Best Communication Tools for Your Offshore Teams

There’s a harsh truth. If you’re working with your offshore development teams or any other remote teams, but you fail to communicate with them effectively, you may run the risks of seeing your project fail apart. Communication is of utmost importance in any type of business, as effective communication expedites your journey to success.

In the context of offshore software development, communication has always been number 1. Why? Language barrier is a key issue in hiring offshore dev teams. Making sure that the team members understand each other, and execute work accordingly helps you achieve the outcome you’d expect.

In today’s article, we’re gonna look into the best communication and project management (PM) tools to collaborate with your offshore teams. After reading this list, you’re gonna be able to choose whatever PM and communication tools for your offshore teams suit your business and project the best. Sounds good, let’s go!

Communication tools for chatting with Offshore teams

communication-tools-with-offshore-teams-2

Slack

Slack belongs to Slack Technologies, LLC, an American software company founded in 2009 in Vancouver, British Columbia. Stewart Butterfield and his cofounders attribute Slack’s exponential growth to active listening of feedback. And this is the reason why Slack has established itself as a hard-beating communication tool with offshore teams.

What makes Slack stand out is its ability to integrate with other tools and apps. It allows you to easily connect popular software and custom apps right inside Slack. These apps bridge the gap between your tools and Slack, so you can use them without bouncing between different apps. They streamline the process of finding, sharing, and acting on information across your tech stack, all from one central hub, making it a breeze to stay on track and super productive. 

Slack features include video calls, voice recordings, file sharing, org charts, mobile and desktop apps, and robust security measures. This way, Slack fosters effective communication and collaboration for your in-house teams and outsourced teams across various industries.

Skype

Founded in 2003, Skype was developed by two developers Niklas Zennström, from Sweden, and Janus Friis, from Denmark. Currently, Skype is under Microsoft Corporation ownership as Microsoft acquired Skype for US$8.5 billion on May 2011.

As a household name in business communication field, Skype boasts some standout features. First off, it is famous for crystal-clear voice and video calls, perfect for either catching up with offshore development teams to sealing business deals. What is more, it’s your budget-friendly with international calling that won’t break the bank.

It’s your all-in-one messaging center, which allows users to text, send images,  copy and paste screenshots and files. Also, if you want to show something, screen sharing’s ideal. While Skype for Business has moved under the Microsoft Teams umbrella, it used to be the ultimate toolbox for business talk, letting you schedule meetings, collaborate on docs, and sync with Office 365. With Skype, communication with your offshore teams has never been easier. 

Offshore project management tools

project management tool

Trello

Trello started with just a sticky note, and two developers Joel Spolsky and Michael Pryor with a dream to increase organization and productivity for people. Within just 5 years, Trello was well on its way to 100 million users, growing from a scrappy startup to a household name in project management. In 2017, the company was bought by Atlassian which is famous for creating Jira and Bitbucket.

Trello owns special features that make it a top project management tool for your offshore teams. One of them is its easy-to-use and visually appealing interface. Instead of complex Gantt charts or extensive training sessions, Trello offers an easy-to-grasp system based on boards, lists, and cards. This design makes it accessible to outsourced software development members with varying degrees of technical expertise and reduces the learning curve, a crucial benefit for remote teams where diverse skill sets may be at play.

Another great feature that Trello offers is its customizability. Trello’s Kanban-style boards allow teams to adapt the tool to their specific workflows seamlessly. With customizable boards, lists, and cards, offshore development teams can tailor Trello to match their unique processes, ensuring that the tool aligns precisely with their project requirements. This gives users a sense of control over their tasks. Besides, they can integrate Trello with other apps and services to streamline workflow and avoid switching between multiple tools.

Asana

Created in 2008, Asana was developed by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and engineer Justin Rosenstein. Both of them left Facebook to fully invest in Asana. When they worked at Facebook, they noticed everyone wasting huge amount of time on endless meetings and emails. Therfore, Asana was developed in order for employees to focus on important work, and cut down time on meaninfuless scheduling tasks. The name of the brand was inspired by a Yoga mediation pose, according to wiredelta.

