Let’s say you run a business or own one. You’ve probably had a hectic year. 2020 has presented challenges, unlike anything anyone has seen or experienced before.
The pandemic is still going on, and it has killed many in the US and abroad. Mask-wearing and social distancing can help, but Covid-19 is still wreaking havoc on the business world in many respects.
Hopefully, you’re able to compartmentalize what’s happening. You’re dealing with the issues the pandemic presents in the most logical ways possible. That’s how your business can weather this storm and stay afloat until there’s a vaccine and things return to some normalcy semblance.
One way you’re probably getting through this year is a remote work platform. Many companies had one in place even before the pandemic, but if you didn’t, you probably wasted no time in developing or paying for one. Your workers can use it to make their various company contributions while not coming into a central location.
Your remote work platform should have several features. Some of them will be unique, depending on what exactly it is your company does. However, all businesses need certain functionalities, and that’s what we’re going to talk about today.
Data Access
For high-level business functioning, you need data access. The ability to quickly access accurate data lets you stay ahead of the competition. When you can access accurate data:
- You can tell what marketing strategies work and which ones do not
- You can see what products sell and which ones you should scale back or discontinue
The more advanced data you have, the better you can streamline your entire operation. Your remote work platform should have data access features that all your employees can see at all times.
When they see that data, they can suggest different strategies. They can communicate to team leaders the best way they can spend their time to increase profit margins. The more data access you have, the more it helps your bottom line, with either remote or in-person work.
Conferencing Capabilities
Your remote work platform should have reliable conferencing capabilities as well. Maybe you have a huge company, or perhaps you have just a few employees. Either way, you need to speak to them sometimes, and they need to communicate with you.
You might have remote conferences:
- Daily
- Weekly
- Monthly
Every business model is a little different. You might need to talk to your employees and have them speak to you every day, or maybe you’re not that hands-on. If you feel like your workers can function better if you leave them mostly autonomous, that’s your prerogative.
At some point, though, you’ll need to talk to them. When you do, you all need to be able to log in remotely and communicate clearly and with no issues. Platforms such as Zoom have shown during the pandemic that such things are possible.
Communal Messaging Services
Your remote work platform should also have communal message service capabilities. This is a system where you can leave company-wide memos if you have a policy change in mind, or you want to remind the group that the company has a big project coming up, and they should all focus on it.
You might use the service to congratulate the whole company if you just finished a project or landed a huge contract. You can use it to talk about your 2021 vision.
At the same time, team leaders or anyone in your business can use it if they have something they want the whole company to know. It’s like sending a company-wide email. This is just one more option it’s good to have available.
Individual Messaging Services
Your remote work platform should have individual messaging services as well. This is how you can communicate with individual workers, and they can get back to you. They can communicate with each other privately too.
It’s true that you can do this with a simple email. The difference is that if you have a proprietary remote work platform messaging service, it’s probably a lot more secure than using a public email setup like MSN or Gmail.
You can set up a business VPN along with your messaging service. This way, you can be sure that no one is accessing your internal and potentially sensitive communications.
Calendar
A remote work platform should also have a calendar feature. You can have a private one so that each individual can customize it with their assignments. You can also have a public one anyone in the company can see.
You can put essential notifications on the public one. If you have a big client deliverable, for instance, you can put that on the calendar. If you’re going to have a focus group or an online seminar, you can mention those sorts of things as well.
The more visible you make any critical dates and events, the more likely you won’t forget about them, and the rest of your team will not either.
Payment Processing
As the company owner or operator, you’re probably the one who pays your vendors. You might also handle the company payroll. Even if you’re not the one who does those things, you sometimes need to access those records to be sure there are no irregularities.
Your remote work platform should allow you to access all of that. You can look at any outstanding invoices if you ever feel like something is not adding up the way it should be.
You must also be able to access old tax records through the platform if you want to look at the business’s prior year performance to see how it stacks up against 2020.
In short, you need financial data access. You should be able to find out how the company is doing financially, up to the minute, at any time.
Depending on what your company does, you’ll probably want some different customized features. However, these are the basics that you’ll need from any remote work platform.
