IT Considerations for Working From Home for the Foreseeable Future

There is no denying the recent pandemic changed our lives in more ways than we would have cared for. Thankfully, as numbers start to decline, life seems to be slowly coming back to what it was before it all started.

Some others, however, might have changed for good. One of those is work-from-home (WFH) policies. 

As more and more companies switch to either hybrid or permanent WFH systems, you might be wondering if it’s the right step for your business.

One thing is for sure, it’s not as easy as just sending everyone home to work. Unless you did so already, there are some elements you will need to implement in order to have an adequate WFH system. 

As always, we’re here to help.

While there are infinite amounts of paths you could take to make working from home easier, our recommendation is to always start with one thing in mind: security.

Here are the main aspects you should absolutely have in check before permanently adopting a WFH policy, whether hybrid or permanent.

• In-House Goods Only

A great way to ensure maximum security for your organization is to have your collaborators exclusively use company-provided hardware. 

It’s a big investment, we know. But it will be much more cost-effective than having to recover from a security breach. 

Your company paying for the device is not good enough, though. Install device management software like Microsoft Intune or VMWare Workspace ONE to ensure only approved applications can be installed and that any compromised devices get spotted right away.

• Strong Barriers

If you have a closed or internal network, chances are that very few devices from the outside world were trying to access it before. 

Now, a huge amount of individuals might connect to your internal network from their homes daily. This exponentially raises the risks for your organization. Just having one person compromised could mean your information is as good as gone.

Make sure to toughen up your network security as much as possible. There are options for all budgets and needs. Reis Informatica’s Cybersecurity services are an affordable and effective way to get this going without much effort on your part.

• Go Private

Having VPN software for your employees is vital. It not only helps their individual devices navigate the web with added security, but it helps protect your infrastructure by encrypting the connection between both.

With a private network and VPN software correctly in place, chances that prying eyes get inside your organization are slim. 

Don’t rely on passwords for your network security. It rarely ends up with a happy story.

• Collaboration Tools

Now that employees can connect to your organization securely, they’ll (hopefully) need a way to talk to each other. If your team is exclusively working from home, relying 100% on e-mail is a recipe for disaster.

Be confident that investing in a good text, audio, and video collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams or Slack will pay off.

It’s not only vital for relationships and your employee’s motivation to interact with one another, but you will see productivity and results increase exponentially.

• Hello, Anyone There?

Good old phones. Who uses them anymore? Well, people who want to contact your company for starters!

If you have any sort of automated phone system re-directing directly to your employees or commonly use extension numbers and direct lines, you might think that working from home is not an option.

Porting your phone system to a 100% online solution might be easier than you think. Services like Zoom Phone or Reis Could Services can help you make sure everyone is reachable at their usual number (yes, no need to change!), no matter where they are. 

With all of the above in place, you should be all set to start working from home just as effectively and securely as you did back at the office. 

We hope you don’t miss Friday happy hour too much, though!