In today’s era of social distancing, many businesses are having to consider work-from-home options for their employees. Therefore, it’s important that businesses are equipped with the technology and support team to handle the shift to a remote workforce. Let’s take a look at the most powerful options we’re deploying and supporting today.
One of the most common setups for the remote workforce is a company laptop in conjunction with a solid VPN. VPN (virtual private network) redirects the internet traffic on a remote computer through the business network. This allows remote employees to connect to network resources such as file shares while off-site. Putting these employees on quality company laptops helps ensure data integrity and compliance. Content-filtering applications and antivirus that work from anywhere are available to protect company resources.
Businesses that assign desk phones to their employees can struggle to cope with the change to a remote workforce if their system is too antiquated to be flexible. A modern phone system allows desk phones to work from any internet connection, including employees’ homes. Such a system can also provide the option for “softphone” access—that is, a separate phone application that mimics the desk phone, accessible by smart phone or PC. Employees can take calls to their extension on their cell, their laptop, or their actual desk phone, allowing for true flexibility and work-from-anywhere functionality.
Another powerful service available to businesses today is the Office 365 platform. While most people are familiar with the Microsoft Office desktop applications, the Office 365 license also provides access to web-based versions of these applications, including Outlook, Excel, and Word. In situations where providing each employee with their own laptop may not be feasible, allowing home access to the Office 365 web applications can keep workers connected while forced to be out of the office.
Over the weeks here at Layered Systems, we’ve seen a dramatic shift in our clients to a remote workforce, and it’s been our pleasure to help them through the changes. If your business could use the support of a team of professionals with the experience and tools to enable success through a remote workforce, Contact Us today.
