How are Remote Collaboration Tools different from Virtual Workplaces?

We are currently witnessing a Workplace Revolution; partly because of the pandemic and partly because technology these days is too good that the concept of the workplace has been changed forever.

Although long due, the pandemic forced the world to change the way they are working. Most of the companies realized the seriousness of the situation, and they applied new ways of working, which included flexible, hybrid and permanent remote working according to each company's requirements. In remote working, employees are allowed to operate from their homes or anywhere in the world, which was actually a game changer for many companies. Employees loved the idea and productivity didn't take a hit as much as it was feared.

It was obvious that working from home couldn't provide the environment office work does. It creates communication issues, management issues, unable to take regular updates, delays in the task and whatnot. The cause for these problems is a lack of proper resources that can help the team to manage things virtually. Instead of going back to the traditional office culture quoting these issues, what companies have to do is to create modern solutions that help manage workflows, teams and projects with digital aides. 

That's how different virtual workplaces and remote collaboration software started being developed by companies that ease the process of employees working from anywhere in the world.

If you are not familiar with those virtual workplaces and remote collaboration software, you have nothing to worry about. In this article, we will share with you some great tools that will make your life easier than before. So, without wasting further time, let's jump into it.

What is a Virtual Workplace?

Wurkr.io

Wouldn't you like an online place that replicates your physical workplace? Of course, you do. Wurkr is such a kind of platform for you. It provides you with the same experience that you have in the office. In simple words, Wurkr is a virtual workspace where your team can gather and collaborate spontaneously to boost the growth of the company. The SaaS company provides customisable workspaces, video/audio calls and an exceptionally expressive chat feature that can send texts, images, audio/video files etc. Wurkr helps teams stay closer to each other no matter how geographically far they are.

Now you can even add up to 2000 members to your workspace. 

Wurkr provides you with real-time communication, customizable workplaces, instant video audio call, and much more. You can get your online virtual office today. Click here.

What are Remote Collaboration Tools?

Slack

One of the most used remote collaboration software, slack is nearly used by 80% of fortune 100 companies. Slack is a one-place destination for chats, discussing ideas, sharing files, and sending emojis to all teammates. You can even start video or audio calls in slack itself. The benefits of slack don't end here, it has yet much more to go.

Seeing these features of slack, wurkr has integrated this application into its online virtual workplace.

Google Meet

Google Meet is another remote collaboration tool that plays a crucial role in the virtual growth of businesses. It is a video call platform from google and a part of the google workplace cloud collaboration tools. Its easy-to-use user interface makes sit highly likeable by enterprises and employees. 

In google workspace basics, you can add up to 100 participants. The number can rise up to 150 participants in google workspace business and up to 250 in google workspace enterprise. 

This application is highly used by companies for interviews, instant meetings, stand-ups, etc.

Zoom

When it comes to the best remote collaboration tools that enhance the virtual workspace environment, you can't neglect zoom from it. Zoom is one of the most reliable platforms for video and audio conferencing. This platform is a one-stop destination for your meeting, chats, and video conferencing for productive virtual workplace collaboration. 

Zoom works perfectly across different products like PC, Mac, Linux, iOS, and android. 

Microsoft Teams

After the pandemic, few platforms hold the companies to continue working, even working from home. Microsoft Teams is one such remote collaboration tool that helps companies effectively plan meetings and video-audio calls. The presence of the Microsoft Team in virtual collaboration is one of the most comprehensive products out there. 

The usefulness of Microsoft Teams increases to the next level when the organization is workings in other Microsoft products like PowerPoint, Word, Excel, and OneNote. Obviously, it can provide much better efficiency when done this way.

How are Remote Collaboration Tools different from Virtual Workplaces?

Virtual Workplaces are tools that help teams, employees, or a group of people belonging to a project to collaborate spontaneously and stay connected for a long time, while a remote collaboration tool simply helps in some aspect of collaboration between teams, employees or groups of people trying to work together on a project.

The major factors that differentiate Virtual Workplaces and remote collaboration tools are the way communication is carried out. Virtual Workplaces help in both Synchronous as well as Asynchronous communications via Chats, Video/Audio calls or simply by sharing files with each other. A remote collaboration tool on the other hand caters more to Synchronous Communications. They help in direct communications on a real-time basis via video/audio calls or chats. 

The advantage that virtual workplaces create is the ability of spontaneous communication as it involves teammates or members of the group staying connected with each other without having to turn on their video or audio or chats unless they are ready to talk. And once they are ready to converse, all they have to do is just turn on their mics. Meanwhile, in order to communicate with remote collaboration tools, teammates need to have context, need to plan their discussions beforehand and do not involve spontaneous discussions. 

Another major difference between Virtual Workplaces and Remote collaboration tools is that virtual workplaces are also about idea generation, brainstorming, spontaneous discussions, planning together and working together. On the other hand, remote collaboration tools are all about updates, planned discussions and progress tracking. Conversations aren't the goal of remote collaboration tools. 

An advantage of remote collaboration tools over virtual workplaces is that these tools have a proper goal in place for each activity, be it a chat record that's on Slack or a meeting that was fixed with an agenda on Zoom, Microsoft Teams or Google meet.

Closing thoughts

Both remote collaboration tools and Virtual Workplaces are very crucial for companies to carry out their day-to-day activities as well as project, people and resources management. However, depending on their application and requirement, some companies might prefer a virtual workplace over a remote collaboration tool and vice versa. The goal is to conduct a company's day-to-day as well as project requirements run smoothly with synchronous and asynchronous communication. Afterall, all these tools facilitate communication between teammates, their leads, managers and the organisation as such.