11 Must-Have Tools for Coordination in Global Teams

Fighting tooth and nail to get your team working well together across all time zones and countries can be daunting – but not impossible. In this present era of technological advancements, innovative solutions, and clever tools for coordination, everything is achievable. Hybrid workplace setup, you say? Bring on the heat, is all we reply.

Have you got your shopping notes ready? Don’t get lost in the hunt for the best tools for global team coordination. Below are 11 of the top-caliber software for managing international teams. Whatever function or feature you’re looking for, regardless of the size of your team, you’re guaranteed to find just the one that suits your needs.

The delicate balance of coordinating teams from all over the world

There are a lot of things to think about when looking around for global team collaboration tools, but the most important out of all of them are four: scheduling, communication, information management, and collaboration. Here’s why these four should be high on your list of considerations:

• Scheduling – What if you’re in the middle of a very big project and you have your team scattered all over the world? Where do you even begin to rally everyone together for a meeting? Checking and rechecking time zones and staff availability can eat up your precious time. You need a scheduling tool that takes the guesswork out of, well, scheduling. If you’re running against deadlines and deliverables, each minute counts.

• Communication – Communicating face-to-face is hard enough. To ensure that your team can keep up with the standard of quality your clients and customers have come to expect of your brand, you need flawless communication every time. This is the only way to collaborate effectively, especially for remote teams. Channels need to be open at all times, easily accessible, fast, and free from malfunctions.

• Information Management – Knowledge is power – this age-old adage is never truer than when one of your remote workers is somewhere else in the world and able to get the job done regardless. Being able to create, edit, and share valuable information easily and quickly is paramount to unblemished collaboration and productivity.

• Collaboration – The key to getting the job done even when half of the team is snoozing (because of time differences) is collaboration. Efficient, perfect, and fruitful collaboration. You know you’ve done a good job as a leader or manager when every member of your team is well aware of what they’re supposed to do, how and when they’re supposed to be done.

At face value, it looks like a tall order. These four fundamental requirements in the pursuit of the prime tools for coordination can be intimidating to look at. The good news is that you can tick all the boxes with one software.

We’ve rounded up eleven of the premier tools and software for your consideration in this article. You’re truly spoiled for choice. Ready to make the selection for your team? Let’s get to it!

1. Bitrix24

Touted as one of the best tools for coordination in global teams available on the market today, Bitrix24 boasts a host of features and functionalities that make cross-cultural team collaboration not only possible but enjoyable. Let’s hark back to the four fundamentals of tools for distributed teams and you’ll be able to see that Bitrix24 is more than up to the task.

When it comes to scheduling, Bitrix24 offers shared calendars for individuals and groups. After a meeting invite is accepted, for example, the scheduled meeting is plugged into the user’s and group’s calendars with reliable reminders sent beforehand so no brainstorming session is missed. If you’re in sales and want to make sure no lead is wasted, you can sync your calendars with the CRM software (also from Bitrix24!). This way, no opportunity is squandered. If your company has a busy social season ahead, you can make full use of the Event Scheduler and mingle with customers, clients, and employees alike.

Reliable and seamless communication will never be a problem with Bitrix24. Whatever channel you or your customers, clients, or even employees are comfortable with, you know you can have it with Bitrix24. Video and voice calls, instant messaging, and even emails. You’ll also have a Meeting Planner at your fingertips so you can formulate how a powwow will flow.

Empower your staff to arm themselves with knowledge and never approach a job without the necessary information with your very own knowledge base. It can be as comprehensive as it needs to be so no one is left in the dark. No matter the time or location, you can rest assured your employees will be able to find the answer to their queries in no time at all.

As for important documents, references, and resource materials, you have the advantage of Bitrix24’s team drive going for you. With it, you can create, edit, share, and store documents even with external contributors and stakeholders. With a few clicks, you can restrict the editing rights to a few trusted individuals so you can keep the important things safe and secure.

Lastly, the thrust of Bitrix24’s purpose for being is collaboration—effective, efficient, and productive collaboration. You have AI-powered task management software for your particular use, so you know your team is working properly like a well-oiled machine. Create, monitor, and edit task dashboards, dependencies, and to-do lists. Gantt charts and Kanban boards are also available if you want a more agile approach to collaboration.

You can do all of this and more within the Bitrix24 platform!

2. Slack

Primarily known as a popular messaging app, Slack facilitates real-time communication and integrates with many essential tools for remote team coordination. Beyond messaging, Slack has expanded into project and task management, as well as productivity and sales, making it a viable candidate for robust coordination tools.

