Return to work: IT Preparation
Throughout the last 12 months, we have been helping our clients with their roadmap for returning to the office post-covid19.
The objectives we've seen are typically
Implementing hybrid of office and remote working whilst maintaining the best performance/IT experience
Reducing office space
Continuing to be secure regardless of location
Ensuring the appropriate hardware and software is in place
We are sure these are common themes for anyone who wants their IT setup to reflect future working methods.
Here is our guide on how to prepare for returning to the office:
IT Checklist for Returning to the Office
Inventory
At the start of the pandemic, staff were scrabbling around taking home office equipment. Now would be the perfect time to reassess the equipment you have in the office to ensure a smooth transition and minimise the impact of productivity when returning to the office.
Create a basic spreadsheet or use free survey tools such as Google Forms or Survey Monkey as an easy way to find out what staff already have.
Performance
If you are considering implementing a flexible working policy, you want the users' experience, regardless of where they are, to be the same. Design lead practices VDI is the solution to achieve this. It also meets the other criteria of reducing office space, providing the best performance for drawing/designing and being secure. Inevidesk virtual desktops provide the solution to maintaining the same working experience regardless of location. The Inevidesk virtual desktop sits in a data centre or your server room allowing you greater flexibility having more space at your office with no desktops/workstations on the floor.
Security
The ability to work from anywhere does increase the risk of cyber threats. We have proactively tightened up cybersecurity for our clients by assessing the most vulnerable areas and implementing essential tools such as MFA (multi-factor authentication) to access cloud-based apps and enforce policies to prevent security breaches ensuring connecting devices are maintained.
Communication
We can safely say communication changed for everyone in the midst of 2020. Although some of our clients were well versed in conferencing tools such as Teams, Zoom and Webex, we've helped others configure these to be suitable for their daily communication. These communication tools are essential in ensuring that appropriate equipment for meetings, whether remote or from a shared conference room, is available.
Connectivity
With more portable devices, we've assisted some clients in cutting down the amount of cabling they need by installing sophisticated Wi-Fi technology.