As the Coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to spread around the world, many companies are developing a Business Continuity Contingency Plan, and testing their remote-working strategies.
With more staff working at home there will be an impact on productivity.
Remote working is not just about the physical location, it is also about the need for staff to remain connected & informed. That means intelligent tooling, enhanced security measures, remote support services & smarter workplace practices.
Implicit can help you to minimise the business disruption that remote-working may bring.
IT Support
Staff working remotely will require an increased level of IT assistance to minimise downtime if faced with computer or connectivity issues.
We can help you to keep things running smoothly by providing remote advice & support for Daylite, Office 365 & all things Mac.
All of our staff are Apple Certified Support professionals.
Daylite
Daylite CRM is a great tool for sharing all the information required for running your organisation business. If you are not in the office together there are a few things to consider when using Daylite.
- DMA – Keep everyone up to date with the latest developments by adding all emails into Daylite using the DMA side panel.
- Notes – Add notes resulting from phone calls, meetings or new developments.
- Tasks – Manage your workload with tasks and use the delegate feature where needed.
All Your Devices
- Laptop – The most flexible option when moving between the office, home or other locations. An external monitor at home is helpful. Invest in a good laptop bag or rucksack.
- iMac comes with an integral screen, keyboard & mouse.
If you still have the original box it is a good idea to use it during transit. - Mac mini – These are compact and easy to transport.
Consider having a second screen at home so you can just plug it in.
Bear in mind that although your Mac mini does have a small built in speaker, it does not possess a webcam or microphone. - BYOD (bring your own device) – If you use your own computer for working at home it should possess the same level of security as your work computer.
That could mean; disk encryption, anti-virus protection, strong user passwords etc. - Computer Performance – If your iMac or Mac mini is a few years old you may find that it has become slow. Replacing the existing hard drive with a solid state drive (SSD) will significantly increase the speed, and extend its life for a few more couple of years – much cheaper than buying a new one.
We provide an onsite SSD replacement service so get in touch if you are fed up wasting time watching the rainbow wheel of death go round. - Storage – make sure you have enough disk space to cope with any additional data you may need when away from the office.
- Hygiene – computer keyboards & mice harbour more bacteria than a toilet seat! It makes sense to ensure they are cleaned regularly with a combination of wipes and compressed air.
- Printers – Access to a printer at home may be required.
We love the Epson Eco-Tank series of printers because they provide ink in bottles that last many times longer than HP cartridges. - Scanners – Many printers have a scanning capability.
We recommend getting a scanner that can scan to a computer folder, which also syncs to a shared cloud service like SharePoint or DropBox.
For multiple-page scanning the Fujitsu ScanSnap range seem to be the best with a multi-page feeder tray.
Keeping your Devices Safe
- Being away from the office environment can significantly increase your cyber risk. There will be more people around you so make sure you cannot be overlooked – especially if you are in a public place like a Cafe.
- Never let your computer out of your site when in a public place.
- Do note share you user account with anybody on any computer you use for work. Instead, create additional user accounts for other people, or create a separate guest account.
- It is recommended that a password should be required after 5 minutes of computer idle time.
- Password Hygiene – It’s an obvious one but it cannot be stressed enough – Strong, frequently updated passwords protect businesses.
- Don’t use the same password for multiple services. We see too many businesses doing this (you know who you are 🤐).
Consider using a password managing app like 1Password.
TeamViewer
It’s a great tool and we use a lot when supporting our clients.
It allows two-way remote access to other computers and has many great features:
- Free for personal use
- Very easy setup
- Supports Audio & Video calling
- Allows file transfers
Cloud Storage
A great resource providing real-time access to files – vital for maintaining client communication & productivity.
- Well established
- Reliable
- Secure
- Files on demand technology saves local storage
OneDrive is used for personal cloud file storage.
SharePoint or DropBox is used for sharing documents across teams.
- You can choose to sync files locally or keep them on the cloud
- Supports high levels of security
- Allows collaborative work on documents
- Data can also be shared with iOS devices
Microsoft Teams
This is an excellent collaboration & communication tool for your team.
It can cut out a lot of unnecessary internal email traffic.
Although Slack may be the better known tool we would say that Teams is now at parity.
- Free with an Office 365 Business Premium subscription
- Chat with other members directly or in a group
- Share files
- Create conversation topics (Channels) and invite users
- Make VOIP & video calls, with answerphone support
- Video Conferencing with recording feature and background blur built in
- Collaborate on Office documents – Word, Excel & PowerPoint.
- Full support for OneDrive and SharePoint
- High level of security
- Chat, make calls & share files from your iPhone & iPad
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