For instance, if you’re working online with a remote colleague in another part of the country, you can easily share files, including media files like photos and videos, by dragging and dropping them into your Slack chat window. Leaders can assign tasks to team members and set up task reminders through Slack’s integrations with various online collaboration platforms. Additionally, they can monitor the progress of a project from the planning stage to completion.

Moreover, Slack’s channels allow for organized discussions by topic, project, or team, ensuring that conversations stay focused and relevant. With features like direct messaging, group chats, and video calls, Slack provides a versatile communication hub that supports various types of interactions within a global team.

3. Asana

Asana is a robust project management tool that helps teams track their work and results through projects and tasks, proving to be a crucial coordination tool for global teams. Its calendar feature is invaluable for scheduling meetings and deadlines, accessible via both web and mobile apps.

Although Asana does not support direct voice and video calls, it integrates with numerous tools to enhance collaboration. These integrations enable file sharing, note-taking, and task assignment, as well as the creation of team drives for organized and accessible project-specific files.

Teams can assign tasks, set deadlines, and use project boards and timelines to visualize workflows. Asana’s Rules feature allows automation of repetitive tasks, ensuring consistency and efficiency in team processes. With its extensive features, Asana helps global teams stay organized, communicate effectively, and achieve their project goals efficiently.

4. Zoom

Renowned as a leading video conferencing tool, Zoom facilitates meetings and collaborations across different locations and time zones, making it a fundamental coordination tool for global teams.

A standout feature for brainstorming sessions is the interactive Whiteboard, where team members can draw charts, lines, figures, and more using various tools. Sticky notes allow for adding comments, and whiteboards can be easily shared with teammates.

Leaders and managers can benefit from the Zoom Mail Service, Zoom’s native email solution. It is intuitive and allows task delegation, which is especially useful when team members are on vacation. This highly secure service can be accessed via the Zoom desktop client or mobile app.

Zoom also includes a scheduler that simplifies setting up and tracking meetings. Participants can view each other's availability, significantly reducing the time needed to finalize a meeting. This efficiency ensures no appointment is lost or forgotten, giving teams more time to focus on their tasks.

5. Trello

A visual tool for project management and organization using boards, lists, and cards to sort tasks and priorities, you can look into Trello as one of the tools for coordination you can acquire for your global team. Users can view the tasks assigned to their team and them individually. This allows for better task management, consistently high-quality output, and adherence to deadlines.

What makes Trello one of the foremost online project management tools is its ability to help managers and leaders get their projects and tasks organized to the finest detail. Each project can have its dedicated board where it’s broken down into simpler steps for the team to follow and finish. It’s great for task management and tracking productivity while making sure each deliverable is completed well within the deadline.

6. Microsoft Teams

Mainly considered one of the top communication tools for global teams, Microsoft Teams integrates seamlessly with Office 365 and is great for chats, meetings, calls, and collaboration. Project managers and team leaders can arrange meetings with their teams across different territories and time zones. Voice and video conferencing through crisp and clear connections make effective collaboration easy every time.

Upgrades allow businesses to access meeting recordings and transcripts, and the capacity to add up to 300 participants in one meeting. Integrations also make it possible for users to take advantage of online calendars and project management tools, along with cloud storage and file-sharing capabilities. Additionally, Teams offers robust security features to ensure data protection and privacy.

All of these features combined make Microsoft Teams one of the top tools for coordination you should consider when managing a global team.

7. Google Workspace

Formerly known as G Suite, Google Workspace offers a suite of productivity tools including Gmail, Google Docs, Google Drive, and Calendar, all useful tools for coordination. You can create schedules and share work calendars with everyone else on the team for a more seamless collaboration. If you want, you can get a business email with a custom domain. The same subscription also affords clients cloud storage and reliable security.

Stay connected with team members, business leaders, customers, and clients through voice or video conferencing. You can send out meeting invites and have the appointments automatically saved in the attendees’ calendars so nothing is missed. Team members are also able to create, edit, and share files simultaneously with Google Drive.

Project and task management are made easier thanks to the arsenal of apps and functionalities available via Google Workspace, the newest of which happens to be their AI tool Gemini. It promises to elevate your team’s creativity to a whole new level, making it perfect for creatives, developers, and media companies.

8. Confluence

Confluence is a workspace designed to connect people with the ideas and information they need to build momentum and do their best work, positioning itself as an excellent tool for global team coordination.

With Confluence, team members can create, edit, and collaborate on documents and other files related to their work. The platform also features whiteboards that teams can use for brainstorming sessions, devising plans, and more.

