Keeping a distributed team on the same page is a big challenge, but I am successfully
handling it with Wrike.
How to Successfully Run a Virtual Team
of 20+: Solution from inlevel, a Dynamic
IT Startup
Keeping a distributed team on the same page is a big challenge, but I am successfully
handling it with Wrike.
Collaboration challenges of inlevel's distributed team
inlevel works as a distributed team and collaborates with 20+ external partners from different cities and countries. Without the ability to have regular face-to-face meetings, the team mostly relies on virtual communication. Colleagues email tasks and documents to each other and discuss urgent issues through Skype. As you may know, this is quite a challenging pattern of collaboration. "In our highly virtualized organization, a lot of coordination is required from my part," says Maciej Janiec, CEO at inlevel.
According to Maciej, the hardest thing for him as a manager was synchronization. He needed to be sure that everybody is always up-to-date with the plan and their colleagues' actions. The more people were getting involved in the work, the harder it was for Maciej to keep everyone on the same page.
inlevel's solution
inlevel adopted Wrike to get the workflow synchronized in one central location that is easily accessible to all collaborators. The team seamlessly uses Wrike alongside other tools, such as email, Google docs and more, so no one has to change his or her working habits.
- a very dynamic and successful startup
- runs an innovative Web service for business software search and purchase
- awarded with European Union innovation grant
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Smart email integration |
Unparalleled ease of use |
Cost-efficiency |
Wrike automatically brings email communications into project planning. It takes just seconds to create a new task by email in Wrike, so a manager can immediately get data into the system and share it with involved collaborators. This way, nothing important gets lost or forgotten. |
When team members and partners work remotely, there's no way a manager can train them for the new software. Wrike is the software that can be adopted almost instantly! It provides an impressive set of project and task management features, yet is really easy to use. |
Unlimited viewer licenses, available on all of Wrike's pricing plans, are a perfect solution for sharing project data with numerous external partners. Combined with the unlimited number of projects, this makes Wrike is a very cost-effective solution. |
Lesson learned
Maciej Janiec, analyzes inlevel's experience with Wrike
Managing a distributed team in a multi-project environment is much smoother when you can easily get an
overview of what's going on at any moment, who is responsible for one or another task, and what's next in
the pipeline. When you have this information in one central hub, you can accurately manage priorities and
clearly set focus.
inlevel’s tips for efficient management of a virtual team
Don't let data get siloed in emails |
Synchronize your personal schedule with project plans |
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When important info is visible only to the participants of an email discussion, it is a burdensome routine for a manager to communicate it to other people. In Wrike, assignments, updates and documents from emails can be easily shared on the Web with colleagues. It takes seconds to turn an email into a task in Wrike, which saves the manager a lot of time on keeping the team on the same page. |
A manager always has a lot of things to take care of, and it's hard to remember everything when you're multitasking. Maciej Janiec, CEO at inlevel, believes that Wrike is a perfect companion to a calendar. Using Wrike's iCal feeds, he synchronizes the schedule from Wrike with his calendar where he keeps personal records - appointments, memos, etc. Thus, Maciej makes sure there aren't any overlaps in his schedule, which helps him always get things done on time. |
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Merge all communications in one spot |
Take advantage of mobile technologies |
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inlevel extensively uses Google Docs and Google Wave to write down and discuss work-related ideas. Wrike's seamless integration with these two useful tools allows the inlevel team to merge this data in one central hub. "We organize ideas around particular projects and tasks, add a temporal dimension to them and share them with new team members. The way the data automatically flows into Wrike keeps us all organized because we always know." |
For a dynamic and distributed team, it is important to have easy and quick access to project data at any time. Wrike's native mobile apps make it possible to create tasks or make quick changes to existing ones, regardless of your location. Using Wrike on his smartphone, Maciej Janiec can update the project plans even when he's away from the computer. As a result, all the team members become more agile by reacting to project changes faster. |
Get the maximum efficiency in remote collaboration.