Cloud migration
One of the most effective ways to support working remotely is to migrate to the cloud. With the cloud your applications and data are available to your remote staff, no matter where they are.
Site office IT
We also have many years of experience providing IT for site offices (“dongas”), providing everything including specialist connectivity, workstations, networking, and printers and photocopiers.
Managed services
Velvet Systems specialises in managed service solutions for all your information technology needs.
Facts
Ensuring that your staff are supported when working remotely
You need your staff to be secure and productive when working remotely. The greatest enabler is your information technology infrastructure.
The type of workstation and how it is setup and managed – for example a business laptop running Windows 10 Professional can be made secure, can be remotely managed, and will have the horsepower for your business applications. A home computer running Windows 10 Home may not be secure, cannot be managed remotely, and may not have the necessary horsepower.
The type of printer – business grade printers have better reliability, connectivity, and remote manageability.
The connectivity at the remote site – what type of internet connection is available, and how does that align with the needs of your business applications? What sort of remote router is needed? Is a local switch needed, and does it need to be remotely managed?
The connectivity at your office – what is the availability? (do you need additional connections for reliability?) How many concurrent remote users can your connectivity and back-end systems support?
The security of your on-premises back-end infrastructure – the setup of routers and other network equipment, firewalls, VPN, remote management capability, etc. Are security patches or operating system upgrades needed to enable secure connectivity? Are equipment upgrades needed?
The security of your remote workstations – how are your systems and data secured? Are the workstation security patches and operating system patches up to date? What are your authentication requirements? (single factor? Two factor? Security token?) How do you ensure only the staff member has access to your systems and data?
When a problem occurs – what sort of help-desk support is available for your remote staff? Are the technical skills and experience immediately available to get your staff working again? Is support available when you need it?
Some key questions to consider about productivity at your remote location:
- How do you ensure that remote access to your data is fast enough for your staff to be productive? Nothing destroys productivity faster than staff sitting waiting for screens to update. Many solutions are available… from using different connectivity to using accelerators like Riverbed devices.
- How do you ensure that staff have access to all the systems and data that they need to do their jobs? Some services and data may only be available at your office unless technology to support remote access is installed, e.g. Citrix, VPN, RDP, etc.
- How to best use the available technology to ensure your staff keeps functioning as a team? Many products will allow your team members to talk to each other, but a lot of available functionality goes unused that would help your staff feel more connected, less lonely, and more collaborative. Things like configuring SharePoint and associated workflows for easier collaboration. Configuring this additional functionality sometimes requires specialist skills.
Get in touch today
Velvet Systems can provide you with a no-cost assessment and recommendations for all the information technology aspects of working remotely. We have been helping clients in Brisbane (and beyond) with working remotely for over 20 years. Contact us now for expert advice.
