The world of work is an ever changing and evolving one. Today, companies and employees are no longer constrained by the boundaries of their office when it comes to getting the job done.
Remote working is an increasingly popular option for firms in all sectors and offers a number of notable advantages. Employees who have to travel for meetings can get work done on the move, workers with childcare considerations can meet deadlines from home and tasks can be completed outside of normal working hours to boost productivity.
If those advantages sound like things that could apply to your own company, then remote working could be an avenue that would be beneficial for you to explore. If you do decide to do so, the following remote working solutions can help you and your staff to make the most of this very modern way of working.
File and Data Access Solutions
Any employee working offsite is going to need to be able to access their work files, view any shared files they may need and share the files and documents they are working on with their colleagues. As such, remote working solutions which allow for easy file and data access are amongst the most important. Fortunately, there are a number of different types of these solutions to choose from.
For many firms, virtual private networks (VPNs) are a cost-efficient and productive way to go. In layman’s terms these are secure and direct connections between an offsite router and the internal office network. VPNs are widely considered to be one of the most secure methods of file and data sharing but if they don’t seem like a solution to suit you, there are many other options too. These include using cloud based file sharing software such as Dropbox or even implementing remote desktop services.
Communication Solutions
As well as being able to access and share files, remote workers also need to be in rapid and reliable contact with their supervisors, colleagues and potentially with customers too. That makes communication based remote working solutions absolutely crucial. In this area, some of the most efficient and potentially beneficial solutions include IP telephony, cloud based email hosting and video conferencing.
IP telephony or voice over internet protocol (VoIP) networks are networks which allow businesses to make and receive calls via an internet connection rather than through a traditional analogue telephone system. There are many advantages to these networks but the one most pertinent to remote working is that they do away with locational restraints. Staff then, can make and take calls as if they were in the office even if they are sat at home, on a train or anywhere else besides.
Cloud based email and video conferencing solutions can also prove hugely advantageous for remote working. Email hosting via the cloud allows employees to access messages, shared calendars and other resources from any location with an internet connection. Video conferencing solutions such as Skype for Business, meanwhile, offer another avenue for quick and effective communication and introduce other potentially useful features like desktop sharing.
Security Solutions
One thing which does put some companies off from introducing remote working is the security implications attached. It is of course entirely understandable that firms would consider any security risks attached to remote working solutions and it is in fact crucial that they should do so.
That shouldn’t mean abandoning the idea altogether, however, and rather should simply mean that they implement the correct solutions which can make remote working as safe and secure as possible.
The correct solutions to implement will differ from firm to firm but there are a few options which it will always pay to consider. Any employee working remotely should be required to use two factor authentication when accessing a company network or sensitive data and to encrypt their own hard drive if they are going to use it to store business data or files. Anti-virus and other security software, too, should always be kept up to date on any devices used to access company information or networks.
If this has made you realise that secure offsite working could benefit you and your staff, contact EC-MSP today and our friendly professionals can help you identify exactly the remote working solutions that will suit you.
