Remote working or home working is definitely the IT hot topic for 2020. For some clients the transition from office to home has been seamless; they have the IT and systems already in place to work remotely as this has been planned as part of their wider business strategy. For others it has been more complicated, but we’re pleased that all Conformedia clients are now up and running and working remotely.
In theory, all businesses would have a robust IT strategy to cover every eventuality, including a worldwide pandemic. The reality is that some do but many do not.
Here are two clients with two very different IT strategies. Conformedia has helped ensure their businesses have been able to continue trading by ensuring their employees can work effectively and securely from home.
Enjoy Digital – All that’s changed is the view from the office
A robust IT strategy has allowed Leeds based digital agency, Enjoy Digital, to grow without compromising on creativity or productivity. Workstations are standardised and users are centrally managed through Active Directory. An integral aspect of Enjoy Digital’s IT strategy is to encourage flexible working. A Firewall/VPN server, implementing RADIUS providing Two Factor Authentication is an established route that employees working remotely can access resources and work, just as they would if they were in the office. So, when remote working became a must rather than a nice to have, the Enjoy Digital simply logged on from home and continued to work as usual.
"Following the need for social distancing, our team has been successfully working from their homes. Before the measures were introduced, we conducted test days where colleagues who had not worked from home previously were able to check they had access to everything they needed. We are continuing our daily meetings, which we run virtually, and we are regularly checking in with one another to make sure everyone is feeling supported. Overall, our operations have changed very little, other than the views from the office window.”
Ian Fiddler, Head of Business Operations, Enjoy Digital
PFK, Penrith Farmers and Kidds – A different way of working
Before the COVID-19 crisis PFK employees were predominantly office based. When home working became necessary the business took a two-pronged approach. They purchased new laptops for key members of staff and allowed the remaining staff to take office desktop computers home.
PFK have implemented Sophos Central, together with Sophos XG firewalls. With this in place, it was a straightforward and efficient approach to provide remote working. All users were given a login to the Sophos Connect console, where the Sophos Connect VPN could be downloaded, allowing instant access to the office and all required resources.
The Sophos Central allows all the remote workers to remain secure, regardless of location. Taking office workstations home therefore was no issue as all as necessary security policies were in place and PFK staff were able to continue working, assured of robust security and continued IT support.
David Rayner, Conformedia’s MD, explains why it was essential to have centrally managed security policies in place to enable this quick transition to home working. “Remote working will only work if your business has the right security in place. Even though very few users were set up to work from home pre-crisis, the business was already using Sophos Central with Sophos XG Firewalls. It was a relatively simple and quick process to have all users up and running from home. The strict policies already in place were rolled out to remote users, ensuring that business security continued to be maintained at the highest level. The beauty of a centrally managed system is that we can deploy updates and manage the IT, regardless of location.”
“In light of recent events we found ourselves in a position of having to enable staff to work from home within a very short timescale. Conformedia were immediately on hand to allow our team to do this which in essence allowed us to continue to offer our customers the best service possible.”
Lynne Lancaster, Head of Estate Agency, PFK
Richard Twigger reflects on 10 years of Conformedia. Richard began his IT career as a systems specialist, providing technical support to IT users. Since joining David Rayner at Conformedia, over a decade ago, the business has expanded, and Richard now has a very different role.
“Conformedia looks very different to when I first started here. I was originally working as a systems specialist, implementing IT systems, training users and providing follow up support. Now we have a team of specialists including cyber security experts, network and systems administrators and a fulltime customer helpdesk. My role now is focused on working with clients to understand their business needs and aspirations and then to specify the IT systems to support them achieve their goals. It’s a great job as I am involved from concept right through the implementation."
Richard explains how SME clients are benefiting for the advancements in technology. “The most significant development over the past 10 years is the improvements in technology from a support perspective. In the beginning the support tools we used were quite basic, for example VNC, which was great, but still a little cumbersome and time consuming. Then came Team Viewer allowing us instant access to customers machines at the click of a button and for us was a game changer, allowing us to support businesses far and wide more quickly and easily from wherever we happened to be. Now we use cloud-based PSA system ConnectWise, which gives us streamlined access to our client’s systems including asset tracking, RMM tools, pro-active monitoring and reporting all at our fingertips providing all the information we need about our customers infrastructures and in most cases fixing problems before they even occur! Not only saving us time, but more importantly saving our customers valuable time and money!”
Microsoft Teams has never been so popular. Even before the COVID-19 crisis the use of team chat applications rose from 2.4% to 33.3%. (Mocrosoft.com).
We have been utilising the tool for all our team meetings and daily update meetings. It’s user friendly (you don’t have to be an IT expert to use it) and it’s great for video calling and screen sharing.
The collaborative, communications tool is free with Office 365 and lately has become a feature of many homes too, providing a platform for virtual socialising. Regular virtual nights with friends and quiz nights seem to be a popular theme with people we know.
If you are considering implementing a collaborative tool such as MS Teams and need further information about working remotely then please call us. We are here to help!
What is Microsoft Teams
MS Teams is a collaboration tool which allows office and remote staff to collaborate with individuals or groups of employees within online workspaces.
Security
Users login to Microsoft Teams the same way they login to Office 365 using multi factor authentication and secure guest access.
Accessibility
It is cloud based and can be accessed anywhere via the desktop or mobile application on both iOS and Android.
Office 365
Fully integrated with Office 365. It even syncs with your calendar.
Online Video Calling and Screen Sharing
Seamless, fast video calls and desktop sharing.
Chat Function
Chat can take place between teams, groups or individuals
Document Library
Documents shared will automatically save in a default document folder (SharePoint Online)
Online meetings
Hosting up to 10,000 users
