"Already more than half of the population work more hours remotely than in the office."

That's only one statistic from our brand new “State of Remote 2022” report, showing the current state of remote work and main trends in global remote hiring.

SoftwareSupport is an elite network of the best professionals in the world and we are happy to deliver a complete report on remote hiring exclusively to our customers, helping you adapt the way you hire and interact with workforce every day.

In this report you will find exclusive content about:
1. Remote work in numbers
2. Remote work vs COVID
3. Companies hiring remotely
4. Remote work categories
5. Remote work technologies
6. Remote work hourly rates
7. Remote work tools
8. How to contract remote workforce
9. Find remote work
10. SoftwareSupp remote work

To get the report, please:
1. Log in to your SoftwareSupp account or set up your project.
2. Schedule a report presentation with us anytime convenient for you by using this link.
3. Get the PDF version of the report by going to Messages -> contacting SoftwareSupp and getting report in the message.

SoftwareSupport is launching 2 new initiatives for SoftwareSupporters, freelancers operating in the SoftwareSupp network:

SoftwareSupporter Hoodies

SoftwareSupport is an elite network of the best professionals in the world and we are working hard on delivering top quality services for our customers everyday.

However​,​ in the days of the remote work​,​ we would like to support our customers​,​ employees and developers with something you can use to make your workday better​,​ going through another challenging project or solution in a much warmer atmosphere.

We are happy to deliver a free SoftwareSupporter hoodie specially for you. Please note that this is delivered free of charge. And currently​,​ this will be delivered exclusively to the first 30 customers​,​ developers and employees who sign up with the next batch planned later this year.

To get the free hoodie​,​ please use the below form and provide:

1. The address for delivery or self-pickup in Wrocław if preferable on your side

2. The size (currently we only deliver in M and L)

3. The email and phone number to be used in the delivery

Please sign up using the below form:

-> Sign up for SoftwareSupporter Hoodie

Remote SoftwareSupp Sprint

We understand the challenges of remote work​,​ so we decided to help you plan and execute on the projects with your customers by building “Remote SoftwareSupp Sprints”.

What does it mean?

It means that every Monday 10 am time CEST and every Friday 2 pm CEST time​,​ you can meet in the online room with other freelancers working on projects with SoftwareSupport for a 30-60 min session to:

1. Plan or sum up work.

2. Ask for help related to your work​/​project

3. Brainstorm the solution related to the work​/​project

+ get support from SoftwareSupp Core Team Member.

We see it as a perfect opportunity to meet other freelancers and to help you with any challenges you face on road to successful project completion.

Please note that participating in the “Remote SoftwareSupp Sprints” for now will be optional as the priority on your side remains delivering top quality service for customers and participating in customers’ sprints​,​ however​,​ we kindly encourage you to participate as we see it as a perfect opportunity to ensure successful delivery for the customers and to help you with any technical challenges or additional solutions designed for the customers.

-> Sign up for Remote SoftwareSupp Sprint (If you're an active freelancer, please reach out to your Project Manager for an invite)

We're excited to announce a new episode of SoftwareSupp Talks!

In this episode, we spoke with backend developer Dawid Krawczyk. Using one of his projects as an example, David walked us through his typical work process, what difficulties he faced, shared his views on remote work and much more!

Who is Dawid Krawczyk?

Dawid is a developer with over 10 years of experience. He has worked on projects of the highest complexity in areas such as banking and DNA multiplication projects.

David is part of SoftwareSupp elite network of freelancers and available to work on your projects!

We invite you to watch a short excerpt from the webinar:

You can find more content on our YouTube channel.

How to watch the full episode?

To watch full episodes of our webinars, you need to be a freelancer registered on our platform or a SoftwareSupp customer. After registration, you will receive a link in your account with access to full episodes.

If you are already a registered freelancer or a customer, you will receive a message in your account with access to the webinar.

What is SoftwareSupp Talks?

SoftwareSupp Talks is a series of webinars with top professionals across many industries. Our webinars give you an opportunity to get to know SoftwareSupp freelancers, find out how they work, what challenges they face and how they solve them, and get useful tips from our freelancers.

Usually, projects and meetings with clients are managed from two different places. From the customer perspective, there's nothing more irritating than a Freelancer who forgot about the call or mixed up the date because of a different time zone. To help SoftwareSupp Experts to avoid this kind of situation, we introduced a Meeting System, which will help them schedule and organize work at SoftwareSupp better.

In this Guide for Experts, you will learn:

1. Benefits of SoftwareSupp Meeting System
2. Step-by-step on how to set up your availability
3. Tips on how to attend a meeting like a pro

Benefits of SoftwareSupp Meeting System

Being a part of an elite network of Certified Freelancers has a lot of advantages. One of them is the constant development of the website to make your work easier and provide you with all the tools you need as an Expert.

Project, communication, and meetings managed from one place

All you need is a Project Board at SoftwareSupp. And so does your client. You can easily control all your tasks, inform the customer about the progress or unexpected issues, and manage meetings (planned or emergency). You don't have to organize your client meetings in a calendar anymore. All of them will automatically appear over there. What's more – you will get reminders to never miss another meeting.

