Is telework not just an invention of the Americans? Serious companies don’t do these things, really? Since about a year ago, we implement telework in one of my companies. The truth is that I had doubts about this, but so far the results are being more than positive. Productivity has increased, we’ve saved costs and my team has gained in quality of life. At the moment, I have not found significant inconvenience. Every week we meet at least once to maintain coordination. Human contact is appreciated but really wouldn’t be so essential. Clayton Morris often addresses the matter in his writings. We have found a series of tools that facilitate the most teamwork from anywhere.

The most important thing for a scenario of telecommuting is keep in contact throughout the team. Communications between everyone must be at least as fluid as if we were together in the Office. For this purpose, two tools I recommend. Firstly, there is nothing better to communicate how the Skype. It is a software extended worldwide that you can make phone calls over the computer or using a special telephone connected to your ADSL router.

When you call another Skype user, the call is free of charge and when you call to a landline or mobile number anywhere in the world you pay a reduced fare. Moreover, since it works much like a refill card, you can very effectively control the consumption of your personal calls. The second essential tool for the telecommuting is the Campfire. This system is a chat designed for companies. According to the plan you choose, you can have a maximum number of registered users chatting at the same time. There is a free plan for up to 4 users. In addition, you can invite unregistered users to enter when you want and you can maintain multiple open rooms to differentiate by issues. However, what differentiates the other campfire chats are basically 3 features: Campfire is a chat for groups where can communicate many people simultaneously easy and understandable way. Campfire keeps a transcription of all the above with a search tool that makes it easy to retrieve a past conversation. Campfire allows you to upload files to the chat and share them within the conversation. Campfire is an application from 37Signals. There is no fee for signup, no long-term contract. Only a monthly fee that you can cancel whenever you want. If you have people working in various geographical sites, Campfire is an excellent communication tool. In fact, it works of cinema from my new iPhone!