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Originally Published at Troop Messenger

Switching to remote work is a trend that dominates. The latest reports indicate doubling the number of remote workers in the recent 10 years. And despite the famous Yahoo ban in 2015 that forced the employees to return to the offices, the trend for remote job opportunities keeps on expanding globally.

Among driving forces facilitating this growth, there are new managerial practices and innovative tech solutions that enable top companies to increase hiring remote teams.

Lack of effective tools, however, might hinder the productivity of your team so making the right choice in terms of software that would empower the team collaboration, will save you from facing numerous challenges.

Below there is a list of 10 ultimate tools you will find useful when working with a remote team.

Online Collaboration Tools

1. Troop Messenger

2. GoToMeeting

3. ProProfs

4. TMetric

5. BlogIn

6. Usernap

7. JotForm

8. SmartTask

9. Tameday

10. Wrike

11. ClickUp

12. Parabol

13. I Done This

14. Monday

15. Clarizen

16. Quip

17. Teamwork

18. LeadGen

19. Helpjuice

20. Soapbox

Troop Messenger
When searching for more interactive team collaboration, Troop Messenger comes as a leader. It will satisfy any team’s needs due to the simplicity of its implementation in an entrepreneurial environment.

Working as a fully-fledged business communication platform, Troop Messenger gives you instant access to unlocking a great number of functions:

Instant messaging Making video calls Conducting video conferences Sharing files Desktop sharing Creating complex schedules.
Arranging the work schedule within Troop Messenger will let you keep project info fully organized and, thus, secure all the project performance data.

GoToMeeting
It is optimal in case you need a tool for arranging online meetings. It works both ways, with customers and team members. The tool provides a high-quality connection and ranges as the most reliable software. With support assisting you 24/7 and instant availability of joining or hosting the meeting options, you can start a meetup, webinar, or a regular call hassle-free.

GoToMeeting is an ultimate communication choice for remote teams. A click on the link across any device will be a signal for activating various options:

Sharing the screen Making notes over the images Recording the conversations Settings for adjusting the visibility of participants’ faces

ProProfs
ProProfs Project is not an over the top project management software but has made its name in the market for it’s easy to use UI and simple features.

From startups to enterprises, anyone can use this robust project management tool to streamline workflow, boost team communication, and improve team productivity.

ProProfs Project helps you to: Create & track projects on one dashboard Track time spent on tasks by each team member Collaborate with your teams anytime, anywhere Create insightful reports in seconds Bill your clients automatically TMetric
When you have to arrange the effective collaboration of your remote team, the first issue you need to address is means of providing accuracy of time calculations.

TMetric is an effective time tracking tool as it not only enables recording data on your work time in a single-click from any gadget but also has additional functions coming handy for remote work mode:

Creating an invoice Generating various reports (including the ones that will summarize your team performance on the project) Setting various pay rates for billable hours Offline time tracking Tagging projects for facilitating the workflow Available on Windows, Mac OS, Linux, Android and iOS Integrating with 100+ apps remote teams use in their work.

This Timesheet software help allocate tasks to employees, track time spent, keep track of billable time to charge customers, calculate payroll, create invoices and keep track of expenses. Here’s a quick list of 10 different timesheet software solutions and how they can help you manage your team better.

BlogIn
BlogIn is a beautifully simple internal blog and knowledge-sharing platform for teams of all sizes. The internal blog acts as a central information hub or a ‘virtual bulletin board’ for the company, allowing all employees to stay in the loop with what’s going on in and around the office.

At the same time, the blog opens a new, transparent, two-way communication channel inside an organization, where everyone can ask a question and get the information they need to make faster and smarter decisions.

The internal blog is intuitive and easy to use, so everyone can quickly get on board, which is one of the reasons why it works so well as the internal communication tool.

Share internal news and knowledge Improve internal communication Share files Boost company culture Enables transparent, two-way communication

Usernap
“Show, don’t tell” – use screenshots and illustrations to communicate issues accurately and quickly. Usersnap’s widget can be easily installed on your staging website or use the browser extension to capture anything you see and want to share.

Microsoft, Facebook and many web companies employ Usersnap for issue reporting, QA, user acceptance testing and customer feedback. Visual bug reports and feedback saves you time and makes remote working so easy.

Browser screen capture and annotations

Tickets include metadata (screen size, browser version, URL and console logs)

Assign, label, track and close tickets easily

Integrates with 30+ tools such as Jira and Asana

Live commenting

Unlimited guest access

JotForm
JotForm is an extremely versatile online form builder which is suited for a team of any size. It doesn’t require any development skills as it’s essentially a drag-and-drop form builder. So, your entire team can benefit from it. It has a surprising amount of use cases which you can apply to your business or use it to manage your team.

You can use it to clock in the work hours of your employees, collect feedback, assign tasks, open bug reports and the list goes on, it’s all up to how creative you can get with it.

The best part is that you have a wide variety of customization options for the forms you create. You can prevent things from getting boring for your team and have a sustainable remote team. As there are way too many templates and customization options you can check a form design guide they have prepared.

