For those of us now working remotely, life looks different, both in our work and personal lives.
Our IT Solutions Group members have reported such at-home activities as learning how to bake bread the old-fashioned way, organizing, cleaning, completing long-awaited projects, spending breaks in the backyard chicken coop, grooming 20 years of beard growth and even exercising.
So how has the work side of our newly remote lives changed, specifically that having to do with information technology (IT)? We gathered several of our best and brightest IT Solutions Group members to share what's going on in IT during this new, temporary normal.
We start with IT security. We've heard that hackers are out in full force. Security should be front-of-mind for everyone. What are our experts seeing on that front?
IT Security in Uncertain Times
Summary:
- Increase Email Security
- Review Security Settings
- Educate Employees: Think Before You Click
- Provide Work-from-Home/Remote Access Policies
We're seeing reports of increased activity with malicious intent targeted through email: email scams, phishing attempts, that sort of thing. This is nothing new, but of course the malicious actors are exploiting this situation and trying to get people's attention. The thing that most people need to do right now is increase the security on their email systems, whether that's an on-premise Exchange server or in Microsoft Office 365 or some other hosted cloud-based email service.
How do you protect yourself? Make sure that you're reviewing settings. Products like Microsoft Office 365, for example, have built-in tools that can allow you to assess your security posture. Anyone can go in there and do that. Of course, if there's anyone out there that needs some help from Loffler, we can certainly assist.
It’s also important to make sure that your employees remain vigilant about clicking on things in email. That's the number one way that attacks are happening.
You also want to make sure that you have good work-from-home or remote access policies. Given the fluid nature of this situation, there are a number of companies out there that didn't have these sorts of policies in place beforehand. Whatever you can do to create a policy, even if it's not perfect, do it. Make sure that you have something written down that's understandable for people to follow as they're working remotely.
What to Know About IT Strategy and Planning
Summary:
- Business Continuity Planning Is Happening in Real Time
- Involve Key Stakeholders: What's Needed to Keep Your Business Running?
- Make a Plan: What's Needed for Everyone to Work Remotely?
- After the Crisis: Shift Business Continuity Planning to a Preemptive Measure, Instead of Reactive
A lot of our clients don't have a business model that lends itself to remote work. Others do not have a culture that has historically enabled remote work. Those types of companies are having to adapt on the fly, trying to figure out how to redo their work processes and how to enable remote work where they didn't necessarily have the tools or the laptops or the VPN licenses.
This is a real awakening for companies to realize that Business Continuity planning is not just an IT exercise. It's really about getting all the key stakeholders involved in understanding what it looks like to run your business. It's important for companies to be thinking about what to do in situations like these, even if their organization needs to work on-premise on desktops. They need to think about what it would look like if we had to have everybody work remotely.
This isn't a scenario that a lot of companies anticipated or plan for. It seemed unlikely when we were talking about Business Continuity planning, but here we are. Our engineers and our teams and clients themselves have been nimble and flexible and adapting how they work and leveraging tools they haven't used before.
In the future, we’d hope to shift that on-the-fly response to a planning-ahead response to see what that strategy looks like and how you would execute that ahead of time. That’s what having a Business Continuity plan is all about.
How Can Managed IT Services Assist?
Summary:
- Remote Work Can Happen in a Variety of Ways
- Keep Security Top-of-Mind
- Options Include VPN, Cloud and Multi-Factor Authentication
This has affected all businesses including the ones we help in our Managed IT Services. Over the last few days we've seen a lot of support requests for people to work remotely who haven't before and it's important to remember there are a variety of ways to make remote work happen.
As stated above, you always want to keep security in mind by using VPN connections and multi-factor authentication. Keep in mind that every employee doesn’t have to do everything the same way. Some work can be done without a VPN connection. Perhaps a task you’re used to doing in the office can be done efficiently in a different way with a cloud solution.
If you’re not sure how to get started, Loffler can work with you to understand how your people are working throughout the day and what they need to access resources, so you can use what you have most efficiently.
Communication and Collaboration
Summary:
- Another Area Where Many Organizations Are Learning As They Go
- Cloud Collaboration Makes Remote Work Easier
- Multiple Tools: Soft Phones, Mobile Devices, Use 3G Connection for Internet
Now for an essential part of remote work: communication and collaboration. The changes we’ve seen in the past few weeks are challenging a lot of people right now.
One of the things we've been trying to work on over the last couple of years is really getting to a cloud-based strategy for voice communication for collaboration.
In a time like this you can send people home, and with a cloud solution, they still have the ability to work. You can work wherever, however, whenever you want. You can use soft phones; you can use mobile devices. You can even use 3G from your cell phone to be able to provide internet to do a call.
From security and strategy, to managed services and collaboration, we’re living in a time where productive remote work is possible with the right technology in place. Organizations are challenged with becoming more dynamic and able to be mobile. If you have any questions, a Loffler expert would be happy to answer them for you.
CONTACT LOFFLER ABOUT EASY AND SECURE REMOTE WORK SOLUTIONS
Read Next: What You Need to Work Remotely from Anywhere
Loffler Companies is the largest privately owned business technology and services organization in the Upper Midwest. We are dedicated to providing innovative solutions and managed services to drive business for organizations of all sizes. Our offerings include IT Professional and Managed Services, Multi-Functional Copiers and Printers, Managed Print Services, Unified Communications, Software and Workflow Technologies, and Onsite People-Based Services.