No worries about the time zone

Working online for customers all over the world might be difficult due to the time difference. At SoftwareSupp you can set up your availability and current time zone. With this feature, you will get meeting notifications and reminders at your local time. No more mixed-up hours and unhappy customers.

Automated calendar

Some things might pop up last minute. A customer might modify the time of the meeting or cancel it. Having a lot of things in mind as an Expert, it's easy to overlook them. With SoftwareSupp Meeting System, calls will be rescheduled or removed from your calendar automatically.

Change your availability anytime

Freelancing has its own rules. You don't need to be a full-time Freelancer to work on side projects. Also, sometimes you might have to take an unexpected break or a day off. At SoftwareSupp you can adjust your availability to your everyday responsibilities such as job, doctor's appointments, or other meetings. Customers will be able to quickly book a meeting with you only on dates and hours you choose.

Step-by-step on how to set up your availability

1. Log in and go to your expert profile

Click on your avatar on the right top and go to "Edit expert profile".

2. Go to the "Availability"

3. Set up your availability

Adjust your time zone, days, and hours you are available to book a meeting. You can also add exceptions if it's needed.

4. Connect with Google Calendar

You will be asked to choose your e-mail address and agree to terms and conditions.

5. Save your availability

Don't forget to update the information you changed. And... voilà!

How to attend a meeting like a pro

As SoftwareSupp, we are an elite network of the best experts in the world. It's important to remember a few things during client meetings to show that they're working with top professionals.

Prepare an agenda‍

Have a structure of conversation, goals to achieve, and a list of topics or activities to discuss. It's good to inform the client at the beginning what's the plan of the meeting and what you're going to talk about.

Turn on your camera

During meetings on-site, a customer always sees your face. Treat an online one the same way. Always turn on your camera and let clients talk to a person, not an avatar.

Introduce SoftwareSupp as an elite network

If it's the first meeting, you should introduce yourself and tell a little about your specialty. Remember that SoftwareSupp is an elite network of freelancers, and customers need to be reminded about it every time.

Discuss a project in details

Clients don't always know what exactly they need, or they don't know how to describe it. That's why they choose to work with a Certified Expert. Discuss the scope of the project and all activities in detail to make sure everything is clear.

Subscriptions are becoming incredibly popular, and every forecast predicts that this trend will not change soon. As this model grew in popularity, many software brands started to provide useful tools for managing it. With so much variety on the market, companies only need to choose the CRM for subscription business that best meets their requirements.

Our client, Schapira Medical Concierge, was precise about what they expected, but not sure which CRM would be the best fit. They considered monday.com, but were concerned if it would be possible to manage subscriptions with it.

Benefits of CRM for subscription business

Everyone is familiar with Netflix, Adobe, Spotify, or LinkedIn. Do you imagine them operating without the management tool that helps to organize users’ accounts, data and preferences, payment history, and automated messages? Most likely no.

A good CRM for a subscription business is one that can manage the entire process, or at least the majority of actions that must be performed. It improves efficiency and makes the company more scalable. Clients stay longer, and their relationship with the brand grows stronger.

On the other side, it also gives an excellent opportunity for upselling. Consider Amazon Prime Video. You buy access to the basic library of movies, but to watch some of them you need to pay extra. With a subscription model, it’s easier to estimate revenue and manage the cash flow. That’s what makes it very competitive compared to other business models.

‍Tim Little | Monday.com & Integromat Expert

Setup & automation of CRM for subscription business – project details

Goals:

• Track signups, payments, and history
• Pursue renewals for subscription service
• Improve the efficiency of sales

Company: Schapira Medical Concierge

Project scope:

• Setup monday.com workflows for subscription service with the following stages: signups, paid & up to date, renewals, canceled
• Automate workflow stages
• Automate tracking of payments
• Automate email reminders for renewals to patients

Time of the project: 4 weeks 

Skills used: Business process analysis, Monday.com automation & workflow setup, email automation, project management, quality assurance, and testing plan.

Setup of monday.com workflow

Schapira Medical Concierge approached SoftwareSupp with very precise requirements. For the start, the company needed to add data to CRM, such as names, the date the client signed up, payments history, and service expiration.

With this information in hand, the next step was to automate notifications. First, to keep employees informed, and second – to send emails to patients when they join the program or before the renewal.

A CRM expert was hired to build a monday.com workflow to track all subscription signups through the following stages:

1. New sign-ups
2. Activation and updates
3. Renewals
4. Cancelled subscriptions

How CRM helps to manage subscriptions

The subscription model relies on automation, and CRM is all about that. You can organize, speed up and automate all necessary actions by using one tool. It helps to manage all communication and interactions between the company and clients. Every business using a subscription model needs to make sure that the process is fast, simple, and effortless. Otherwise, users will quickly switch to the competition’s services.

New sign-ups

First 24 hours after the client decides to use services are the most important. The relationship between the company and the client must begin right away. Schapira Medical Concierge needed to track payments, gather information about new patients, and onboard them. At this very first stage, it helps them in avoiding a situation in which the client is unsure of the next actions to take or how to properly use the service.

