote work is one that serves as the primary outlet for task distribution. GitHub, Trac, and Jira are several popular content management software resources, which when combined with chat and Wiki applications can create a fluid and inviting remote work environment.

Businesses of all sizes are taking advantage.

One of several emerging success stories of remote work among startups utilizing all these applications is Plivo, a startup that provides developers and enterprises with effective voice and SMS applications without carrier lock-in. The Plivo team is working in four different spots around the world, from San Francisco to Bangladore, and they use GitHub, MediaWiki, and several of the aforementioned applications suitable for remote work environments.

The company started when founders Mike and Venky accidentally messaged each other on the aforementioned GitHub, and both found a mutual dedication in integrating telephony within web applications. Their partnership was born from remote work and distributed team capabilities, and it continues to thrive off them. The Plivo Cloud platform is powered by a team of 17 members, who combine for a variety of 10 different languages spoken. The global diversity and close-knit team makes Plivo one of many emerging startups who have benefited from remote work and distributed teams. They are one of many examples successful startups using programs like GitHub, MediaWiki, and chat clients to optimize their remote work environment.

About the Author:

Mike Mineo is a writer and PR professional who enjoys writing about music and technology. He is the founder/editor of Obscure Sound, a music site that features independent artists, and also runs Obscure PR, which seeks awareness for independent talent. Also an experienced tech writer, he was impressed by Computhink’s software and staff, which prompted him to join Computhink’s team. Mike has a BA in Communications from Fordham University.