These are unique times. Worldwide lockdowns have meant we have rapidly adapted to new ways of working – keeping our businesses going while protecting ourselves, our families, friends and wider society. Our individual and national resolve has been remarkable. And thanks to innovative technologies we’ve been able to, mostly, weather the crisis.
Communication has been a major challenge. You’re so used to being able to pop over to the office to have a quick word with a colleague about the project you are undertaking or taking part in daily office banter. But tools already at our disposal have helped us adapt to home working.
In case you haven’t given them all a go, we thought we’d share the tools which have become invaluable to our customers and their ability to navigate the new normal.
Zoom
You can hardly move without this product being mentioned or used – its recognisable interface splashed across our screens constantly (the journalists ask their questions via Zoom during the Downing Street Daily Press Briefing and MPs use it to take part in debates in the House of Commons).
It’s popularity and ease of use make it hard to beat.
We’ve helped clients install and setup secure solutions that help connect their staff to each other
Microsoft Teams
When it comes to keeping your people connected Microsoft Teams is a simple choice. It combines the video conference and screen sharing functionality of Zoom while creating a space to share documents. The text-based chat keeps you and your colleagues connected unobtrusively. Not to mention that it naturally fits into an Office 365 workflow.
Many of our customers have embraced Teams’s dynamic workflow and the many features it offers.
VoIP Comms
All this smart technology is great – but sometimes it’s those more traditional communication methods that come more naturally. There are times that just picking up the phone gets a problem sorted. But how do you keep that workflow alive when no one is in the office? Worse still – how do you answer a phone in an empty office?
Not that long ago, solutions to this problem would have been difficult and time consuming to implement. And given the notice we had before lockdown was fully initiated, there would have been a lag between leaving the office and telephones being diverted to the correct recipient.
Our clients have benefited from our VoIP solutions during this challenging time – with no arduous setup their phone systems get the right calls to the right people, no matter where they are or what device they have available. With cloud management, these voice solutions can adapt as the situation changes.
Microsoft 365
Good old Microsoft has been at the heart of most of our work and communication needs over these challenging weeks. Emails have been delivered, files have been created, shared and edited, teams connected, and users managed – no matter their location or device. It was almost as if they created their products for the enforced working environments we have found ourselves in.
While they may not be at their normal desk, our customers have transitioned seamlessly to working from remote locations using the tools they know and trust – nothing new to learn, apart from how to keep the kids or pets from video-bombing the morning leadership meeting.
And when the time comes, these tools will come back into the office with them.
These are just a few of the ways we’ve been able to keep our customers connected. Every day has brought a fresh challenge – but with the right technology they’ve been able to keep their businesses going and their customers attended to.
As always, reach out to us if you think we can help you enhance your remote working solutions, perhaps with ones mentioned above, or from the other collaborative and security services that we offer.
