Even if your business has an IT support person or staff on-site, employees working remotely can strain your resources. Your IT support staff who are used to working on-site may need help with resolving remote-related issues. After all, your employees home environment can be set up quite differently than their work spaces. Outsourced IT support technicians, experienced in resolving issues remotely, have a better chance of determining quickly whether an issue is related to software, internet connection, VPN, user error, etc.
Improve your employees’ digital experience
At minimum, employees require internet access, devices and VPN access to your network to do basic functions. Take the basics up a notch with web camera and headset. Together, these allow employees to communicate and collaborate in a variety of ways with other staff and customers.
With remote IT support available to help setup and troubleshoot issues with the above, you should experience little disruption to business as staff shifts to a digital experience. Simplicity and ease of use are critical when choosing applications and tools for remote staff.
Have a virtual private network (VPN)
Your VPN is the gateway for secure remote access to your company’s resources, data, applications and documents, as well as the internet via your employees’ internet provider.
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A VPN protects your data by creating a secure connection to your network and the internet. If your business doesn’t have one in place already, we cannot stress enough that this is the time to get one. remote tech support can teach your employees how to use it if necessary and troubleshoot any connectivity issues.
Don’t assume employees have adequate internet access and speed
Living in Kansas City, most of us have great internet. But not all of us. Your employees may get by with average service, just enough to browse on their phones. How do you know if your staff needs faster connections? Ask. And, be prepared to financially provide them with higher speed, data plans or hot spots. More bandwidth means better productivity, especially if employees are uploading, downloading and sharing large file sizes. If you expect employees to use web and video conferencing apps, you’ll need to ensure they have enough bandwidth to handle them.
Educate employees on skills and apps that support working remotely
Productivity relies on teamwork and using shared assets, such as documents, files, reports, spreadsheets and media. Such assets are created and used with applications and platforms like Microsoft Office365 and Google G Suite, local content/document management systems, the corporate intranet, HR systems, CRM, ERP, etc.
Most likely, your employees know how to use these programs because they have used them in the office. But, what about remote collaboration? Team chats on Microsoft Teams, Slack and such can be new to remote staff. Offering remote IT support can help your staff connect, so they feel more connected and collaborative.
Working remotely (successfully) requires strong leadership
Some employees feel lost when they have to work remotely. They don’t expect you to be able to answer their questions about how to schedule a Zoom call or access Office365 from the web or even why their VPN connection isn’t working. However, you can reduce stress and support productivity by providing easy remote IT support.
You needn’t worry about security with remote IT support. You must grant the remote tech access to your computer. Once the troubleshooting session is over, the tech can’t re-access your system without you granting permission once again.
Almost any software-related malfunction can be addressed remotely. More than 90 percent of personal computer problems are related to software, which is exactly the type of problem remote tech support can address.
Remote IT support is a good investment now and later
Your employees are looking forward to returning to the office. As a business owner, you’re not only looking forward to getting back to business as usual, but also at ways to be better prepared with a contingency plan and remote IT support for any future business interruptions.
