Remote working has grown in popularity in the last three years and is now an accepted part of modern working culture. A key driver for this change was in 2020 when the first truly global pandemic since the Spanish flu (in the form of the Covid-19 virus) transformed working life. Almost overnight, millions of employees were required to work from home to comply with government restrictions on the movement of citizens and regional or national lockdowns.

Today, in 2023, most of the restrictions that were imposed have now been eased or stopped completely in many countries. However, the desire for remote or hybrid working remains in much of the working population. This is because these models of work allow staff to benefit from an improved work-life balance and save time by not needing to travel as often to a physical, centralized workplace. In this article, some of the key ways in which technology supports remote working will be described in detail.

API management for seamless cloud integration

With remote and hybrid models of working comes the need for organizations to move key applications and programs to cloud based systems. Put simply, when staff work remotely, they still need to access corporate systems, and the most effective way to achieve this is by moving them to the internet. This means that employees can simply log on to key systems with a reliable internet connection and suitable security access protocols.

As businesses move an increasing number of applications to the cloud, there is a need to manage them effectively. An api management platform is required to streamline the deployment, maintenance, and security of these applications. Modern API platforms can manage these tasks effortlessly and provide a secure platform for remote staff to work online. In addition, these systems have proven themselves to be more efficient than using traditional physical servers in terms of cost and ease of use. Put simply, today, API management platforms are a key part of IT infrastructures and drive productive remote working methods.

Video conferencing

With a remote or hybrid workforce, the need remains to have important meetings and present information to the wider workforce. A key way to achieve this through technology is by using video conferencing software. Modern video conferencing platforms are accessed online and have the capacity to facilitate meetings with many employees. In recent years, virtual whiteboards can be used during a meeting to collaborate on ideas and voting systems can be integrated that allow group decisions to be made in real time. In short, they are another key driver of supporting a geographically dispersed workforce. However, to ensure that they run perfectly, individuals who work from home must have a good internet connection, otherwise their video can drop out or become grainy making it hard for communication. Employees can run an internet speed test to see if everything is working to its optimal level, and then make any adjustments needed before video conferencing.

Task/project management apps

Finally, task and project management apps are increasingly used to ensure that remote workers can collaborate effectively and do not duplicate tasks. Simple apps such as Trello allow task and project boards to be created. The work is then allocated to specific staff members, and once the task is completed, it can be marked as finished. Other project management apps allow group messages to be sent and updates to be made in real time to these boards. This ensures that all stakeholders know their specific roles in larger projects, and a clear understanding of progress can be shown at all stages of the project.