3 Tips for Improving a Remote Workforce
As we settle into new ways of working remotely, it is crucial for company IT leadership to manage their workforce in terms of security, communications, and applications being used. Since employees are not able to use the network and applications previously available from being in office, and security risks are peaking, it has become crucial to continue updating these strategies and technologies to reflect the changing times we are living in.
1. Secure your evolving workforce
Phishing and malware infections are at an all-time high, and having remote workers creates added risk for company systems and their confidential data. If your workforce is using personal computers connected to a company VPN to access your network, those employees might forget to disconnect from the VPN network before visiting non-work websites, which could pose security risks for cybercriminals to exploit. This makes it important to ensure all tools, whether it be a VPN or otherwise, are monitored, managed and properly updated as needed. With almost all workforces working purely online, it is vital to find tools that will evolve with your workforce. Due to the sharp increase in the sharing of corporate documents and files, revisit your advanced privacy control and confidentiality policies regularly to protect this data as needs evolve. Chris Campbell and Nicholai Piagentini dive a little deeper into this subject matter on the StatusGO podcast, episode: Enabling a More Dynamic Environment.
Assessing cybersecurity vulnerabilities and establishing priorities to alleviate the pain points within your company has risen to the forefront of IT’s role. After evaluating these priorities, you can then determine which security tools and partner are best suited for your circumstances. Another tool that can be important to look into is Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS), which uses the cloud as a DR destination and enables IT staff to support other systems. Not only does this free up staff, but it reduces expenses as well.
2. Maintain access to critical applications
With online applications being a necessity for almost every workforce now, it is extremely key to maintain access to SaaS and non-SaaS applications. Because of our increased reliance on technology for communication, it is even more important for companies to take a look at their choices in software. Utilizing SaaS applications will allow members in different parts of the world to access and communicate through the same applications effortlessly. For applications that aren’t SaaS based, it is important to provide a means of connectivity to those applications through an application hosting solution, such as AWS AppStream 2.0. A service like this would allow all applications, regardless of being SaaS or not, to be used alike, with decreased worry about breaches in security.
SaaS infrastructure is becoming increasingly critical to companies, since it allows for ease of scale and confidence in sharing files and plans to remote workers worldwide. The experience with SaaS tools allows workforces to access corporate content consistently with an ease of use. These appealing characteristics allow companies to adjust and adapt to this new way of doing business, while also pivoting toward cloud(s) if this is your company strategy.
3. Stay connected with collaboration tools
The effectiveness and strength of your team relies on the power of your collaboration tool set and the measures instilled in your employees to use it. For this reason, many companies are embracing strategies for communications that extend beyond voice to include video conferencing and messaging. You may find it cumbersome to manage telephony challenges, especially now that remote workers rely on unified communications to share documents and connect. Email alone doesn’t promote ideal communications – the addition of voice to hear tonal inflections and of video to see expressions plus the extension to share documents, enables a deeper, more meaningful interaction.
Keeping securely connected from anywhere at anytime promotes employee satisfaction and increased productivity. Managing these technologies quickly burdens the internal IT staff when self-managed. Implementing cloud-based technologies, like UCCX, Webex Calling, Amazon Connect and Hosted Collaboration to provide secure, reliable, and integrated unified communications enables taxed internal IT staff to focus on other strategic initiatives while also reducing costs.
Keeping an Eye on the Future
When enabling a remote workforce, connectivity can prove to be the backbone in all scenarios. In the past, fast and reliable connectivity might have been taken for granted, since all employees were working under the same umbrella, in one office. But now that employees are dispersed throughout town, or indeed the world, IT departments must ensure that everyone has access to a high security network, collaboration tools, and applications. It’s valuable to investigate the many advantageous tools and solutions that can ease frustrations in this transitional process, so that your business doesn’t select a solution that doesn’t meet goals.
InterVision has a vast portfolio of solutions for every IT need, including cloud migration, Hosted Collaboration to optimize communications in the cloud, and continuous secured access to applications via solutions like AWS AppStream 2.0. Leveraging these tools can help you advance with your progressive workforce. We can help you assess and distinguish which tools can best support your business and IT needs. Reach out to us if you have any questions or would like to learn more.
