Managing virtual employees

Virtual employees are a reality for many businesses. With workers scattered around the country and the globe, it takes some extra finesse to keep everyone on the same page. A host of handy technologies will keep your business running like a well-oiled machine even when your employees are many miles apart.

Keep Connected
Your virtual employees—whether part-time, outsourced assistants or full-time employees—are just a phone call or instant message away. Instant messaging (IM) software is great for fostering a sense of a shared office environment. It's easy to see who is available for a quick chat at any given time. The big three instant messaging providers are AOL's AIM, Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger. You don't necessarily have to standardize on one system or another. Free IM programs like Trillian and Pidgin are compatible with all of the major IM providers.

You can have employees all over the place and still give your customers a sense that you're in a central office. Virtual phone system services like GotVMail, OneBox and RingCentral let you set up a phone system that gives clients a single toll-free or local contact number to reach your business. Extensions can be set up to connect a caller through to remote offices and mobile phones.

Cooperative Conferencing
Inevitably there will come a time when your team needs to meet up for brainstorming, a briefing or other group activity that requires the input of more than a couple of people. Teleconferencing is the old-fashioned way to get this done and can still be a quick and effective solution. But newer technologies in videoconferencing and web conferencing can give you a real boost in interactivity and productivity.

Videoconferencing gives your team a more personal sense of interaction than you can achieve with a phone call. Some laptops already come equipped with a built-in webcam. Otherwise, a USB webcam is an easy addition to make for either a laptop or a desktop computer. Expect to spend under $100 for a decent webcam. Most webcams come with videoconferencing software bundled in. For fast and basic videoconferencing, Windows Live Messenger is one program that supports video as well as IM.

Web conferencing can tie together IM, videoconferencing, voice and even sharing of your computer screen. This is about as close as you can get to hands-on collaboration without actually sitting at the same physical computer. WebEx is a popular choice for businesses for web meetings, webinars and online training. Citrix GoToMeeting is another top choice for hosting online meetings. Attendees can share their desktop and even share keyboard and mouse control. Citrix integrates chat, VoIP and phone conferencing to meet the needs of virtual employees who may have different types of hardware.

Web Tools for a Virtual Office
Here are some tools that can help with managing your virtual employees.

• Basecamp from 37signals is an easy-to-use platform for collaborating on projects. It becomes a virtual meeting ground for employees to work together toward common goals. The flexible interface lets users set milestones, send messages, chat and build to-do lists. Fees start at $24 per month for 15 active projects and 3GB of space.
• Box.net's main purpose is online file storage. On top of that, colleagues can use shared folders and access documents from anywhere. A partnership with online office suite provider Zoho lets users edit Word and Excel files through the web site. Box Business costs $19.95 per month for 15GB of storage.
• Central Desktop is another option for project collaboration. It features an easy setup, a variety of templates to get you going quickly, powerful search tools and built-in web meetings and audio conferencing. A free plan is available for very small groups; otherwise it starts at $25 per month.
• Google Apps offers a lot of opportunities for sharing and collaboration. You can hook up all your virtual employees with email addresses, share calendars, chat through the Gmail interface and work on documents together.