Have you heard of the current phrase on the lips of business leaders across the globe? Does the term remote working sound familiar?

According to remotegloble.com, working from home proves to be more productive than working from an office. They say that people who changed their lifestyle from working in an office to working from home demonstrate more productive results. They are able to meet deadlines and get more done in a day. This is probably because they save time by skipping commuting hours. In addition, they can focus more on their work with no interruptions from their co-workers, should they have been in the office.

In the last 2 months, ‘Working From Home (WFH)’ has become the new reality. WFH can be described as a situation where an employee can do their job outside of the office. This could be either work done from home, or work done remotely on the road. WFH offers the flexibility to achieve company goals, while supporting a healthy work/life balance, cutting down on commuting time and costs, as well as fostering a comfortable work environment. With the outbreak of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), more and more people are working from home as many countries are on lockdown.

The ubiquitous nature of the WFH concept is due to the digital tools/apps such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Slack, Trello, WhatsApp for Business, GoTo Meeting, Google class room, etc. that are in existence and being widely used during this period.

Before we dive into looking at some of my favorite tools/apps that are making WFH possible, let us first understand what has led to all of this.

In December 2019, an infectious disease caused by a virus was first identified in Wuhan, the capital of China’s Hubei provinces. The disease was said to be causing severe acute respiratory syndrome. It was later named as “2019-nCoV” coronavirus 2 (that is SARS-CoV-2) by Chinese authorities and the World Health Organization (WHO) one week into 2020. The virus started as an Endemic, became an Outbreak, Epidemic and now a Pandemic.

According to intermountainhealthcare.org:

ENDEMIC is something that belongs to a particular people or country and an OUTBREAK is said to be a greater-than-anticipated increase in the number of endemic cases. It can also be a single case in a new area. If it’s not quickly controlled, an outbreak can become an epidemic. EPIDEMIC is a disease that affects a large number of people within a community, population, or region. Whiles a PANDEMIC is an epidemic that’s spread over multiple countries or continents.

Epidemic vs. Pandemic

A simple way to remember the difference between an epidemic and a pandemic is to remember that the “P” in pandemic stands for passport. That is, a pandemic is an epidemic that travels.

Epidemic vs. Endemic

However, what is the difference between epidemic and endemic?

An epidemic is actively spreading; new cases of the disease substantially exceed what is expected. More broadly, it’s used to describe any problem that is out of control, such as “the opioid epidemic.” An endemic is often localized to a region, but the number of those infected in that region is significantly higher than normal. For example, when COVID-19 was limited to Wuhan in China only, it was an endemic but when it moved to the whole country, it became an epidemic. Then the geographical spread turned it into a pandemic.

According to history, the deadliest pandemic in the life of mankind was Black Death which occurred between 1347-1351 and killed 200m, and in modern history, the deadliest was the Spanish flu (H1N1 virus) of 1918, which killed tens of millions of people. Today (2019/2020) the deadliest pandemic is novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). As this pandemic continues to loom large, it has fundamentally changed the way we work and play. In fact, technology companies in the firmament of telecom and digital space have seen a dramatic spike in their service usage and traffic is flooded. Indeed, corporate organizations and individuals cannot help but to embrace the concept of remote working otherwise known as working from home (WFH).

As we embrace the WFH concept, this write up takes a sneak preview of four (4) productive tools we can deploye to ensure efficiency and effectiveness of work at home.

1. ZOOM APPLICATION

Zoom Video Communications is a remote conferencing service that combines video conferencing, online meetings, chat, and mobile collaboration.

ADVANTAGES and FEATURES

The zoom application comes with it the following unique advantages:

1. Video Conferencing: Zoom’s HD video runs across Mac, PC, iOS, Android, Blackberry, Zoom Rooms, and H.323/SIP room systems. It replaces or integrates with the expensive conference room systems your company previously purchased, and replaces the low-in-feature consumer products your employees were secretly using when the business products were just too complicated.

2. Audio Conferencing: Zoom offers high quality VoIP and telephone audio. They even offer a Premium Audio plan with toll-free, premium dial-in, or call-out numbers.

