The 8 Best Collaboration Tools for International Teams

Communication is important for any team trying to organize and coordinate a project. It is also the biggest challenge faced by remote teams. And when you have a team spread across the world, it takes on a new level of difficulty.   

Email is an inefficient way of collaborating with remote team members. Cloud-based apps are often a better solution. The following tools help international teams manage projects, communicate, and coordinate meetings.

Project Management

Trello is one of the best project management apps available. It looks like a bunch of post-it notes arranged across several organizational boards. It gives you a bird’s eye view of your project which is helpful for visual learners.

Each note is a “card” that members can move around the boards to adjust to the shifting priorities of the team.  You can create checklists, attach documents, and assign due dates to your cards.

Trello integrates with dozens of apps like Google Drive, Dropbox, and Evernote. But if you’re looking for a task-based approach to project management, you can consider Asana.

Asana lets you create a new project and then assign different tasks to that project. Once you have created a task, you can click on it and tag team members, add subtasks and assign deadlines. And you can assign different colors to a task depending on its importance.  

Google Drive works well for teams that need a filing sharing system that many people can access. It houses Docs and Sheets, where teams can share and edit documents. Your team can use both tools to collaborate on blog posts, emails, and meeting agendas.

Team Communication

Slack is a team chat app that allows you to message with team members on both mobile and desktop devices. You can create different channels for the different projects your team is working on.

Slack lets you direct message individual team members. You can share files with the group or a single person. It also supports video calling when you need to speak to a team member about a project in greater depth.  

Groove is an online help desk software and it’s ideal for startups and small businesses. Groove lets you create support tickets; you can label tickets as Open, Closed, or Pending. Individuals can add notes to support tickets that only the team can see.

You can forward support tickets to a third party which still keeping everything in one place. That way you don’t have to manage several threads that deal with the same problem.      

Managing Meetings

World Time Buddy is a good tool for teams that work across different time zones. You enter several time zones and the color-coding system shows when business hours overlap in each one. It also connects to Google Calendar and lets you share this information with a single link.

Agreedo is an easy way to track, store, and share meeting minutes. You ensure meetings are productive by setting an agenda in Agreedo ahead of time. The app also keeps track of any decisions made during the meetings. Afterward, you can assign tasks and due dates to team members.

Agreedo lets you choose whether other team members can modify the minutes. And the “follow-up” feature lets you carry over agenda items to the next meeting. You can store the meeting minutes online, export them to an Excel document, or send a link to other team members.

Zoom is the best way to have team meetings with multiple people. Video conferencing software is often unreliable but Zoom eliminates common technical glitches. And the “gallery view” allows you to see everyone at the meeting at once.

Conclusion

The most important aspect of any international team is having engaged employees. If your business is looking to expand internationally, Clearfront HR can make this process easier. Our affordable international HR outsourcing lets you can focus on running your business. Request a demo and we’ll walk you through the core aspects of our services.