Remote Work Solutions

In the middle of all the chaos and unknown since the outbreak of COVID-19, organisations who have enabled remote working for their employees are able to continue on, almost business as usual, much like they were before the pandemic hit the world. Read on to understand why your organisation should enable remote work solutions now.

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Best Remote Work Solution

The best work from home solution, or remote working solution, is one where you feel as though your team is down the hall…even when they’re on the other side of the country. Face to face meetings are as simple and seamless as the click of a button. And every system and file you would ever need to do great work are at your fingertips…

We can help.

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.

Benefits

The benefits of enabling remote work have long been proven to be advantageous to both employees and employers alike.

Employees benefit from remote work

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

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.

Is your organisation’s remote work secure?

Find out what you need to know to keep your organisation protected in the evolving landscape.

Business Needs

There are no hard and fast rules on what it takes to design and implement a great work from home solution. It’s about choosing a solution that works for you and meets the specific needs of your business.

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.

Work from home solutions to meet your business needs

Tools

While you might not need a significant office space when your teams are remote, you do need to make sure everyone has the tools they need to connect and work.

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.

Compliance Requirements

Working from home creates potential security breaches, and each industry has specific requirements for compliance around data and security. Not to worry, we are experts in security and compliance, and also offer a complete managed security offering, Cyber One. Let us be your managed security provider, so you can focus on your business priorities.

Read more about Microsoft security solutions.

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.

Remote Work Adoption

Any significant change can be difficult to get users on board, especially if they’ve been using systems and workflows for years or decades.

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

Speed user adoption with an intuitive work from home solution that your board, executives and staff will love.

Customisable Solutions

Do you have Frontline Workers? Executives that spend a lot of time on conferences? Storefronts? Factories? Every organisation is different, so customisability is a must to ensure that your teams can collaborate when and where they need to.

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

Here are a few articles we’ve written on Remote Work

FAQs

We could write pages about this, but to be truly effective when working from home, every person needs three things:

  • access to the right tools (including high speed internet)
  • some semblance of a routine (however that might look: it might be very different to what it was like in the office)
  • a space to work free from distractions, whether that’s a dedicated office, the lounge room couch, or a spot at the dining table whilst the kids do their remote learning

The important thing to remember is to always check in with co-workers. If you’re struggling, reach out to your manager.

The perks obviously depend on your unique situation, but the following benefits are pretty standard across the board:

  • 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

Many people report feeling happier and more relaxed when they are empowered to work from home some or all of the time.

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

The best way to make the most of working from home is to ensure you have the proper tools at your disposal. This includes all the things you would normally be able to access in the office, including real time conversations with colleagues, places to access and save your files, ways to conduct live demonstrations, and so on.

In terms of productivity, working from home offers great flexibility. But this comes with a responsibility to create a routine that works for you and is acceptable to your organisation. For example, you may be highly productive between 6am and 1pm but find it difficult to concentrate in the afternoon. If your organisation allows it, find out if you can set a routine where you work in these hours and only answer important calls in the afternoon.