With COVID-19 on the rise again in all 50 states as winter approaches, many Orange County businesses are facing the possibility of new restrictive measures and lockdowns just as they have begun moving from remote work back into their offices. We’ve established that the back-and-forth can cause a whole slew of IT issues, including inconsistent quality, security concerns, and even disrupted customer experiences. Let’s not discuss some solutions that can help businesses navigate more easily between in-office and remote work with less disruption.
Flexible IT Infrastructure
To create effective solutions, we must first correctly identify the problem. For small businesses, the root problem isn’t the inconsistent connections at home, or security concerns, or even problems with the customer experience. Those are symptoms of a bigger problem. The real problem lies in the variables between working in the office and working at home. To solve that problem, you need an IT solution that is flexible, seamless, and decentralized enough to cover both situations, so it doesn’t really matter where your teammates are working. In other words—take location out of the equation. Some IT solutions that can help accomplish this goal:
- Cloud-based computing. By moving as many of your computing applications to a cloud-based system—including creating virtual workspaces—employees can log in securely from any device and access all their work, whether they are at home or in the office.
- Cloud-hosted VoIP. If you’ve been using an on-premise VoIP system, chances are your team is relying on features like call forwarding when working from home, which can sometimes affect quality and response times. By switching to a cloud-hosted system, your team stays directly connected from anywhere, simplifying and streamlining communications in the process.
- Cloud cybersecurity systems. Since many of your flexible IT solutions involved moving your functions to the cloud and out of the office, you need a cybersecurity solution that is also cloud-based. Doing so will make your remote work more consistently secure.
- Managed IT. A final step in decentralizing your IT setup is to consider a managed IT service to oversee and monitor your configuration. Managed IT provides continual monitoring and troubleshooting for your cloud-based system much like an in-house IT person does at the office—plus, your team has access to a 24/7 tech help desk if something goes amiss.
Chances are many Orange County businesses like yours will have to navigate several times between in-office and remote working over the next few months—and possibly even keep a blend of remote and in-office work even after the pandemic ends. The experts at NetServ can help you make sure you have the best IT systems in place to accommodate your business wherever your employees are working. To learn more, call 1-877-NetServ.