Working From Home

Why have staff work from home?

There are some long-term benefits to having some of the work-force working from home for some of the time. In particular, the environmental and financial benefit of not having to travel to the office. Spending more time at home with the family can also be a great benefit to mental health. Allowing staff to work from home enables more flexibility when it comes to childcare and personal issues.

Despite concerns over distractions at home and working hours, many staff are more productive when working from home. There can actually be fewer distractions at home than in the office. Another factor is that staff may feel the need to prove efficiency if they want to keep the benefit!

There are also savings in office space and parking. Floorspace can be a very expensive asset, especially in large towns and cities.

What are the considerations when increasing or introducing Remote Working?

Having one or two staff work from home is relatively straightforward, but increasing that number can introduce complications. Internet bandwidth and performance becomes more important as you increase remote users. You also need to consider communication with colleagues and customers, for example: Can you call from and answer the company’s calls? Can you transfer calls to and from staff at home?

The staff will also need to access company resources, like e-mail, shared files, internal computer systems (like accounts or CRM solutions).

You may have invested in secure firewalls, anti-virus software and IT policies in the office, but now you need to allow people to connect using PCs that may not have up-to date firewalls or anti-virus software.

There are so many different options for accessing and sharing resources, that deciding on the fastest and most secure and affordable solution can be a minefield.

What can Bishop Consultancy do to help get staff working Remotely?

Bishop Consultancy can help with advice on the most suitable solutions for your business and staff, as well as helping with implementation and deployment.

Whether you are concerned about slow internet, security, communication or cost, we can help and we can do most of this pretty quickly!

Bishop Consultancy can reconfigure or upgrade your existing equipment to provide long-term remote access. We can implement cost-effective solutions that can easily and affordably be removed if and when home working is no longer required.

We can also help getting the employees set-up at home. Making sure they have suitable internet connection, suitable hardware, suitable security (e.g. firewalls and anti-virus software etc.)

Bishop Consultany’s Solutions for Working from Home

There are a number of great solutions for simplying and improving colaboration between team members who are not working in the same building. They include:

• VoIP telephony to enable calls to be delivered, transfered and made using the company’s switchboard numbers.
• Video conferencing to enable face to face meetings and discussions with the ability to screen share, use a white-board, send files etc.
• Cloud services to provide access to network resources simply and securely from anywhere.
  • Shared folders
  • Secure email
  • Virtual Desktops
  • Team Collaboration Solutions
• Remote Access to provide access to resources in the office
  • Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to provide secure access to your internal network
  • Remote Desktop Servives to provide access to internal PCs and Servers