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Choosing the Right Technology for Your Virtual Team or Virtual Office [VIDEO]

July 28, 2009 by  

A question I’m asked by many entrepreneurs, small business owners, and virtual team managers is  . . . “With all the technology available how do I know which tools are best for my virtual team or virtual office?” This is a common challenge and choosing the wrong tools (or too many tools) is a common pitfall of virtual teamwork.  It’s important to decide on a core set of tools to support remote collaboration and make sure everyone on your team knows how to use them.

But how do you choose? I have devised a workflow analysis we call the ICC Approach as it looks at your needs in 3 key areas – Information, Communication, and Collaboration.  In this short video I walk you through this analysis and help provide questions to guide your thinking when evaluating mobile work technology.

Give it a view and share your comments below to let me know your thoughts and experiences!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (18.9MB)

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  • Noreen

    What do you recommend for a sales rep with Mary Kay who needs to get a lot of leads and have access to that info without a bunch of pieces of paper and also having to spend a lot of time data entering info on each lead. Thx!

    • http://TheAnywhereOffice.com/ Phil Montero

      Noreen – it will depend on how you are getting these leads (business cards, emails, website forms, etc.) and where you want to store them (Outlook, Smartphone, or PDA). I think the Cardscan Personal might do the trick for you.

      I’ve used their products before and been very impressed with their functionality and accuracy. It is a small hand held scanner designed to scan business cards (or possibly other small contact cards). What really makes it shine is the software it comes bundled with. Once you scan a business card it can figure out what is a phone number, address, name , etc. It then peforms OCR (Optical Character Recognition), converts it to text, and adds it to a database.

      This product says you can also “Simply highlight the contact information in an email signature, web page or other text file and drag it over to the CardScan software. It’s instantly placed into the correct fields.” So it can be used to enter your leads from a number of sources. As far as where you ultimately want to store the contacts it mentions you can then seamlessly get the data to Outlook, Palm Devices (like your Centro), Windows Mobile Devices, or Ipods.

      I have no affiliation with this product but I do know they are one of the leaders in this field and make a reliable, affordable product. That being said you will probably want to call them to ask them further questions about your needs or visit a store where you might be able to demo a unit.

      I hope this helps in your quest for better time management and mobility!

    • http://TheAnywhereOffice.com/ Phil Montero

      Noreen – it will depend on how you are getting these leads (business cards, emails, website forms, etc.) and where you want to store them (Outlook, Smartphone, or PDA). I think the Cardscan Personal might do the trick for you.

      I’ve used their products before and been very impressed with their functionality and accuracy. It is a small hand held scanner designed to scan business cards (or possibly other small contact cards). What really makes it shine is the software it comes bundled with. Once you scan a business card it can figure out what is a phone number, address, name , etc. It then peforms OCR (Optical Character Recognition), converts it to text, and adds it to a database.

      This product says you can also “Simply highlight the contact information in an email signature, web page or other text file and drag it over to the CardScan software. It’s instantly placed into the correct fields.” So it can be used to enter your leads from a number of sources. As far as where you ultimately want to store the contacts it mentions you can then seamlessly get the data to Outlook, Palm Devices (like your Centro), Windows Mobile Devices, or Ipods.

      I have no affiliation with this product but I do know they are one of the leaders in this field and make a reliable, affordable product. That being said you will probably want to call them to ask them further questions about your needs or visit a store where you might be able to demo a unit.

      I hope this helps in your quest for better time management and mobility!

    • http://TheAnywhereOffice.com/ Phil Montero

      Noreen – it will depend on how you are getting these leads (business cards, emails, website forms, etc.) and where you want to store them (Outlook, Smartphone, or PDA). I think the Cardscan Personal might do the trick for you.

      I’ve used their products before and been very impressed with their functionality and accuracy. It is a small hand held scanner designed to scan business cards (or possibly other small contact cards). What really makes it shine is the software it comes bundled with. Once you scan a business card it can figure out what is a phone number, address, name , etc. It then peforms OCR (Optical Character Recognition), converts it to text, and adds it to a database.

      This product says you can also “Simply highlight the contact information in an email signature, web page or other text file and drag it over to the CardScan software. It’s instantly placed into the correct fields.” So it can be used to enter your leads from a number of sources. As far as where you ultimately want to store the contacts it mentions you can then seamlessly get the data to Outlook, Palm Devices (like your Centro), Windows Mobile Devices, or Ipods.

