Businesses have been asked to work from, if they can, for over 6 weeks now and most businesses have adapted pretty well to these changes. Business owners have restructured the way they work to keep themselves, their staff and their clients safe, and the importance of investing in reliable IT for your business has been significantly highlighted during these weeks too.
With no definitive end to the current crisis, we have been working with a number of clients who are looking at implementing a more flexible way of working in their business to allow them and their staff to work from home, even after when we return to some kind of normality.
If you’re thinking of introducing a work from option for your business, now or in the future here are some of the things you need to consider:
HARDWARE
Having reliable hardware that allows your staff to work away from the office is vital. Laptops are the best option for this. Staff can work from the laptops in the office and take them home to allow them access to all the necessary _les and applications, they need to do their jobs. Plus, majority of laptops will come with built in webcams and speakers to enable video calling too. You may want to install monitors and separate keyboards and mice which can be connected to the laptop to be used in the office, so employees feel like they are working from desktops, and may offer a more comfortable working environment too.
SECURITY
It’s important to have a reliable antivirus and antimalware installed on all your devices under any circumstances, but when you introduce working from home into your business, you may want to consider some other security applications too. For example, BitLocker which encrypts your data, so your information is kept safe and private, should the device ever get lost or stolen
MONITORING
You can add another layer of security for your staff and your devices by installing DNS Filtering. This protects against online threats and blocks inappropriate content on your work devices. You can have access to an admin dashboard on your computer that allows you to monitor what pages have been blocked, and set up weekly alerts to give you an overview of blocked pages and threats.
EMAILS
Most business communication is done via email, so ensure your email provider is up to the task! We recommend Microsoft Office 365 to our clients, as it allows you to add and sync emails on multiple devices, have at least 50GB of storage per mailbox, and is much more reliable than standard mailboxes you get with your website hosting.
BACKUPS
Regular updates on your devices will ensure that any important files and documents are stored safely in the cloud, should the device break, or is lost. It also allows you to restore any files that may be accidently deleted.
If you would like any support with your business IT, please get in touch by emailing [email protected]. Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.