Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, most companies have implemented work from home options to facilitate social-distancing and keep their workforce healthy. However, it’s not as simple as sending your employees home, firing up personal laptops and getting back to work. It is important to provide some guidelines that allows your team to stay productive outside of the office. 

There are so many different factors that go into a healthy routine when it comes to working from home. Not only should safety be a primary concern, but there needs to be open lines of communication between your team members. This requires certain mobile apps that ultimately are part of a remote access plan for your company.

Below are four 4 of seven (7) key essentials to have lined up in order for your team tow work successfully outside of the office.  

Secure Remote Access

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Employees should not have open access to everything on their work systems from their personal computers. This keeps company data protected. In order to be productive through this pandemic, however, employers will need to provide a secure connection utilizing VPN or remote access software.

These solutions will mirror the employee’s work desktop without housing all of the data on the individual’s personal system, allowing them to seamlessly continue work. The good news is, the leaders of an organization can put allowances into place to keep things under control. That way, the right employees have access to the right things.

File Sharing Capabilities 

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While people will be working in isolation, they must still be able to collaborate. File sharing/group editing software will be critical to moving forward creative or documentation projects through real-time editing, commenting, and versioning. This is a driving force in most companies and a lack of sufficient communication can result in a huge decline in productivity.

It’s a necessity to your success to implement a platform that allows for easy communication. Software like Dropbox for Business, Microsoft Teams/Sharepoint or Google Documents fill this need securely.

A Cloud based solution allows your team members to use their remote desktops and mobile devices to access your network. All they’ll need is an internet connection and they can access whatever they need while they’re sitting in front of their home computer

Enterprise Level Antivirus 

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Basic home-level antivirus is not sufficient, particularly in secured industries. Along with that, human error makes for the majority of data breaches. This makes for a dangerous combination.

Extend your enterprise-level antivirus to home systems that will be accessing your network to create an added layer of protection. You may also consider deploying firewalls on top of individual’s home networks to create the same secure connection employees experience in your office. 

Video Conferencing

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Meetings must go on while people work remote; however, voice-only leaves much to be desired in terms of tone and context. We highly recommend putting in place video conferencing options. You can implement something as simple as Google Duo/FaceTime, or something more feature intensive, like Zoom or GoTo Meeting. 

Along with that, video conferencing has been a wonderful way for company members to stay connected throughout this period of isolation. Whether it’s a company call or happy hour, businesses all over the country are sharing the virtual ways through which they’re bonding.

If you'd like more information on the best ways to work remotely contact The TNS Group today to start planning.

Categories: Managed Service Provider, MSP Blogs