      I have no affiliation with this product but I do know they are one of the leaders in this field and make a reliable, affordable product. That being said you will probably want to call them to ask them further questions about your needs or visit a store where you might be able to demo a unit.

      I hope this helps in your quest for better time management and mobility!

  • Noreen

    What do you recommend for a sales rep with Mary Kay who needs to get a lot of leads and have access to that info without a bunch of pieces of paper and also having to spend a lot of time data entering info on each lead. Thx!

    • http://www.youcanworkfromanywhere.com Phil Montero

      Noreen – it will depend on how you are getting these leads (business cards, emails, website forms, etc.) and where you want to store them (Outlook, Smartphone, or PDA). I think the Cardscan Personal might do the trick for you.

      I’ve used their products before and been very impressed with their functionality and accuracy. It is a small hand held scanner designed to scan business cards (or possibly other small contact cards). What really makes it shine is the software it comes bundled with. Once you scan a business card it can figure out what is a phone number, address, name , etc. It then peforms OCR (Optical Character Recognition), converts it to text, and adds it to a database.

      This product says you can also “Simply highlight the contact information in an email signature, web page or other text file and drag it over to the CardScan software. It’s instantly placed into the correct fields.” So it can be used to enter your leads from a number of sources. As far as where you ultimately want to store the contacts it mentions you can then seamlessly get the data to Outlook, Palm Devices (like your Centro), Windows Mobile Devices, or Ipods.

      I have no affiliation with this product but I do know they are one of the leaders in this field and make a reliable, affordable product. That being said you will probably want to call them to ask them further questions about your needs or visit a store where you might be able to demo a unit.

      I hope this helps in your quest for better time management and mobility!

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  • http://www.catchfriday.com/ bob

    A Virtual Assistant is very in demand business today. It helps a lot in online business services and it’s more cheaper.

  • http://www.catchfriday.com/ bob

    A Virtual Assistant is very in demand business today. It helps a lot in online business services and it’s more cheaper.

  • http://www.catchfriday.com/ bob

    A Virtual Assistant is very in demand business today. It helps a lot in online business services and it’s more cheaper.

  • http://www.catchfriday.com bob

    A Virtual Assistant is very in demand business today. It helps a lot in online business services and it’s more cheaper.

  • Pingback: It’s Strategies and Tools That Make Remote Team Collaboration Work | The Anywhere Office

  • CherryIII

    I don't like so much use of the word “virtual”. These teams and offices are not virtual, but real. It is not easy to find the perfect word. Remote is close, and maybe the best. But remote sounds too much like separation emotionally and intellectually. Is there a word the emphasizes remoteness spatially?

  • http://TheAnywhereOffice.com/ Phil Montero

    I couldn't agree more Cherrylll. Virtual does make it sound “not real” and remote does convey the feeling of isolation. To me distributed is too clinical sounding. Unfortunately most of the terms you hear tossed around have some type of negative connotation surrounding them. Jason and I have had this exact same discussion many times looking for the right term. One of the points we often make is that it really doesn't need a special term as today it's simply “work” – because this is the way so much day to day work get's done. However it would be great to find a term to help differentiate this type of work from everyone being co-located in the same place.

    I'd love to know what others think about this? Might have to put a poll on this site or some other kind of brainstorming session to try and find the best word to describe working from anywhere. It's one of the reasons I like the idea of The Anywhere Office!

  • http://softwaresavvysub.info Virtual Team

    As a virtual/remote subcontractor knowing that my contractor takes the time to do a work flow analysis makes me feel that much more confident in working for them. This task would be a great one to outsource a third party to see the big picture.

  • http://www.searchofficespace.com/usa/office-space/new-york-city-executive-suites.html Executive Offices

    Thanks to this post ! There are advices very interessing

  • http://TheAnywhereOffice.com/ Phil Montero

    We do offer the ICC Mobile/Remote workflow analysis as one of our consulting services to organizations for just the reason you mention Collette. Many companies are “too close to the forest to see the trees”. It helps to have a 3rd party step back, see the big picture and ask the question that they themselves often forget to ask of their manager and remote employees about what the biggest pain points are regarding remote collaboration. We can then recommend the best tools and strategies to help improve virtual teamwork.

  • Pingback: It’s Strategies and Tools That Make Remote Team Collaboration Work | Office Performance.net