Paid subscriptions

Not everyone who registers on the platform makes the payment. That’s why it’s critical to exclude in CRM news signups from paid customers. Although it is obvious that only subscribers may use the service, reminders should be sent to individuals who abandoned the cart. Subscription usage history will also help with tracking the user behavior, personalization, and development of a long-standing relationship.

Renewals

People are just people, and they tend to forget things. It’s always a good idea to remind them about the upcoming membership renewal. The client needed automated reminders and tracking payment collection to be organized in monday.com. Entering this information into CRM simply saves time. Employees don’t have to send separate messages or remember who else needs to pay.

Canceled subscriptions

Last but not least. The customer who canceled the subscription might always come back. Tracking reasons for cancellation helps to establish what needs to be improved, fixed, or changed. Also, the communication with clients doesn’t end when they cancel. In this case, patients that resigned from the subscription were moved to a separate email list. That allowed to send them messages designed precisely to reactivate them.

Results of choosing monday.com CRM for subscription business

Subscription business requires more automation than any other sort of business. The data flow has to be extremely organized, and the communication must stay intact.

The expert integrated subscription management into single software to track each patient's subscription journey. He provided a scalable system and process for managing Schapira Medical Concierge processes. It enabled business intelligence reporting on subscription success and renewal for the custom bespoke process. Using CRM and implementing automated reminders for medical subscriptions, increased customer engagement and a number of renewals.

It's not a surprise that CRM is a game changer for most companies. Our client, an influencer marketing agency, needed to organize and speed up daily tasks, projects, and other operations. By automating workflow and lead generation, sales could be closed faster and more efficiently.

What is workflow automation in CRM

Automating workflow is all about business performance. You have a sequence of activities required to complete the process. Usually, it's used for repetitive tasks that don't need approval. With automation, they are accomplished by dedicated software. You no longer have to spend additional time doing things manually. If it's designed and implemented by a professional, you might be sure it will significantly improve your business efficiency.

Benefits of automating workflow

Automation is something that every entrepreneur should consider investing in. Even with the best idea for the business, you won't succeed if you waste time and energy on tasks that can be fully computerized.

By automating workflow, lead generation, and other operations you get:

1. More control over data: It's easier to gather, organize and analyze all the details. This way, you know what to improve, what to focus on, or how much revenue you can expect.

2. Improved efficiency: All repetitive tasks are automated, allowing team members to focus on other areas of improvement, communication, and development.

3. Reduced human errors: It's easy to make a mistake if there's a lot of data. Every automation minimizes errors that could cost you a lead, client, or image.

4. Smooth communication: Tasks are assigned, and all employees are kept up to date. As a result, it's easier to prioritize assignments and focus on goals.

5. All tasks organized and easier to manage: Instead of manual organization, you immediately gather information in relevant locations.

‍Tim Little | Monday.com & Integromat Expert

Automating workflow & improving sales with monday.com – project’s details

Goals:

• Improving email tracking for lead generation
• Automating workflow
• Managing multiple currencies and lead pipelines based on the region (Spain and UK)

Company: Good Egg – an influencer marketing agency

As a marketing agency​, we need our projects organized into workload trackers where the team can see and update everything. We have so many ideas of how Monday can help us reduce our workforce efforts, but we're not very gifted on the tech side, such as optimizations​,​ integrations​,​ etc. – Sharmayne Anandarajah, Project Manager at Good Egg

Project’s scope:

• Building a CRM in monday.com
• Streamlining CRM automation to organize projects
• Sales dashboard for a better workflow and forecasting
• Combining Spanish & UK lead pipelines
• Automating proposal assignments 
• Automatically sync and merge lead emails into the monday.com sales pipeline

Project’s time: 3 weeks

Used skills: monday.com automation, sales funnel setup, business analysis & reporting, Integromat integration

Automating workflow using monday.com

Good Egg needed to improve the reporting dashboards and lead workflow for multiple sales channels across different regions. During the project, we consolidated multiple pipelines into a single pipeline for ease of use and visibility.

We set up two dashboards, one for each region and source of leads. This empowers the business to see where resources should be focused based on quarterly and monthly numbers of sales in each region.

Improving sales by automating lead generation

We also used Integromat for advanced email routing from the lead generation email provider into the sales pipeline in monday.com. This saved the sales team time. It also provided a holistic context of conversations and information from lead emails into the monday.com lead pipeline. As a result, we were able to reduce the time to close sales and improve customer relationships.

Summary

CRM can be extremely helpful with automating workflow and lead generation. The thing is, first it has to be properly implemented and integrated with other tools. If your business wants to benefit from CRM, hiring a professional is better than trying to solve technical issues on your own. It will simply save you time, and time is money.

An organized and simplified workflow made the software easier to use in this case. Automated e-mail generation organized and simplified workflow made the software easier to use. Automated e-mail generation saved time, and reduced errors through auto-syncing information into monday.com columns on CRM. It also decreased the time to connect with customers.

Sales dashboards created enable data-driven decisions specific to each region. The sales cycle was shortened by a quicker turnaround for proposal creation and delivery.