‘My laptop has frozen’. ‘My
phone has no data.’ ‘There’s no reception where I live.’ ‘Our WiFi is down.’ ‘I
can’t access my mail.’ It’s enough to make any business owner want to tear
their hair out – but these excuses are going to become increasingly common as
an estimated two-thirds of office employees make their remote working
arrangements permanent.
That’s the warning from managed
business solutions provider Itec Evolve, which says
many South African companies will battle to keep tabs on their people’s
productivity and outputs, ensure their staff stay connected, and keep sensitive
business and client data safe in a new world of remote work.
“How are your staff connected?
Are they even connected? What are your staff doing at home? On the road? And is
your client data being kept safe? For many companies, the short answer is: they
just don’t know,” says Itec Evolve sales lead Nick East.
Here are some of the major
challenges being faced by businesses right now, says East.
You don’t know what your remote
employees are really up to
Is your workforce putting in the
hours you hope they are? How are you dealing with management and reporting?
“There’s no way to manage and keep an eye on productivity without monitoring
and tracking. Everyone knows that conducting business purely based on faith and
guesswork won’t do your business any favours,” says Itec Evolve managing
director Bryon Sanders. “You need data, feedback and results to set a course
for success. That means being in the know.”
Effective and productive teams
thrive under clear management, maintained boundaries and established
performance accountability. To achieve this remotely, companies need modern
technology and processes running on the latest communications systems, says
Sanders.
You have way too many cellphone
and data contracts
Every company has been there: a
new staff member joins, and they need a new business mobile phone and contract.
Often, the most affordable package is purchased, and because these ‘special
deals’ change with the seasons. Eventually, you’re dealing with several
cellular networks and a multitude of data plans, each with their own unique
characteristics, terms, service providers and challenges.
“Dongles, airtime, data bundles,
WiFi contracts, routers and a plethora of devices all make this a potential
bird’s nest geared for broken lines of communication – and never mind the
crippling admin,” says East. “There’s no way to know what everyone is doing
with the company contracts, devices and data bundles, either. A culture of
accountability is almost impossible to establish when everyone does as they
like. But it doesn’t have to be that way.”
Connectivity at home: your problem or theirs?
In pre-COVID days, it was up to
employees to ensure connectivity when working remotely. No more: it’s now
solidly the business’ problem. “When people can’t join the video meeting,
haven’t received the email with your instructions, or cannot access the company
ERP, CRM software, CMS or archives, it makes life very difficult, and can
derail progress and stunt productivity,” says Sanders.
Getting everyone on the same
digital platforms is almost impossible if you’re using too many communication
solutions with different providers. “It makes business sense to centralise by
using one provider. Otherwise, communication ‘bubbles’ develop, and often, one
‘bubble’ can’t communicate with the other. Then there’s having to process the
various bills, claims, contracts and other costs that are almost impossible to
keep tabs on and can easily skyrocket when you can least afford it,” he says.
How quickly can issues be
resolved remotely?
To cut a long story short:
without the right communications solution, not quickly at all. “Remotely, your
workforce has limited access to the IT person. Even when they do get hold of
IT, there are so many devices, contracts and service providers to consider that
the IT person may wish to become “unreachable” indefinitely. It’s almost
impossible to manage,” says East.
“Your technical solution, or
‘tech deck’, needs to be on the ball, or your business won’t be. You can’t miss
a beat on any of these issues, or else you could be the one in three businesses
that becomes another COVID statistic by the end of 2020.”
So what can businesses do?
Thankfully, there’s a solution
to this world of pain: companies can make their lives easier by
centralising their ICT spend in one place, with efficient, streamlined data,
software, device management, tracking and monitoring solutions that they can
control via one point of contact, says Sanders: “One convenient and actionable
contact you can hold to account. Make communication less of a pain and more of
a pleasure for your business.”
