Over the past few months, it’s no surprise that interest in working from home has been top of mind for both employers and employees. But what does your organization and its employees actually need to make it happen? It’s about more than just computers and Internet connections. Your employees need technology that enables them to perform successfully, wherever they are working from. Here are the five basic items organizations need to solve for in order for remote employees to be productive.
Cloud Access
Your employees need access to your organization’s data and applications wherever they are. The cloud gives employees that flexibility to work from any location, and cloud solutions are more equipped than on-premises solutions to deal with the additional demand on application capacity. The cloud has also been shown to be more reliable, more effective, more secure, and more cost-effective than on premise facilities, making it a viable long-term solution as well.
Security Solutions
The risk to digital assets is greater than ever. Newly remote employees present a significant challenge to network security by increasing the difficulty in identifying unusual remote logins and detecting credential theft. Record-high numbers of workers working outside traditional enterprise security with only single-factor authentication as protection, coupled with increased social media usage, creates a perfect storm for cyberattacks. Without effective security in place, your organization has never been at higher risk for attack.
Collaboration Technology
Lack of collaboration delays project outcomes, leaves coworkers in the dark, and negatively affects morale because collaboration is what drives productivity and innovation. It’s important to keep geographically dispersed employees operating efficiently by bridging the distance that can turn the simplest of tasks into frustrating, time-consuming endeavors. Collaboration solutions may encompass contact center, audio/video conferencing, unified communications, or other items, depending on your organization’s needs, but they all have the same end goal: keeping your employees connected and collaborating.
Edge Connectivity
Mobility and wireless capabilities are critical to one’s ability to work from anywhere. Connectivity must be fast, reliable, and highly secure in order to be effective. For example, transporting data more quickly and reducing latency could mean the difference between life and death for practitioners of telemedicine. It’s critical that companies carefully develop a mobility strategy that helps employees optimize their time and ultimately deliver bottom line results. Leverage the connected edge to drive productivity and visibility across your organization.
CX Focus
In times like this, your customers’ experiences can trigger long-lasting effects on their sense of trust, brand loyalty, and more. To be successful in the future, your company must be well positioned for long-term shifts in customer behavior as customer preferences, and therefore customer journeys, change rapidly. However, taking care of your customers begins with taking care of your employees. That’s why it is so important that employers provide employees with the equipment they need to be successful, in order for their employees to then provide effective customer experiences in turn. Online interaction infused with humanity, such as hybrid chatbots, telemedicine, and videoconferencing technology, are a few examples of how improving CX can be accomplished by supporting employees.
Forward-looking companies must enable remote work for the long-term in order to stay competitive as consumer and employee preferences continue to adapt and evolve. Cloud, security, collaboration, connectivity, and CX are all major considerations that factor into enabling remote work, and GDT has the experts to address each of these and more. Submit your information below to learn more.
