During the past two weeks, most businesses have been busy trying to comply with the “stay at home” ordinance due to Coronavirus and remotely accessing their office computers. There were plenty of challenges to overcome as some were technical and some were not. As we all pray and hope this situation will be temporary and we all come out of if healthy and uninfected, but all of us are grateful to have the option of working from home and staying safe. Here we are briefly addressing some of the technological challenges that we have noticed:
- Technical gear: Making sure that you have the right equipment to do your job. Mainly, a fast and reliable computer with the latest antivirus and patches, high speed internet and all other devices such as printers, scanners and copier, etc.
- Slow internet: Now that you are sharing the internet with your spouse and children and the neighbors are also on the internet too, the effects of slow internet becomes a major annoyance and could affect your productivity. Also the load on the office server and internet can cause some slowness. It is best to stagger your time and see if you can work after hours when not everyone is on. It is best to think of a backup plan and get boosters and see if you can hotspot your phone (make sure that service is available too).
- Helpdesk: Sometimes, though, technical complications will arise that are beyond your control. That’s why it’s important to have the appropriate support available to you at home as well as your office. It could be wise to have a local technical support team on your proverbial speed dial to reach out to when things get technologically ugly.
- Power outages and issues at the office: It is always a good idea to have your office computer on a battery backup. In the case that there is a power outage, you still have power to shut down. Also, it might be necessary to have someone to go to your office to turn on your computer. This could also include your server, routers and switches on the battery backup too.
- Makeshift Resources: Not all the resources such as printers, scanners, or your local drives may be available to you now that you are remoting in. It is best to copy your important files and documents to a shared drive on the server or to the cloud (OneDrive, Drobox, etc.) and access them that way. If someone works in the office arrange with them to do so some of the scanning or printing and even file sharing that can be performed by them. But it is best to ramp up your home office equipment if possible.
- Collaboration and Accountability: Now that you are working from home most employers want to know that you are putting the same time and efforts as you were working in the office. There are many collaboration programs such as Microsoft Teams that allow you to be on line and in communication with everyone in your office. Working from home and outside office has proven to produce more productivity. But not many employers know this fact.
If you need any assistance or support to set up your staff to work remotely or if they need to have helpdesk support while working remotely, call us for a free consultation at IT21st: 855-448-2178 or visit us at: www.it21st.com for more information.