For those seeking robust remote work solutions, Confluence offers excellent file storage capabilities. Employees can access the information they need at any time, while permission settings ensure resources are safe from unauthorized editing. Resources can be organized into content trees, which makes it easy to locate information. Integrations further enhance Confluence’s functionality, broadening its reach and usability to meet your team’s needs.

Additionally, Confluence supports a wide range of plugins and add-ons to customize your workspace and improve productivity.

9. Monday.com

Monday.com is a customizable work operating system that enables teams to create workflow apps in minutes to run their processes, projects, and everyday work.

Managers and leaders can sort their projects per team, status, and adherence to the timeline, among other parameters. Projects, tasks, and subtasks can then be broken down using Gantt charts or Kanban boards, simplifying the tracking of each project phase's progress.

Another thing that qualifies Monday.com into the list of tools for coordination that you can select for your global team is its task management platform where leaders can create and assign tasks, and set deadlines, priorities, and classifications.

The platform’s integrations with various tools like Slack, Google Drive, and Zoom enhance its utility by providing a seamless workflow.

If you’re looking to optimize your team’s productivity and efficiency with one of the virtual team management platforms on the market today, take a closer look at Monday.com. It just might be what you need.

10. Jira

Originally designed for software developers, Jira has evolved to serve non-technical teams as well, who need to track and organize project workflows. Projects are organized into what can only be compared to Kanban boards so each phase and task can be easily tracked. Break down team silos and encourage a multi-disciplinary approach to each project so the job is done not only a lot quicker but also at a better standard of quality.

Automated workflows that make the job easier can also be created on Jira. Getting rid of redundancies and unnecessary steps through automation means improved efficiency and productivity for your team. Users can also use the online calendars available through Jira so no milestone, appointment, or deadline is ever missed.

Furthermore, Jira integrates seamlessly with other mentioned tools like Bitrix24, Confluence, and Trello, enhancing its functionality and making it a versatile choice for project management.

11. Basecamp

If you have more than one ongoing project and you need to make sure you’re properly monitoring the progress of all of them, sign up for Basecamp. It combines all the tools for coordination teams need in a single, straightforward package that makes work feel less like work. Teams can exchange chat messages on the platform about the project and the tasks they have been assigned. They can also share, store, and discuss files pertinent to the job at hand with the help of Basecamp.

As one of the more popular remote work software solutions available nowadays, Basecamp gives project team members and leaders alike the ability to track how each assigned task is done and completed with their built-in to-do list. Notes and files can be attached to lists to make them more comprehensive. Members can then leave comments on tasks in case they have concerns or clarifications about what has been assigned to them.

With organization being their focus, Basecamp gives managers the power to organize their projects in a single-page dashboard where everything is visible and accessible. It also has a scheduler that keeps deadlines, milestones, and other important appointments in order.

Remote and cross-cultural team management made possible by Bitrix24

If you’re searching for an all-in-one solution for all your global team collaboration needs, look no further than Bitrix24. Everything that you need can be accessed through this coordination tool – scheduling, communication, information management, and collaboration. The software makes the whole process not only cost-effective but also time-saving.

You won’t feel the need for micromanaging or constantly checking on your team’s progress because everything is readily accessible and visible through the platform. You can rest easy knowing that your team is well aware of their assignments and they can complete these with ease because every resource they need is made available to them. If you’re still not convinced, visit the Bitrix24 website and register today, so you can begin to enjoy the project and team management wins you can experience with Bitrix24.

FAQs

What features are crucial in tools used for coordinating global teams?

The following features are crucial in tools used for coordinating global teams:

• Communication

• Project management

• Document storage and management

• Cloud storage

• Time management and scheduling

• Customer service and care

• Workspace dashboards

• Analytics and reporting

How do collaboration tools improve productivity in international teams?

Collaboration tools improve productivity in international teams by:

• Providing round-the-clock access to tools and resources regardless of location and time zone

• Eliminating the need for micro-management

• Enhanced problem-solving and decision-making

• Promoting effective teamwork

• Alleviating communication blockades and team silos

What are the common challenges faced by global teams and how can these tools help?

The common challenges faced by global teams and how these tools can help are:

• Time differences = Synchronizing time zones and availabilities

• Scheduling = Shared calendars that promote transparency

• Accountability = Workspace dashboards with tasks and subtasks

• Sporadic communication = Channels that are reliable and foolproof

• Lack of knowledge = Highly secure document storage and knowledge base