We are always thinking of ways in which we can promote mobility and continue with business as usual. With purse strings tight, how can we achieve seamless collaboration and ensure remote working is still effective for business.
The market is full of products, some premium and some more accessible. Working with key vendors across this spectrum of functionality, price and quality, this means Bechtle are in a great position to help you achieve your goals whilst not breaking the bank.
With companies like Microsoft, Cisco and RingCentral, among others allowing free access to their collaboration products, what other ways can businesses keep momentum whilst not breaking the bank?
Travel disruptions can also be a cause for collaboration barriers. Vendors such as iiyama are strong in their field, offering quality, lightweight solutions that still enable interactivity and don’t take away from the personal feel of the meeting. With both 55” and 65” inch interactive and non-interactive options available, iiyama displays are ready to wirelessly share content whilst remaining affordable.
Your office protocol may require you to be even more mobile than this so ask yourself, “Can your users experience the in-office environment/feeling whilst working elsewhere?”. A huge fear amongst businesses is that having users out of the office environment will affect how the business performs. Amongst all the change and uncertainty at present, your user’s ability to perform their role outside of the office should not be a concern. Without support from the business to provide tools that sustain workflow, you can almost guarantee a drop in performance and the standard of work achieved.
How can you support your users, help them feel valued and leave no room for excuses? A simple change to make is providing users with a secondary monitor. In many workplaces the ability to have a complete view of tasks is expected. I think we would be foolish to think that reducing the view to one monitor wouldn’t hamper performance.
In addition, providing headsets to retain the call quality that your customers and colleagues expect is key to continuing as usual. We have all experienced people using personal headphones on calls with little success of managing to block out background noise, pick up voices and the dreaded shuffle of dropping a headphone. Do you really want your customers to know that your employee is boiling the kettle? Enabling your users to have headsets like the Jabra Evolve range, which starts from £25, safeguards the calibre of your interactions.
Ultimately, are we able to do all of this and remain compliant? Three key questions to consider are:
- Will your apps work for your remote staff?
- How are your users accessing data? Are you using a VPN? Have you enforced two factor authentication?
- Do you have controlled access to data based on identity?
It’s a crazy time but it is completely possible to achieve your goals on a budget. Speak to your account manager who will help find a solution for all budgets, time constraints and requirements.
Head of Modern Workplace
Phone: +44 1249 467921
E-mail: tori.west@bechtle.com