Easy to use and implement Makes collaboration seamless Loads of customization options Wide range of use cases

SmartTask
SmartTask is a simple yet powerful task and project management tool, which will help your team be more effective and efficient than ever before.

It brings the organization’s tasks at one place thus everyone in a team has a clear overview of the team’s progress, who’s responsible and has clarity on the deadlines.

The tool enables you with the following features:

Tasks, Projects and CRM in one tool Custom Fields to customize your tasks Multiple Projects in one single view with Portfolio feature Real-time communication and notifications Available on Desktop, Android and IOS

Tameday
Tameday is the all-in-one workspace for teams and small businesses that are struggling to manage their projects and workloads with various separate tools and email- Bringing everything into one place

Tameday helps you to:

Get rid of using email for internal communication by using Tameday’s built-in chat feature. Keep your work and to-dos in one place within Projects, Communicate and share files with your team who are working remotely. Keep in contact with your clients by allowing them to see how projects are progressing, Keep you on track with to-dos, discussions, project due dates and your own personal calendar. Wrike
Wrike is a perfectly illustrative example of how to integrate a favorite task management tool with time tracking software so that it could enhance your remote team productivity.

Wrike helps prioritize projects easily due to its intuitive design. It keeps all the info on tasks you perform. Additionally, when applying integrations in Wrike, you can:

Estimate the project resources with precision, Adjust timelines for specific tasks, Reassign tasks to accommodate urgent requests Tailor your tasks to projects goals.

ClickUp
It is a productivity platform that helps you create tasks and plan your projects. While implementing ClickUp, you have the unique opportunity to organize the scattered tasks into the unbroken workflow.

With ClickUp, you get the abundance of options pertaining to:

The Growing Threat of Cybercrime in the Financial Sector
The digital space has opened up new avenues for consumers, but it has also attracted bad actors looking to exploit these opportunities. Cybercriminals often use the same technology that is used to develop security systems to hijack user identities. Banks and insurance firms are particularly vulnerable to these threats and face them on a daily basis. To counter these threats, regulatory authorities have imposed KYC compliance to ensure the smooth functioning of the legal financial system and to catch fraudsters off guard.

Financial institutions, especially banks, use Anti Money Laundering (AML) compliance in conjunction with KYC verification to create convenience in user onboarding and monitor suspicious transactions. KYC compliance plays a crucial role in preventing financial crimes such as tax evasion, money laundering, terrorist financing, and cross-border trafficking of drugs and humans.

Understanding KYC in the Banking Industry
KYC, or Know Your Customer, is a term widely used in the banking industry. It refers to the policies and procedures used to verify a client each time they wish to establish a relationship with a business organization, whether as a customer or a business partner. KYC verification typically involves the submission of ID documents that serve as proof of identity for the prospective client. This process helps deter financial crime and enables banks to provide a more secure and meaningful experience to their users.

Banks are required to ensure that KYC protocols are properly implemented during customer onboarding to avoid hefty fines for non-compliance and to maintain a good reputation in the eyes of financial watchdogs and the market.

The Benefits of KYC Compliance
KYC compliance is mandatory for all financial institutions, including banks, cryptocurrency exchanges, insurance companies, and non-banking financial corporations. It directly addresses financial crimes carried out through fake identities, account takeovers, and illegitimate business partnerships, offering a viable solution to these concerns.

Building a Strong Brand Image
Businesses that incorporate KYC compliance into their regular user onboarding process demonstrate compliance with the regulations set by financial regulators. This enhances their credibility and helps them build a positive image among their users, fostering a loyal customer base.

Streamlining Customer Onboarding
Implementing KYC compliance from the outset can significantly reduce the risk of cybercrime. Since KYC verification is performed before the customer starts using the services or products, it minimizes the chances of identity theft through the business platform. This process allows businesses to record the personally identifiable information (PII) of their clients for future authentication and to ensure that their customer base is legitimate.

Mitigating Financial Crime
KYC compliance ensures a secure and safe customer onboarding process, allowing only genuine users to create profiles and open accounts with the business. It is an effective solution to prevent money laundering and fraudulent initial coin offerings (ICOs) sold by fraudsters. This is why many companies invest significant time and resources in developing sophisticated KYC frameworks.

The Future is Digital KYC
Traditional methods of KYC verification are becoming less effective as cybercriminals become more sophisticated. Financial organizations are faced with the challenge of securing the financial ecosystem and developing products to make the market and customers safer.

Digital KYC solutions, powered by biometric authentication tools such as facial recognition, fingerprint scanning, and real-time document verification checks, are becoming increasingly popular. These systems allow customers to verify themselves in seconds.

Key Takeaways from Digital KYC
Digital KYC solutions offer several benefits:

They save companies time and money that would otherwise be spent on manual verification and team management.
Automated and robust solutions ensure KYC compliance in a cost-effective and efficient manner.
The possibility of human error and negligence is significantly reduced with digital KYC verification tools, allowing more opportunities for revenue building and focusing on complex tasks.