The shutdowns brought about by COVID-19 have shown many businesses that they can be successful even when their employees work remotely. Indeed, in a recent Gartner survey, 82% of company leaders said that they plan to allow employees to work remotely at least part of the time after the pandemic ends. Many point to benefits such as happier and more productive employees and reduced costs as reasons to continue the practice. But there are important IT implications of a permanent remote workforce that many companies have not addressed. A managed service provider (MSP) like Logic Speak can help your company implement remote work the right way.
Cloud is not less complex
The advent of cloud computing brought us cloud-based applications that enabled us to truly work from anywhere. And while many predicted that cloud would reduce the need for IT services due to reduced complexity, cloud has not reduced complexity. Instead, it has just shifted that complexity to different IT areas. And that complexity is multiplied by the number of remote workers you have.
While cloud solution providers such as Microsoft and Salesforce will make sure their environments are supported, your cloud solutions must be integrated into a cohesive platform on which your business can run and your remote employees can work. Logic Speak can help your business choose the right cloud provider and tools, address remote connectivity and security concerns, and help you figure out how to support a remote workforce.
Stay Connected!
Get the latest IT trends and best practices in your inbox.
Choosing the right cloud environment
If you are considering a permanent remote workforce, leveraging the help of an MSP can help you choose the best cloud provider and tools to meet your needs. Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics? G-Suite or Teams? Azure, Rackspace, VMware, or AWS? None of these solutions are perfect. With Logic Speak, you’ll understand which tool can handle all or most of your requirements, which trade-offs you should make, and which tool gives you the most bang for your IT dollar.
Enabling Connectivity
It goes without saying that to be successful with remote workers, organizations need a minimum amount of power or performance in their backend systems. How much they need is determined by the individual circumstances of the business. Logic Speak provides these components that can be centrally managed from a single pane of glass and configured from anywhere. But beyond switches, routers, and networks, what else does your company need to thrive in a remote work setting? Logic Speak provides comprehensive services and tools that enable your remote workers to stay connected and work as a team—no matter their location. From networking as a service to Microsoft cloud solutions, Logic Speak can help your remote employees stay productive.
Extending support to a remote environment
Support is another IT area that must be addressed for remote workers. How does your IT team fix a computer that isn’t in the building? What equipment does your business support when employees are remote? What technology will best help you provide support to remote workers?
Logic Speak can help you answer these and other questions by providing recommendations or minimum standards and usage policies for your employees’ home environments and processes for repairing broken IT equipment. For example, we can recommend the required configuration of your employees’ home networks, including the use of firewalls, based on their role in the company.
Ensuring security
While many businesses consider their switch to remote work a success, many have made the switch without an acknowledgement of the inherent security risks. Remote tools have enabled your business to stay afloat or even thrive during the emergency. But addressing security risks is crucial as remote work becomes the norm.
According to Microsoft, 55 percent of small and medium-sized businesses suffer a cyber attack every year. In the case of ransomware attacks—43 percent of them take more than a week to fix; only 35 percent of SMBs are profitable after a prolonged attack; and the average cost is around $80,000. And 60% of cyber attacks begin with a breached device.
If you have 50 remote employees, that means 50 home networks on which ransomware can attack your employees’ laptops. These 50 remote workers could also have 100+ kids who are connected to the same network as your employees’ laptops, introducing even more risk. And what about when those kids want to borrow their parents’ laptops? Establishing security policies for remote networks and devices can help you protect your business. Logic Speak can help.
Technology can be a mess. Let us take it off your hands, so you can do what you do best in running your company. Fill out the form on this page to schedule time with us.
Recent Comments