How and where we work has changed.
What we thought was a temporary measure during the first few weeks of lockdown has become a permanent one for businesses everywhere, as their employees continue to work from home.
At first it was a make do situation- 'any which way we can' as long as the work can keep going.
Some companies have invested in the IT solutions required to make this a long-term operation, but if you haven’t then now is the time to start.
As part of our Boost My Business initiative Fiona Alston asked Annette Soraine, Chief Commercial Officer of IT solutions company Innovate, to take us through the basic requirements of a safe and secure home working set up.
Work devices – We’ve seen a big surge in companies supplying their employees with work devices rather than them continuing to use their personal home devices.
Not only does it make connecting to the corporate networks easier, but it makes for secure access back to the office environment.
Connectivity to network – Connectivity is a key one. It's all well and good when you are at home in the evening streaming your Netflix while someone is playing on the PlayStation.
But the connection can be slowed if everyone is working from home.
The broadband is a shared connection in a lot of cases. If everyone is working from home and the kids are on their devices at home, you're not getting the speeds that you're used to.
Some people are looking at other options – with various broadband operators rolling out fibre to the home networks across the country offering a much faster speed and a more dedicated connection.
Other people will have to have conversations within their household to ensure those working to get priority on the network.
Are your phone systems updated? - A lot of old phone systems out there don't allow people to have soft phones on their laptops remotely or the ability even to call divert from the office number to mobiles.
We’ve seen an uptake in people looking at newer phone systems, communication systems to allow that.
Are you getting the best from your Office365? - There has been a big shift to Office 365 from traditional email, as it gives firms more flexibility.
But there are still quite a few out there that would have their emails in old servers in the work environment.
One of the other things we see is companies who already had Office 365 licensing but they just use the email component, even though you are paying for a lot more than just the email.
People are starting to use Teams obviously - practically every call now is a video based call - and Sharepoint where they can share files across an organisation.
Companies are paying for it it anyway - it’s not something extra - so they should use it.
Have you moved to the Cloud? - A number of organisations have already moved their data to the cloud.
We’ve had quite a few customers move to cloud now, we are a Microsoft Gold Partner so we bring people to the Microsoft Azure Cloud.
By moving your company to the cloud your employees can use a virtual desk and that technology allows you to have the same desktop services that you would be familiar with in the office from anywhere.
It doesn't matter if you're at home or remote working in a digital hub or co-working space, it looks and feels exactly the same as your office environment.
Video ready devices - I've been in telecommunications for 25 years at this stage and we've talked about video for so long.
It has always been there around the periphery but this has really made video take off.
Make sure people have decent video ready devices or upgrade to a plug in camera and mic for better sound and vision.
Cyber Security - We would have all of our clients using something called two factor authentication – it’s like when you are doing online banking and they send you a text message with a number you need to input to access your account.
It's important that companies have security solutions like that in place so that they’re not leaving it to the user to be trying to protect themselves.
Years ago, we would have seen that those hackers and attacks going after big companies. But that is not the case anymore - it's indiscriminate in terms of where those people are focusing.
We are not seeing an increase in the number of attacks; we are seeing a complete change in the nature of them.
Now more than ever businesses need to have their cyber security software up to date and their staff updated on the latest scams and threats.
Companies should encourage their staff to not be afraid to ask if they are unsure of an email or a link.
They should be made to feel like there are no stupid questions when it comes to cyber security because these attacks are very clever.
Useful links
To view Microsoft Teams click here
For a Cisco Umbrella demo watch here
For information on Virtual Desktop go to this link
Check the broadband in your area here
