The pandemic has opened up opportunities for entrepreneurs to explore and a big room for innovation. But it also gave birth to unique challenges due to specific business needs like how to communicate effectively without meeting face to face or how to still be productive without working inside an office. These are just some of the many challenges of remote work setup.

The great news is that there are a lot of collaboration tools for businesses that can help run their companies in a remote setup. 

Businesses that have embraced the shift brought by the pandemic have learned to integrate online collaboration tools to improve workflows. You can find dozens of collaboration tool examples online. 

But always remember that the best collaboration tools are the ones that best suit your company in a way that it can best support your business. 

What Collaboration Tools Can Help You With

Before opting for collaboration tools for your business, it is good to keep the benefits of using them in mind. Here are some areas that collaboration tools can help you with.

Project Management

Project management is known as the preparation and coordination of an organization's assets to advance the completion of a particular task, event, or duty. The resources managed include people, money, technology, and proprietary information, which may entail a one-time project or ongoing work. The most effective project management practices are characterized by productivity and efficiency in utilizing different kinds of resources.

Using collaboration tools for business helps you have effective project management. 

These tools can accomplish numerous tasks in a small amount of time. 

Customer Support

Customer support is a crucial part of business development. It helps you keep customers loyal, so you build your reputation and your client base. Collaboration tools can be great solutions for customer support.

An example of a collaboration tool for customer support is Wix Answers. 

All customer support channels are combined into one platform by Wix Answers, a cohesive customer support solution. It is perfect for small support teams dealing with many users who want to solve problems more quickly and provide better service. Y

ou can check out the Wix Answers review and determine whether this tool is best for your business.

Virtual Communication

Virtual communication involves emails, texts, webchats, and other forms of communication that do not take place in person. When people communicate virtually, they do so absently of a face-to-face encounter. 

Keeping in touch and exchanging information with external vendors, frequently located thousands of miles away, is simple, thanks to virtual communication. 

Employee productivity and efficiency are both improved by consistent communication.

The use of online collaboration tools has made all kinds of virtual communication simpler and more effective. Because virtual communication happens without a physical encounter, using collaboration tools for business is crucial to maintain clear communication lines. 

File and Data Sharing

On a computer connected to a network, file and data sharing refers to a business's public or private sharing of files, data, or relevant information. Even though removable media makes it simple to share files outside of a network, the term "file and data sharing" most often refers to network-based file sharing. 

For instance, a user may share an instruction document on his networked computer, enabling all other staff members to view and access it. Multiple users can access the same file data thanks to file sharing.

Online collaboration tools allow you to safely and securely share files and data with your teammates. It gives better workflow dynamics because you can instantly share files and data. 

There are a lot of collaboration tools examples that are available, but you have to make sure that they are compatible with different kinds of file formats.

7 Remote Work Challenges Collaboration Tools Solve

As the corporate world embraces new work setups and dynamics, businesses will inevitably face several work challenges. 

These challenges come in different sizes and shapes. 

Some are simple, while others are a bit complex. What is important to remember is that no challenge or problem exists without an effective technique and a fitting solution.

Here are seven work challenges that collaboration tools can solve. 

1) Miscommunication

 Miscommunication, in its most basic form, is an unusual circumstance brought on by an error in thought expression. In other words, it is a false impression held by any of the participants. The cause may vary, but the outcome leaves both parties feeling frustrated and confused. Miscommunication is one of the most common challenges of remote working. 

Aside from causing unnecessary tensions, miscommunication leads to delays in the work schedule or, worse, failed projects. Collaboration tools for business can prevent or minimize miscommunication among teammates through simple features like instant messages or video features.

2) Lack of Accountability

If accountability helps you cut down on the time and effort you spend on useless activities and other bad habits, the lack of it causes teams to spend too much time on useless activities. When there is accountability, people are effectively taught to value their work when you hold them responsible for their actions.

Using online collaboration tools increases accountability through its unique features. The best collaboration tools help you identify who is in charge of what and their progress status. Using the right online collaboration tools can increase accountability and thus can boost the abilities and self-assurance of your team members when done properly.

3) Low Productivity

 Low productivity has a lot of causes but always ends up in tasks not getting accomplished. Studies show that people in career fields are only productive 60% of the day or less. For companies to improve productivity, there needs to be a structure and culture of collaboration. There are a lot of online collaboration tools that can improve productivity in your team. 

Collaboration tool examples include features that track your time and help you organize your daily tasks.

4) Lack of Training 

Lack of training gradually affects businesses and companies because you will not see the results instantly. But once you do, you must troubleshoot by retraining your employees to do better. During the employee onboarding, making sure that your new hires are well-trained is very important and using collaboration tools and learning management software systems helps you achieve that. 

You can also use the top LMS systems to help you protect your workforce from lack of training. With a learning management system, you can empower your employees to create, manage, organize, and deliver online training materials to your clients.

5) Poor Project Management 

Not being able to hit the objective and misuse of resources are just some of the characteristics of poor project management. Much of the success of project management is accomplished by planning, and you can achieve this by using collaboration tools for business. 

Using the best collaboration tools allows you to have a bird's eye view of a project to ensure that your team is moving forward.

6) Low Employee Morale 

Employee morale is one of the factors that business owners tend to overlook whenever they think about how to manage their company better. Low employee morale affects your products and services and creates a bad culture within your company. 

Opting to use online collaboration tools adds dynamics to your team by making it more engaging. Some collaboration tools for business allow you to take care of your employees better to be at peak performance.

7) No Team Engagement 

There has been an increase in the number of workers looking for an engaging workplace. Engagement can refer to a lot of things. It can refer to the dynamics of your team when they are working together or whether the work is challenging enough for them. 

Studies have shown that when there is low employee engagement, chances are that the other scores in their performance would be affected as well.

The best collaboration tools allow you to create better engagement through their features. Remote work is convenient, but it also tends to make employees complacent, and using online collaboration tools helps prevent that from happening. 

Collaboration Tools as a Solution for Remote Work

One study showed that 74% of professionals now believe that remote work will be the standard. This growth is both an opportunity and a challenge for businesses. 

Remote work setup has presented unique challenges, but the advancement of technology has given modern solutions to newfound problems. While some challenges may take more time and effort, some can be solved by using online collaboration tools.