3. Chat and Messaging: Zoom offers in-meeting private and group chats. They also have cross-platform IM and Presence.

4. File Sharing: Zoom users can share files via IM and they can screen share and co-annotate files during Zoom meetings.

5. Project Management: The brand recognizes that even with screen sharing, file sharing, and their many other collaboration tools, Zoom isn’t a full-blown task management platform. So, they’ve integrated with some of the best ones out there, such as Red booth.

DISADVANTAGES

It also has the following disadvantages:

1. Poor cybersecurity.2. A poor, unpredictable video quality.3. Videos on Zoom areoften blurry and pixelated. “The audio and video quality can deteriorate to the point of unusable.

2. MICROSOFT TEAMS

This is a unified communication and collaboration platform that combines persistent workplace chat, video meetings, file storage (including collaboration on files), and application integration, this is the app that allows you to “Work remotely without feeling remote”. Built with businesses of more than one person in mind, Microsoft Teams allows users to meet, chat, call and collaboratively work on documents together and in real time.

Microsoft teams has the following key features

1. It is free and available to individuals without a paid, commercial Office 365 subscription.

2. Users/teams have access to unlimited chats, audio and video calls *subject to data costs. *

3. There is a 10GB of file storage available for the entire team and 2GB of personal storage for each individual on the app.

4. Can be used on both mobile phones and computers.

5. Share documents and files with team members and collaboratively work on documents in real time.

6. Present and pitch to team members via video or audio with a shared document as a reference point.

7. Record audio, video and screen sharing activities on Microsoft Teams with automatic transcription available that allows you to search for key topics and words.

8. Send out invitations and links to attendees and team members to make joining of meetings simpler.

9. Set scheduling and reoccurring notifications for daily, weekly, monthly and yearly meetings.

ADVANTAGES

It offers the below benefits:

1. A great tool for teams to communicate and work remotely.

2. Other key Microsoft apps are integrated into Microsoft Teams so users do not have to leave the platform to work or view documents.

3. When working with suppliers and team members from across the world who speak different languages, translation options are available in audio and video call mode.

4. It is built with cybersecurity in mind.

DISADVANTAGES

It is saddled with these challenges:

1. This app is not as relevant for a small business owner, with no colleagues or team members. In other words, the app does not serve your purpose.

2. Though it is available to be used on the mobile phones, usage is much simpler and easier on the desktop or web.

3. It is not as simple and user friendly when compared to other work platforms.

3. SLACK

This is like a chatroom for your whole team. It is a computer application that was created as a way for organizations to communicate both as a group and in personal one-on-one discussions. You can communicate as a group through channels or privately via “direct messaging.” It is an awesome tool to help you organize! Slack makes communicating easy and fun.

Features or Uses

1.    Create a dedicated announcement channel: – Share updates with your team no matter where they are.

2.    Use channels for all your work: – Channels help you check in and keep projects moving.

3.    Connect the tools you use every day: – Bring all your most-used apps together in one convenient place (Google Drive, Dropbox, Zoom, Outlook calendar etc.)

4.    Adopt shared channels: – Extend Slack beyond the walls of your own organization. Whether you’re working with a vendor on a project, a customer on a contract or a partner on a campaign, you can use a shared channel to connect your two organizations together.

5.    Post statuses: – The perfect way to let people know when you’re around—and when you’re not

6. Make calls without leaving Slack: – Calls are ideal for one-to-one communication and remote meetings (Zoom, Hangouts, Google+ Hangouts, and GoToMeeting)

ADVANTAGES

1. Easy to communicate with fellow co-workers and feels quicker and more informal to writing emails.

2. It has a nice UI and is easy to set up and use. New team members could easily get updated from a particular channel as well.

