Following a successful period of remote working in lockdown, many organisations are introducing long-term Working From Home Policies. There are so many benefits to remote working, from supporting staff to maintain childcare duties to tapping into talent outside of your typical geographical area. Having a remote working strategy in-place will elevate your organisation above the rest in the months to come.
Keep reading to make sure you are equipped to deal with staff working remotely long term.
Hardware
It’s likely that your team is already equipped with the kit they need to do their job, but do you have oversight of this? The roll-out of lockdown came as such a surprise to many of us and, as a result, many businesses bypassed IT protocol to ensure staff members had access to laptops and phones to carry out their responsibilities from home.
Rather than continuing on the same lines, we recommended taking stock of your current corporate hardware assets – where are they? Who is responsible for them? And are they up-to-date? This leads us nicely into the next point…
Cybersecurity
Over 60% of businesses fall victim to phishing and social engineering attacks each year and the risk is heightened when your hardware is not easily accessible by a central team.
Just because your team is working remotely, it doesn’t mean that your IT team should lose access to systems. You can still keep up with patch management and regular vulnerability scanning if you have the right infrastructure in place – give us a shout if you need help centralising your IT support to keep your data safe.
Project management
Over the last three months, we’ve all noticed the importance of project management software to keep teams on track. We highly recommend Microsoft Teams and Planner, as it’s not only a market-leading collaboration tool, but it also includes several other amazing features including video conferencing, Microsoft Cloud Apps and file sharing.
Telephones
While we’ve already explored the importance of a hardware management protocol – and that goes for telephones, too. Thanks to the latest VoIP technology, you can roll-out highly efficient and technical telephone services – even to those who are working remotely. From Click-to-Call to easy self-installation and low phone bill costs, a trusted VoIP supplier is a must-have if you are rolling our permanent remote working for your stuff.
At Adept, we’re 3CX Platinum Partners, and we have been for a number of years. We work with several organisations, including the NHS, to implement the power of VoIP technology. Need a hand? You know where we are.
Videoconferencing
How could we forget the linchpin of remote working? Without video conferencing, many businesses would have struggled to stay afloat during the lockdown. However, the great demand for video conferencing brought a number of technical and security risks – particularly to Zoom, a popular choice for many individuals.
If you are looking at a longterm solution, you should opt for a video conferencing solution that integrates into your phone system. 3CX is not only a VoIP platform, but it also provides secure feature-rich in-browser real-time video conferencing – meaning you don’t have to download anything onto your computer to use, and there’s no risk of “Zoombombing”.
Due to the high security and ease-of-use, 3CX is ideal for those in the education sector looking to communicate with students and parents remotely in a safe and secure way.
Are you thinking of trialling remote working long-term? Get in touch with Adept CTS to find out how we can support you on your journey to flexible and secure working with trusted IT and communications solutions.
