We typically think of WordPress as a platform for blogging, interacting with customers, and facilitating sales, but WordPress is also equipped to run your office effectively, whether employees are working onsite or remotely.

WordPress can do a wonderful job of keeping you on task, but only as long as you’re using the right tools. WordPress has thousands of useful plugins that can be utilized to enhance any plain websites.

Here are some useful plugins you’ll want to consider when using WordPress for office management:

1. Industry-Specific Tools

The first plugin you’ll want to consider is one that relates to your industry. It’s important to look here first because, oftentimes, you’ll find a plugin for your niche that does multiple things. You don’t want to double up on plugins.

The kinds of plugins most useful to you will depend largely on your industry. If you’re involved with real estate, for example, you might be interested in IMpress Listings. This plugin gives real estate agents full control over things like listing management, time tracking for property management teams, managing broker accounts, and more. This keeps real-estate agents on task and aligned.

A similar plugin can be found for other industries. These tools are very useful for keeping your office activities in line with your goals.

2. Project Management

Project management is among the most important tools to have in your business. This is because it significantly improves your organization and ensures that everyone stays on the same page, meeting deadlines and working towards the same goals. Though you can use project management software outside of your website, it’s often useful to have these features integrated into your regular site.

Some great project management plugins include SP Project & Document Manager, BP GTM System, Task Freak, and WordPress Task Management. These plugins give you control over tasks, subtasks, time tracking, goal setting, and more.

3. Live Chat

According to customer surveys, live chat is the most popular form of communication for businesses; it even beats out phone and email. So, naturally, it’s very useful for you to have a live chat plugin.

Some of the best live chat plugins on the market include Live Chat from ClickDesk, Zopim Live Chat, and Facebook Live Chat for WordPress. Each of these chat plugins offers plenty of support and seamless integration with your WordPress site.

4. Backup Program

Backup programs are a must for every home business. It’s ridiculously easy to lose data when updating a website. If a server crashes, you could lose more information than it’s possible to recover.

Plugins like BackupBuddy ensure that you’ll never lose your data. This plugin uses the cloud to move information to a more secure location while you update the site or when the server encounters issues. Because it’s integrated into your website system, it will take care of the backup and restoration automatically.

5. Security

Website security is just as important as backup. Cyberattacks are growing more and more frequent, and you can provide a lot of protection from fraud, hacking attempts, malware, and other malicious code, simply by installing the right plugin.

Ithemes Security is a very popular plugin right now. There’s no requirement to understand the ins and outs of online security, and it’ll protect your site from brute force attacks, bad users, malicious code, and other attacks.

Turning to your website for office management is a savvy, efficient move that will save you in the long run. Using these plugins will help you keep your website up to date, secure, and engaging for your visitors.