3. It has both mobile and web-based versions available allowing us to use it on the go.

4. It’s perfect for getting quick answers and having quick light conversations with coworkers.

5. It integrates well with other programs and has great little add-ons. (Open API).

DISADVANTAGES

1. Slack is a tool, and if a company fails to identify the ground rules, it can be useless.

2. It can become a crutch when people become so accustomed to instant answers.

3. Can hinder productivity with add-ons and apps like Giphy.

4. Sometimes it looks like using a messaging app instead of a professional service, as it has all the features of instant messaging apps, like emoji’s, etc. Professionally sometimes, these don’t seem to be useful.

5. It’s really hard to search for old data across channels and personal chats.

4. TRELLO

It is the easy, free, flexible, and visual way to manage your projects and organize anything, trusted by millions of people from all over the world.

Features or Uses

1. Daily Organization – If your day is filled with all sorts of tasks, having all of these tasks in a single place can be essential. Trello can collate all of your tasks into lists and still enable you to get a great view of your entire day.

2. Time Tracking – Time tracking doesn’t necessarily have to be those that charge by the hour. It is actually a fabulous way to increase your productivity.

3. Organize a Reading List – If you have a slowly growing catalogue of books that you want to read, you could simply keep a list on Trello by creating cards for each.

4. Plan a Vacation – Planning a vacation can usually involve a lot of decision making. Trello helps to simplify this by creating lists for daily activities.

5. Manage Your Budget – Trello can aid in the creation of a financial plan. You can set up cards and track income and outgoings whenever you need them.

6. Project Management – Whatever your project may be, Trello will be on hand to help. Creating a board with individual lists will be the may manage all those little tasks that are a part of your overall project

ADVANTAGES

1. Mobile-Friendly – One of the most essential things that everybody requires from software nowadays is mobile access. Trello is gladly mobile-friendly, you can now access Trello via tablet, smartphone, and computer.

2. Simplicity – The most important thing Of note with Trello is its user-friendly nature. Trello is simple to use, and the whole process of making cards and boards is exceptionally intuitive and user-friendly.

3. Real-Time- The update system is instant; if multiple members are working on projects at the same time, the updates will not show delay.

4. Notifications – Trello doesn’t disappoint when it comes to notifications. You will never miss a task. Whenever a task is removed, commented on or updated, you will receive an email notification. If you are a mobile user, you will, of course, get a push notification.

5. No More Ridiculous Notes – Did you know that most of us leave a note for ourselves and forget what the note refers to. With Trello, this will no longer be an issue; those pesky pieces of paper will be made redundant in an instant.

6. Simply Add A New Member – You can add new members in seconds to Trello, you do this by just typing in an email address.

7. Follows The Kanban System – The Kanban system was founded in the 1950s by Toyota and has played a rather significant role in identifying issues with the development process. The Kanban system can aid in the scheduling of tasks into smaller components by using cards and boards.

DISADVANTAGES

1. No Data, No Trello – The main issue with not just Trello, but this type of software, in general, is the reliance on data. If you have no access to the internet, you have no access to your Trello. Data access may not seem like an issue given the age we live in, but unfortunately, there will always be situations when you cannot access data.

2. Storage Is Limited – Although Trello can hold a number of attachments, these attachments are limited to 250MB per upload, should you be a gold member. The issue is that you only have a 10MB per upload allowance if you are a basic member.

3. Commenting – An ongoing issue with Trello that needs to be rectified is that you cannot edit a comment on the card. Once a comment is posted and saved, you will only get the option to write a new comment rather than edit the original one.

4. Don’t Go Too Large – When it comes to smaller projects, Trello holds its own. If, however managing projects on a larger scale is required, maybe Trello isn’t the best option.

Suffice it to say that, though the covid-19 pandemic has brought untold hardships to businesses across the globe, it has also pushed businesses to re-invent their ways of operation.

CreditThis article was written with the inspiration and content from

• Zoom
• Microsoft Teams
• Slack
• Trello
• Wikipedia
• project-management.com
• https://remoteglobal.com/facts-and-stats-about-working-from-home/
• https://intermountainhealthcare.org/blogs/topics/live-well/2020/04/whats-the-difference-between-a-pandemic-an-epidemic-endemic-and-an-outbreak/
• https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=WFH