8 remote working tools from European companies to drive productivity & efficiency during coronavirus outbreak

More and more companies are pivoting towards remote working on an unprecedented scale, due to COVID-19 breakout. There are few software’s available right now, which are capable of getting the same job done anywhere in the world. Fortunately, there is good in every bad!

Working remotely with full independence opens up the possibility of being creative and often improves the productivity of employees. It has never been this simple to set up a professional working environment at home, empowering effectiveness and efficiency.

If your company is considering sending you home to work for a few weeks, you must be wondering whether you have the system in place to make it happen. Though staple technologies like Slack and Skype are well known, here are the following tools from European companies which will increase productivity, streamline remote teams, and combat inefficiency:

Create interactive presentations and meetings with Mentimeter (Sweden)

Mentimeter is an interactive presentation platform used by 65 million people in 160 countries (including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Microsoft, etc.). This Swedish platform offers a live presentation tool, allowing for meeting leaders to collate the opinions and feedback of their colleagues in real-time. It was founded by Henrik Fräsén, Johnny Warström, Kristoffer Renholm, and Niklas Ingvar in 2014.

For video conferencing calls, Mentimeter means that everyone has a voice (as introverts and quieter employees can often struggle to get a word in during these kinds of meetings). Similarly, the use of interactive presentation software is a non-accusatory way of checking that employees are paying attention by asking for them to give feedback. To date, the Stockholm-based company has raised $500K (approx €449K) in one funding round.

Achieve goals with Remente (Sweden)

Remente is a personal goal-setting and development app, Remente allows its millions of users to measure their mood over time, as well as set and work towards goals. The app keeps daily to-dos, tasks, routines, goals, and habits in one place. Founded by David Brudo in 2011, the mental health-based platform has raised €1.1 million to date.

For people who have never worked remotely before, the lack of structure might become disorientating, and so Remente can help people set and achieve goals. Similarly, the threat of COVID19 is likely to impact the mental wellbeing of people (especially that self-isolating) and so having a digital tool to chart its effect on your mood will likely alleviate some of the anxiety.

Wundamail offers you the simplest way to manage your teams (UK)

Wundamail is the way to manage teams in 2020. It offers a simple email management system for organisations of any size with no IT integration. There’s no need to install anything new, making it ideal for emergency remote working at short notice.

Founded by Jon and Phil, this tool is designed to replicate the daily stand-up meeting in the Agile Method, it condenses all team activity into a single, daily email. It’s worth mentioning that both the founders have had 2 successful start-up exits in the last 7 years, and their software is now used by over 10 million people daily.

Turn your team on to productivity with Toggl (Estonia)

Toggl offers online time tracking software specifically designed for freelancers, graphic designers, and consultants. This platform allows users to track the time spent on various projects and analyse productivity.

Notably, the Tallinn-based company has real-time sync with web trackers, desktop widgets, and mobile Apps. Founded by Alari Aho and Krister Haav in 2006, the company has a bi-weekly development cycle to launch new features requested by our users’ post interaction with users.

Connect to a computer remotely from halfway around the world through AnyDesk (Germany)

AnyDesk offers unique remote desktop access software based on their unique proprietary codec – DeskRT, that allows for virtually latency-free collaboration. Founded in 2014 by Andreas Burike, Andreas Mähler, Olaf Liebe, and Philipp Weiser, the remote desktop application platform has secured a total of €6.5M in funding over 3 rounds.

This Stuttgart-based software platform is one of the 50 fastest-growing businesses in Germany and used by millions of people and more than 15,000 companies in 165 countries. Furthermore, it allows for new usage scenarios and applications that have not been possible with current remote desktop software.

Store and share files and documents securely in the cloud with Tresorit (Hungary)

When it comes to business, security remains the key priority. Tresorit is a cloud-based, secure file synchronising software, specifically designed to share confidential data of business users. The data undergoes encryption before getting uploaded into the cloud. When downloading the file from the cloud, it is decryptable only when permitted by the owner.

The USP of the Budapest-based cloud platform is that the encrypted contents are shareable without re-encryption and that sharing is reversible by permission revocation. Founded by Gyorgy Szilagyi, ISTVAN LAM, Levente Buttyan, and Szilveszter Szebeni in 2011, the company has so far raised €18.5 million.

Collaborate from anywhere with Whereby (Norway)

Formerly known as appear.in, Whereby, is a collaboration tool for easy video meetings. No hassle, no login, no download. Simply share the link, and you can appear in your room together.

Built on WebRTC technology, it’s a “one-click to join” service and offers reliability. Headquartered in Oslo, the company employs 23 people across 12 different locations. With this platform, Whereby aims to provide privileges for the flexible working culture to everyone. The company was founded by Ingrid Ødegaard and Svein Willassen in 2013 and collected €1.8 million to date.

Get more things done with Pipedrive (Estonia)

Pipedrive is the first CRM platform developed from the salesperson’s point of view with the proven methods of experienced salespeople. This platform helps salespeople and teams focus on learning and repeating their most effective processes to close deals.

On top of that, this sales platform provides management and sales teams with more timely, detailed, and accurate sales reporting and revenue projections. It was founded in 2010 by Martin Henk, Martin Tajur, Ragnar Sass, Timo Rein, and Urmas Purde. To date, Pipedrive has secured €86.5 million in 9 funding rounds.

Main image credits: Deliris/Shutterstock

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