What does remote working mean for you and your team?
05 Mar
In April 2020, statistics released by the Office for National Statistics showed 49.2% of adults in employment were working from home, and while the uptake differs from industry to industry the benefits to business of maintaining this are clear. We will look at the impact of remote working on various aspects of your business life over the next few months and show that it is here to stay, but it can work for you, your team and your business.
Zooming has almost become the generic term for a video call over the last year. It Is far from the only platform however, Microsoft Teams is more commonly used for communications within companies than Zoom, and some industries, notably construction also routinely use Teams. Construction is in fact one of the industries that has embraced the world of remote working keenly. With the large open plan offices common in the sector sending the staff home was essential. The uptake of technologies like Building Information Modelling (BIM), a collaborative process that begins with the creation of an intelligent 3D model and enables document management, co-ordination, and simulation during the entire lifecycle of a project, has increased dramatically in 2020.
The requirements for the remote worker centre around the need for a reliable internet connection. At 37.82Mbps, the UK’s average broadband speed places it 22nd out of 29 states in Western Europe. Globally, countries ranked higher than the UK include Hungary, Barbados, Latvia, Estonia, and Hong Kong. This seemingly acceptable figure masks the fact that many rural, or even suburban areas still labour with broadband speeds that make working from home hit and miss at best. We have all become familiar with the Dalek noises and frozen images on video calls as the connection struggles to cope with the demands of simultaneous home schooling, home working and entertainment.
One of the key points that the growth of home working has highlighted is the role played by I.T. support. In Cisco’s ‘Future of Secure Remote Work Report’, 85% of all respondents reported that cybersecurity is extremely important or more important than before the pandemic. A real concern is around how data is being accessed and how to secure it effectively. Supporting business processes, using cloud-based software, such as Microsoft Office 365, and Voice over IP telephony (VOIP) is one of the main areas that an I.T. support provider is of most value to particularly smaller businesses without an inhouse I.T facility. Optimising hardware and software to work efficiently with less than ideal connections, and ensuring that users can access, use, and understand the tools they have to enable effective remote working. At eInfinity our team of experienced professionals have extensive knowledge of these key aspects of I.T, hardware, software, networking, and business processes. No problem is too big or too small and we believe every problem has at least one solution. Get in touch to discuss how we can support your shift to remote working.
