This article originally appeared on GigaOM. I though you might like this since some of you’ll might be running virtual teams to get your work done and hence use DeskAway

When working with remotes teams there is less personal interaction and hence it is even more important to keep them extremely motivated. This article points out some things to keep in mind…

1. Have an open door policy. “I always make time for my management,” Chris explains, “My management fundamentally run my company for me, and I’m well aware that without them, I would have to come in and start working ridiculous hours every single day. If they need to speak with me, all they have to do is pick up the phone, and I’ll make time to speak with them.”
2. Provide opportunities for career growth. Chris says, “I never want to hire externally, unless I truly have to. I’ll always look internally to try to promote people, if possible. That creates a great culture within a company.”
3. Provide opportunities for education. “I think there [are] other things you can do,” Chris says, “not only spending the time with somebody and giving them career opportunities, but also investing in them. I regularly put my management on different types of courses, training and things like that. It’s developing them as employees, and it gives them the opportunity to better themselves, and they appreciate that.”

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The world is moving towards virtual, remote, dispersed teams. I know many of DeskAway users work with remote freelancers, partners and employees. This article busting common myths on remote working might be helpful to all of you’ll (written by Avdi Grimm of wideTeams).

Working in a dispersed team has its share of challenges, but some of the fears that people have about remote work simply aren’t born out by the experience of real-world teams. Here are a few if the more common misconceptions I’ve encountered.

Working outside the office is distracting. This is one of the most persistent myths I’ve run into. Sure, working from home can be distracting. But out of the remote workers I’ve talked to, the majority find their home office a better environment for focused work than a traditional office.Which shouldn’t really come as a surprise. After all, if you work with people you like, it means that your workplace is going to be filled with people you have a lot in common with, having conversations about things that are interesting to you! While I’m not proud of it, I’ve had hallway conversations that lasted for hours at some jobs.Not to mention that when people can see you, they are more likely to interrupt you to ask you a question or get a status update. Proximity invites disruption.

Read the other 4…

Imagine you are on a holiday, a much needed getaway from work and suddenly at 11 in the night you get a call from your manager, who is in the other part of the globe. He wants you to upload a business critical file, onto the company intranet for an important client presentation due in the next one hour!

You get to your laptop and try to access your company’s VPN. It is slow to connect and finally turns an “access is denied due to an unscheduled downtime!” There is no way you can upload the file, and you are unable to reach any other employee who may have access to the file.

You are in a remote location, and your vacation is screwed!

Now, imagine the same situation and consider that you were using an online collaboration tool: You save yours and the company’s valuable, billable time by simply accessing the Internet from your hotel. You would log in to the online collaboration Web site, and just send the sought-after file to your manager. Better yet, you ask him to access the section where files are shared on the online collaboration tool and get the file himself.

Wow! It just takes you 15 minutes to go back to your well deserved vacation mode!

Nowadays, online collaboration tools include features such as:

• professional email integration
• document management
• project management
• shared calendaring
• contact management

A highly cost-effective, online collaboration solution is a carefree alternative to the anxieties and costs inherent with supporting complex collaboration software.

During cost-cutting periods, online collaboration tools offer you the following advantages:

• They allow your employees, customers, and partners to share critical business information with one another from anywhere in the world at relatively lower prices.
• Apart from the one-time or annual payment for using the online collaboration tool, the only money you pay is for an Internet connection!
• Small- to medium-sized businesses benefit from hosted collaboration solutions because there’s no software to install and no servers to maintain, ever!
• The often easy-to-use, intuitive, and self-explanatory user interface of most online collaboration tools makes it faster to get acclimatized to. Your employees don’t need training to start using the online tool like you would require before you take a peek at MS SharePoint, MS VSS, and MS Project.

Online collaboration tools offer you big business collaboration at small business price. Mostly, you can access online collaboration tools for a low monthly fee. You just need to simply add new members as and when your business grows. You do not pay salaries for system administrators, maintenance engineers, and network administrators. You do not need an employee to lose his/ her critical productive hours updating/ arranging information in alternative project management software.

The online tools’ service providers provide you with quick setup and deployment models. They require no IT support. It works across any platform - PC or Mac. Plus, the service provider offers free support, training, and upgrades for life! You save more time and money than you can imagine.