Is Your Business Ready for Coronavirus Lockdown? • Blisstech Solutions

With the COVID-19 coronavirus continuing to spread in the UK, and Italy and China placing lockdowns on their towns and cities, it seems likely that the UK will follow suit if the outbreak continues apace.  Experts have stated today that the spread of the virus in the UK is around 2 weeks behind Italy.  So it is likely that, in two weeks’ time, the UK could also be on lockdown. If employees are prevented from gathering, effectively being homebound, this is a worrying time for businesses.  However, many businesses can significantly mitigate the impact of a coronavirus lockdown by providing tools that allow employees to work more effectively from home.

What tools do you need?

Most desk-based workers will need a productivity suite, email, and a communication and collaboration platform. If you are not familiar with communication and collaboration platforms, they are applications that allow teams to share information, chat, collaborate and attend meetings.

a home working desk setup

Examples are Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts and Slack. These platforms allow your employees to work as if they were working in the same office enabling real-time collaboration.

Other applications that may be required are essential line of business (LOB) applications, and possibly, access to shared files.

What can you do?

So what exactly can you do to enable your employees to work from home?

Email

Email is easy as it has been possible to get email remotely for years. Most email is cloud-based, and even on-premise systems have the facility to connect remotely. If you don’t have this capability, look at something like Office 365 (Exchange Online) or Google G-Suite. There are many providers out there that offer cheaper email services. However, you get what you pay for and most of these are very basic.  I believe there is nothing available on the market today as good as the Google or Microsoft offerings.

Productivity Suite

If you are a Google G Suite customer you will get an online word processor, spreadsheet, presentation app. If you are an Office 365 customer you can use the web-based versions of Word, Excel & PowerPoint or install a copy of Microsoft Office on five computers per user.   This means you don’t need to give your employees a computer to work from home; they can work perfectly well on the home computer.

Collaboration Tools

a woman working with a virtual team

Both Microsoft and Google recently announced they will temporarily provide Microsoft Teams and Google Hangouts for free because of the coronavirus.  The Microsoft trial is a very generous 6 months for existing Microsoft business customers.  Having spoken to a contact at Microsoft they are genuinely doing this for the greater good to enable businesses to collaborate in the midst of this outbreak.  Microsoft Teams is an incredibly feature-rich collaboration tool, so signing up for this is a no-brainer if you are an eligible customer and do not already have a collaboration tool.

Line of Business Applications

If you have cloud-based line of business applications your users will be able to work remotely in pretty much exactly the same way as they do from the office. However, if the application is installed on a server in your office then you will have to provide a VPN.  A VPN is a secure tunnel that connects directly from a user’s computer to your business.  It is secure, if configured correctly, and provides your employees access to systems within your office.  If the system is a client/server application, users can connect to work PCs using remote desktop and work as they were in the office.  This will prevent the need for users to need to install the software on their home computers, although they will need help setting up the VPN.

Shared Files

If users need access to shared files in your office, you can use the VPN method to access them.  However, mapping drives from a home computer to a business server would not be recommended.  Without expensive systems in place, you cannot verify the security of computers you don’t control!  If users require access to shared files, it is best to provide a computer with your security software installed.  Or move to a cloud-based file storage solution.  Both Google G Suite and Microsoft Office 365 provide cloud file storage solutions that are worth checking out. These are called File Stream and Shared Drives for Google and OneDrive and SharePoint for Microsoft.

I hope this article helps you to understand how you can get prepared for any kind of lockdown that may be imposed because of the COVID-19 coronavirus.  If you want to learn how we can help you prepare, please get in touch.

More Content

IT Security Still Top Concern For SMBs

A new report from Kaseya reveals that IT Security is still the top concern for small and medium-sized businesses.  The “2019 State of IT Operations for Small and Midsize Businesses” survey took input from more than 400 global respondents and reveals that 32% of...

What is Proactive Monitoring and how can it protect your business?

How proactive monitoring will help your business weather any storm. You are the captain of your business's ship. You have a loyal and skilled team behind you. You are ready for any challenge! Or so you thought. Then, one day, without warning, a vast digital monster...
Bridging the trust gap between your employees and AI

Bridging the trust gap between your employees and AI

Have you noticed your employees are reluctant to use AI in the workplace? It may be down to their lack of trust. We explain how to show them AI is a tool that makes work better for everyone.

Is app overload slowing down your team?

Is app overload slowing down your team?

How many different apps and chat services are your employees juggling every day? Chances are, it’s making your business less productive. Good news: There’s a simple solution. We have the details.

New phishing scam is smarter than ever… here’s how to protect your business

New Microsoft 365 phishing scam is smarter than ever… here’s how to protect your business

Microsoft is warning business owners that trusted cloud storage services are being hijacked to trick you into handing over your data. Here we tell you what you need to know.

LinkedIn takes action to tackle fake accounts

LinkedIn is introducing new verification features over the coming months to help tackle fake accounts. The business-focused social platform is a fantastic place to connect with like-minded businesspeople, and to find new employees, jobs and opportunities. But thanks to this popularity, we’re seeing an increase in fake profiles, created by scammers for more sinister purposes. Bot-like accounts have been cropping …
Read More

Video thumbnail

Tech Tip: Quickly add lines numbers and bullets in Word

Happy Tuesday everyone! Today's Tech Tip is a tip on how to use some of the formatting shortcuts in Word to add lines, bullets and numbers to organise your documents. If you use Word to write your documents, and 90% of people do, you will love this tip as it will show...

Serious Flaws Discovered in D-Link Routers

Researchers at Fortinet have uncovered serious flaws in four D-Link routers.  The router vulnerabilities were found to allow for remote code execution which means a remote attacker could gain control of your router, snoop on your traffic and redirect your browser to...
Time saver: Auto-launch your favourite Windows 11 apps

Time saver: Autostart your favourite Windows 11 apps

Imagine starting your PC and your favourite apps open automatically. It’s a small change that could save you a lot of time. Here’s how to make it happen…

Microsoft takes the pain out of updates

Microsoft takes the pain out of updates with checkpoint cumulative updates

Updates are a pain, right? Time consuming and disruptive. Not anymore… Here we tell you how Microsoft’s latest Windows 11 update is making things quicker and easier.

Share This
Contact
Love Lane
Cleobury Mortimer
Shropshire DY14 8PE

01299 382 321
[email protected]
Copyright © 2024 Blisstech Solution Ltd
Registered No: 08125391 VAT No : 307 5490 05