Free remote working tools to help designers and architects stay connected with their team.
This week many design businesses moved to remote work. When for some this might oppose no difficulty others might really struggle to wrap their head around the new responsibilities and techniques to deal with this situation.
To make it easier for you I prepared a list of free tools, which can help you adapt better for the situation and safe you unnecessary research time. With appropriate systems in place you will be able to concentrate on things that matter the most.
Most of the software platforms mentioned below have already extended their free services to help you find your way into remote work faster.
Here is a list of five free platforms, which can help you stay connected in the time of isolation.
Microsoft
According to Business Insider Microsoft has started offering free trial of the premium plan of its Teams chat app. With this trial you can host virtual meetings, record them, as well as get access to exactly 1TB of storage! None of those features are available in the normal version of the software. In response to the current situation, Microsoft is making the extended premium trial available for six months.
If you are already a G Suite or G Suite for Education User, Google allows free access to its enterprise version of Hangout Meet. That plan includes up to 250 users per call, the ability to record meetings and a live stream capabilities for up to 100,000 viewers until July 1, 2020!
Zoom
Zoom is already a free videoconferencing software, but the company is currently working to test its network to ensure maximum reliability in case the current capacity increases and uptime will become necessary. They extended their free plan to China in order to allow unlimited meeting times.
LogMein
LogMein is offering “Emergency Remote Work Kits” available for free for three months. Those kits are specifically designed for nonprofits, schools and health care organizations that are new to the software. They are also happy to work with small business owners to help them manage their communication with their teams in the times of turmoil. The kits include GoToMeeting, GoToWebinar, where users can host presentations up to 3000 users from diverse devices.
Cisco Webex
Webex by Cisco is available as a free version with no time limit. It allows up to 100 meeting participants and added a toll-free dial-in features with a 90-day license for new businesses.
If you will have to host virtual meetings to manage your team read my post on how to get your team to actively participate in virtual meetings.
Also, join my exclusive Facebook group for architects and follow me on Medium by pressing follow by my name. I will be posting more int he forthcoming weeks- to help you better transition from office to remote work.