What are some of the helpful tools for managing a remote team?

There are the traditional approaches to building collaborative environments, with wikis being a prime example. But these have become pretty much passe in the sense that they are somewhat "one dimensional."

On the other end of the spectrum is the use of public social networking/media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and others combined with traditional email and enterprise workflow tools. But these have problems related to data security/privacy and administration in general.

Then there's a category of integrated enterprise "social software" tools, such as those offered by companies like Socialtext (www.socialtext.com). These solutions provide an intranet implementation of social networking, content collaboration and mentoring with an integrated dashboard to provide, as Socialtext describes it "an aggregated view of all social networks, people, resources, topics, conversations, applications and data needed most often, all in one place." Obviously these types of solutions require a higher degree of upfront investment and ongoing support, but provide better security and governance in return.

For personal communication, tools like Skype come to mind, which will probably be integrated more closely with Office365. And as we are seeing, other enterprise SaaS players such as Salesforce.com are integrating similar capabilities (chatter, dimdim, etc.) along side their core services, providing an opportunity to enrich the collaboration experience, for all users regardless of location.

As far as "management" of teams, I'm not sure I can point to any tools that make this easier. Teams work effectively when they collaborate, so that's the focus of my answer.

Some I have used successfully include:

Collaboration software--to share work products and hand them off (around the globe) for 24x7 projects or for quality checks prior to delivery of final product

Skype--facilitates F2F discussion

Meetings--regular staff meetings to keep things on schedule, monitors performance, answer critical questions for all to hear one response, also update on all global projects.

IM software--for instant response to questions

Company cellphones--for connecting with people that don't have their PCs, in airports, etc.

Hey, Lauren.

This is a type of question I am seeing often lately. Last week we received a question really similar to yours (http://answers.getapp.com/Is-tool-manage-workforce-based-locations-q21930.aspx) in our Q&A in GetAp.com.

One of the answers we received was recommending Basecamp, Paymo and Trello. They look like good options, but I also suggest you take a look at:
- Podio (http://www.getapp.com/podio-application)
- Teambox (http://www.getapp.com/teambox-application-1)

A mix of task management and collaboration tools can be a great exit for your problem and these tools above are exactly this. ;)

I like the collaborative platforms, and the IM, as mentioned above for project management, and real-time comms. But I also like to underscore autonomy, trust, results, and get a deeper view into what is taking up the capacity of my team members.

One tool I have used in the past to do this is the Weekly Review Report. Those of you who are GTD-ers may recognize this. I originally found it in a forum on GTDConnect and adapted it for my team at the time.

The value for me was twofold:
1) Encouraging my team to get in the habit of a Weekly Review, and
2) Getting a written report that I can review in my own time--no Skype, no calls, no f2f meetings.

I also started sending one from to my boss related to my week. What I love about this approach is that it is an effective communication tool that does not require action. Even the "Questions for my boss" section was not always acted on. The weekly submission was a backgrounder that touched on areas that may not be clear in the daily crush. It gave my boss an inside look of what I was working on, how I was working, and what I was up against. My team provided the same insights for me.

Here is an outline...

Weekly Review Report

1. Week Ending, JUL 15
• Headlined list of activities to give a sense of where the reporting employee was focused and where time and energy was spent 2 to 12 items depending...

2. Projects: Active Role
• A list of initiatives reporting emplooyee lead directly or managed that week with sub-bullets for current activity

3. Projects: Monitor
• A list of initiatives managed or lead by reporting employee's reports, consultants, or vendors

4. People
• Things that happened with reporting employee's people, good or bad. Highlights and low lights from his/her relationships and performance and that of my staff

5. Decisions I took
• Top line examples of decisions for the week, and where necessary details on rationale and outcomes

6. Decisions pending
• Decisions upcoming on the horizon; or issues that need to be resolved by the report author or to which the author must contribute.

7. Mistakes
• A favorite category... places were one might have done something differently in operations, relationships, or in self-management. Provides a chance to think like a boss and ask tough questions around less-than-optimal performance

8. Things that were pre-occupying me
• Another favorite-- a place to capture the "song behind the words" of business life...bigger issues, unresolved matters that take brain space and energy but had little or no actions/decisions associated with them in the reporting period.

9. Conflicts
• Self explanatory category that includes disagreements with colleagues, vendors or staff; also includes long standing conflicts that re-appear.

10. Questions for my boss
• Another great category that includes questions that employee didn't have time to get to in face-to-face meetings, or items where the boss may be not forthcoming but where all would benefit if he/she shared. Also a category used to push the envelope a bit to show strategic thinking and invite more open communication.

Obviously, this works for teams who office together as well as virtual teams, and I think that makes an important point: In today's work environment, good management practices apply access all populations. Often the challenge is in realizing that less changes than one might think.

In addition to the tools mentioned above, if your remote team sits in an office LifeSize video conferencing is like being there. It makes such a difference to see the people you're talking to! For people working out of their homes web cameras are good as well - invest in a quality camera and you can have face to face conversations with remote people. There's also video email available, which makes a fun change from written email for short emails like status updates and reminds people what you look like.

- A sound action plan
- Basecamp

There are some great answers hear but as usual I seem to take a little at the question from a different angle.

I think the number one tool for managing a remote individual or team is a great selection process to determine team members. By that I mean it is imperative to make sure you have a team or individual who is able to work remotely and is self disciplined.

At least, a phone and a regularly updated site to have
the necessary information for good decision-making as well as
having the constant feel of your people, suppliers and the market.

Keep things simple...
and things will proceed more effectively.

This is @TheGreatLight.

Collaboration and communication are very important in managing remote teams, and so here's my list:

Base Camp - project management platform for planning and tracking your tasks, deliverables, calendars, files..

Google Calendar - lets you manage your personal sched, as well as share your availability with the team

Skype - my favorite audio and video conferencing tool

Google Docs - online document management where you can share files for viewing/editing with your team

Trello - a simple and fuss-free platform where you can implement the Agile process in your team

Mind Meister - a simple mind mapping tool for sharing and collaborating ideas

Free Screen Sharing - for online meetings that require presentations (up to 96 participants; unlimited free meetings)

Hope it helps..