Currently, more than 100,000 paying organizations and teams around the world use Asana to coordinate work, and focus on the bigger tasks. Asana offers a centralized hub for communication and project management where you can create tasks, set deadlines, and prioritize work with ease and clarity. Asana’s features, like task assignment, real-time updates, and shared project timelines make sure that offshore and in-house team members are always on the same page.

Jira

Jira is developed and owned by Atlassian. Originally, Jira was designed for software developers, but as time went by, it becomes an effective project management platforms for different types of businesses.

What makes Jira ideal communication and project management tools for offshore software development is its built-in agile PM, and IT Service Management. These features provide a centralized hub where you and offshore teams can collaborate smoothly. Besides, it has Jira software which enables you to track and analyze statistics. This helps gain further insights into project progress and take actions accordingly. Confluence, which is another feature of Jira, allows teams to share files, and docs easily. If your team has a lot of content to share, Jira can be a great choice to facilitate communication between your in-house and offshore teams.

Video conferencing communication tools for offshore teams

communication tools with offshore teams

Zoom

Eric Yuan, former vice-president for Cisco Webex, left Cisco in 2011 to start a new company later known as Zoom. Since then, Zoom has become one of the most used video conferencing platform for team communication, and collaboration.

Unlike project management like Asana or Jira, Zoom is a powerful video-conferencing platform which prioritizes human connection in remote environment.

Video meetings, webinars, and screen sharing allow for more interactive and dynamic discussions, making it an excellent choice for team meetings, training sessions, and client communication. Integrations with other tools, such as project management software and collaboration platforms, can further enhance its usefulness in coordinating and communicating with offshore teams.

GG Meet

Created by Google in 2017, Google Meet used to be named as Google Hangouts. Initially, it was only used by enterprises, but later became widely popular among Google users following Covid-19. One Google Meet session can hold up to 100 users within only 1-hour limit. You can hold meetings online with your offshore teams on any browser at no cost. If you want to use additional features, such as dial-in numbers, recording meetings, and so on, you must pay.

As part of the Google Workspace ecosystem, Google Meet provides a versatile platform for offshore team communication. Its seamless integration with Google Calendar, Gmail, and other Google Workspace apps simplifies scheduling and connecting with remote teams. With features like real-time captioning, screen sharing, and HD video quality, Google Meet fosters effective communication and collaboration.

Skype

Besides being a VoIP service which allows people to text and make video calls on the internet, Skype is also a free group video chat & video calls for up to 100 people on mobile device, tablet or computer. You can use Skype as all-in-one communication solution for your onshore and offshore teams.

File management tools for offshore teams

file management tool for offshore teams

One drive

One drive is a file hosting service operated by Microsoft Corporation released in August 2007. OneDrive gives users the freedom and flexibility to access their stored files from any web browser or mobile device, suitable for busy executives, and business owners. The structure of OneDrive makes it easy to share files, contribute ideas and preserve changes.

Google drive

Google Drive is like a big digital storage room created by Google. It officially opened its doors to the world on April 24, 2012. It’s closely connected to Google Docs, letting folks keep all sorts of files safe and sound on Google’s computers.

Google photos

Google Photos is a service from Google where you can share and keep your photos safe. Anil Sabharwal, the Google VP who led the creation of Google Photos, only joined Google after the company’s persistent efforts to invite him. He then successfully built Google Photos which is now organized home to millions of people’s photos.

Dropbox

The idea of Dropbox was conceived when the founder Drew Houston forgot his USB flash drive when he attended MIT. Drew then co-founded Dropbox in 2007, growing the company to a service used by millions of people around the world.

Dropbox offers seamless file sharing and collaboration features, making it easy to share files and folders with others, even if they don’t have a Dropbox account.

Dropbox offers two file-sharing features: selective sync and smart sync. With the former, you can handpick the specific folders that get synchronized to your account, while the smart sync allows you to decide to either keep files on your local device and in the cloud or exclusively store them in the cloud. Besides, Dropbox offers both free and paid plans; however, the free plan has really limited storage space.

I hope this article helps you choose suitable communication tools for your offshore teams. If you’re looking to hire an offshore software development company, check out InApps Technology! We’re happy to assist you in any way we can. Let’s connect!