Remote work solutions are vital in an ever-changing world

In times of crisis, agility and flexibility are key to survival. The events of early 2020 were a shock for many, and forced business leaders across the globe to re-consider rigid workplace policies that shunned remote working. Those who were well-equipped to handle the change eclipsed their less agile competitors, deploying remote work quickly.

Outside of crisis, remote work is a key driver for organisations seeking to attract high performers who assert that flexible working arrangements are very important to them.

Studies also tell us that employees who have the option to work from home:

• are more productive
• take less sick days
• are less likely to quit

This new age of tech-enabled remote working demands a shift from a legacy “bums on seats” mentality to meet the needs and aspirations of today’s workforce.

Employees benefit from remote work

There are many benefits to working from home, such as:

• No commute time
• Less disruptions
• Fewer futile meetings
• More personal or family time
• Ability to choose hours that are naturally productive for you
• Potential to live further from the office

The benefits obviously depend on your unique situation, but many people report feeling happier and more relaxed when they are empowered to work from home some or all of the time.

Employers benefit from remote work

Businesses can benefit in many ways from allowing staff to work remotely. Some of the benefits include:

• Not having to pay for exorbitant office space, or having a reduced office space footprint
• Saving on costs such as snacks or tea and coffee
• Higher staff retention
• Less sick days
• More productivity
• Improved internal culture
• Faster return to work after sickness or maternity leave

Every organisation is different, and full time remote work is simply not feasible for all industries. However, most organisations can implement flexible working arrangements that allow staff to choose if they want to work remotely where it is appropriate.

This allows the business and staff to reap all the potential benefits remote work can provide.

Get a work from home solution that works for you

Generally, there are 3 main essentials to achieve a work from home solution that maximises productivity, enables greater governance, and unifies communications to eliminate unnecessary spending…

Collaboration suite

To promote real-time centralised collaboration, you need a collaboration suite. This reduces the dependence on emails and stops important information being scattered across countless inboxes and in random un-secured folders.

The best collaboration suites offer real-time messaging, file uploads and storage, project templates, calendars, and more. Staff can login remotely and work alongside their peers to complete tasks and projects.

Video conferencing

Nothing makes remote work feel quite as natural as video conferencing. Fast and highly effective, video conferencing is an ultra-productive alternative to time-consuming office meetings.

With the right video conferencing software, you can schedule meetings with a single click and enjoy high quality audio and visual for the full duration. You can also host live presentations or webinars, and leverage unique features such as built-in whiteboards.

Softphones

Softphones are a remote-work alternative to hard desk phones. They are accessible anytime and anywhere (with an internet connection), and can be configured so every staff member has their own direct line. This also reduces staff dependence on personal mobiles and allows you to do away with expensive on-premise telephony services.

The right tools to work remotely make all the difference

To work from home effectively, you and your team need the right tools. Generally this means a quality desktop or laptop computer, and of course, a reliable high-speed internet connection is a non-negotiable. With these two items, and access to file and document storage remotely, most people can do their work wherever they need do.

Depending on the person, things like a desk, ergonomic chair, monitor, etc, are also items to consider that may need to be purchased or made available for staff members.

Collaboration is more efficient remotely

The main worry for many organisations is the inability to work together with others and collaborate the same way they would in an office or other workplace. How do we work together on that project we have coming up?

With access to a unified communications platform like Microsoft Teams however, that worry is non-existent. Meetings turn into video collaboration sessions, with all members having access to files and documents, and tools like screen sharing and whiteboarding. In addition, chatbots built for Microsoft Teams allow your teams to be more efficient by taking care of frequently asked questions.

To enable quality calling, certified headsets or speakerphones are best practice as they ensure the best audio experience. (No one likes to be the on a call where the other party has a terrible microphone – we’ve all been there!) In addition, USB video cameras will bring a higher quality image to video calls, though not as important as the audio devices.

And all of this is entirely possible without leaving your home.

Your remote work solution must meet your compliance requirements

The security and ease of cloud computing has driven widespread adoption in recent years. Developers of popular platforms, such as Microsoft Business 365, have gone to great pains to ensure their systems have the highest security credentials and encryption available (as standard).

However, it’s vital to ensure that staff access your systems in a way that minimises the risk of confidential information being shared with or seen by the wrong people. Effective security controls also limit the potential for malicious attacks through unsuspecting sources.

As experts in data security, we can help you audit your remote work solution to:

• identify any security issues
• implement access and identity controls
• roll out endpoint protection
• assess controls against compliance requirements
• monitor threats in real time
• develop a business continuity plan

Cyber One – Managing security and compliance for your remote workforce

Quorum’s managed security practice helps keep customers productive and secure, and their company data protected. This removes the “distraction” often associated with security and allows employees and business to focus on their priorities.

The Cyber One Team helps customers:

• Proactively guard against threats
• Reduce “mean time to detect” and “mean time to resolve”
• Monthly service review
• Provide continuous fine-tuning
• Data driven “Security insights”
• Integrate with customer ticketing systems

Cyber One Customers gain the following:

• Better manage the security of their enterprise-wide assets
• Reduce complexity overhead, maximise effectiveness
• Increase Security Posture, continuous improvement “Secure Score”
• Service support and assistance during incident triage and escalation

Get in touch with us to find out more about how we can help your organisation manage security with Cyber One today.

Intuitive work from home solutions speed adoption

Many business owners worry that their staff will find it difficult to transition to new systems – especially when legacy systems have been in place for decades.

This is a legitimate concern, and there are undoubtedly some work from home solutions that are difficult to learn and painful to operate, which can slow user adoption across the business.

On the other hand, there are some phenomenal work from home solutions that are so intuitive your staff will barely require any training. They’re also fun and inviting, which helps speed user uptake and ensures you get a faster ROI.

Understanding what work from home solution you are getting is crucial before you commit to it. Find out if you can get a free demo, and check that you will easily be able to access training and ongoing support.

We provide a full-service capability to help you choose, implement and manage your remote working solution. Our team is vendor-agnostic and can assist with:

• Evaluating different solutions
• Infrastructure assessments
• Demonstrations for executives
• Implementation
• User training
• Change management
• Ongoing support

The best work from home solutions can be customised

Your work from home solution will become a core part of your business, so it should serve all your business needs and be able to scale or contract as your business does.

This is why customisation is so important. An inflexible system simply won’t stand the test of time and could end up costing you more money than it’s worth.

Before choosing your work from home solution, develop a wish list of everything you want it to be able to do. And make sure your employees can work from home quickly when needed. Then, check off the capabilities of each solution as they apply.

If you have highly specific needs, most systems can be customised to accommodate them. While this may require some investment on your part, the potential cost savings and productivity benefits are likely to deliver a much higher ROI than you would expect.

We are remote work solution experts, and provide an extensive range of software development and customisation services. We can help you:

• Assess your wish list
• Evaluate your options
• Explain what can be customised
• Customise an application for you
• Assist with implementation
• Provide ongoing training and support