Remote Working Strategy: Making the Right Decisions for the Future

Many of us have adapted to new ways of working in recent weeks. Now we’ve mobilised our remote workforces, it’s time to review our remote working strategies to ensure we make the right decisions not just for today but for the future.

We are all experiencing a shift in the way we work. At Six Degrees we have been supporting clients in managing that shift in the nature and volume of remote working. As organisations we all have complex tasks we need to fulfil, and we need to implement measures that enable us to fulfil them in the most efficient way possible.

Many organisations have focused on the logistics involved in ensuring people and departments can carry on functioning with minimal disruption to their clients. However, now that we’re adapting to this new reality, we have a chance to make longer term considerations around our remote working strategies.

We expect the changes brought about in recent weeks to stay around for some time. Some organisations may elect to remain virtual, and we may see an acceleration in transitions to cloud technologies for both infrastructure and corporate and back office staff.

This means we should all be focusing not just on making quick decisions, but on making the right long-term decisions, quickly. In this blog we will provide an overview of the remote working strategy decisions your organisation should be making.

Making the Right Remote Working Strategy Decisions

In order to get the most from your remote working solutions, you should have enterprise grade services in place that provide the security, capacity, redundancy and resiliency your infrastructure needs. These will support a full set of communication channels for voice, chat, video, file share, meetings and collaboration between your own employees and your eco-system of clients, partners and suppliers. Some decisions we should all be making include:

• Should we replace free remote working solutions with paid for versions? There’s some great free and freemium remote working technology that has enabled many organisations to get on their feet when it comes to staying productive and communicative whilst away from the office. But is this fit for purpose in the long-term? Does it align with your wider digital transformation and organisational strategies? Consider reviewing free software applications and replacing them with secure, feature-rich paid for versions.
• What are the security implications of remote working? You’ve probably read about the security issues users have experienced with the likes of Zoom and other teleconferencing solutions. Expanding your working environments increases the threat vectors cyber criminals can attack you through. Review your cyber security posture with a trusted, accredited cyber security partner.
• Do we have the capacity for remote working? Six Degrees recently helped a client transition its remote access away from a 100MB circuit that was being overwhelmed to a new, high capacity 1GB circuit that has supported over 700 concurrent connections to date. We should all be asking if our network infrastructures have the capacity to cope with a massive increase in remote access demand.
• Is your cloud data backed up and protected? If your organisation stores data on Microsoft servers, Microsoft will not take responsibility for data loss that results from accidental deletion, malware or operational errors. Office 365 Data Protection delivers cloud-to-cloud backup that enables your organisation to access, control and protect Microsoft 365 data.
• Should we consider transitioning to a cloud-based model? This is a question that deserves at least another blog post on its own. With so many transformational applications and technology becoming cloud-native, and considering the inherent security, performance and availability benefits of the cloud, there are compelling arguments for transitioning away from local infrastructures to embrace the potential of cloud technology.

Communicate, Collaborate and Work Efficiently, Anywhere

In today’s fast-moving world, the ability to communicate, collaborate and work efficiently, anywhere really can be the catalyst that drives your organisation’s success. Six Degrees’ Agile Workspace services allow you to transform your customer experience through smarter, faster technology solutions that enable your people to be at their very best, wherever they are. Contact us to learn more.