April 2020 - How to Quickly Shift to A Work-From-Home Business Model to Maximize Productivity In Today’s Coronavirus Environment

As a business owner, you are now facing unprecedented challenges due to the coronavirus pandemic. You are asked to self-isolate and practice social distancing to “flatten the curve.” You are asked to allow your employees to work from home to reduce possible exposure and slow the spread of COVID-19. These are all reasonable requests. However, as a business owner, you also need to maximize productivity, continue to bring in revenue and try to survive as a business during these uncertain times. How can you accomplish these goals if your office is now a ghost town and productivity has fallen off a cliff? The answer lies in setting up your office to function remotely. If you’ve never implemented a work-from-home policy before, it may seem like a whole different world. Managing an entirely remote workforce goes far beyond giving your employees a laptop and reminding them to check in regularly. After all, there are many factors most business owners haven’t ever had to consider previously, such as:

• What technologies do I need?
• How can my employees work from home without compromising the security of our network?
• How can I make this new work environment as easy, comfortable and productive as possible?

We understand these are unique times. We know that “business as usual” is going to be quite different for an undetermined amount of time. But together we can help you adjust to today’s new normal by giving you the tools, technologies and insights to create a secure and productive work-from-home business environment. Here are three important considerations to getting you set up and running a successful work-from-home business: 1. Don’t allow employees to use home computers or devices. Their mindset may be, “Well, I’m working from home so I may as well use my home computer.” This is a dangerous mistake. Our team works hard to ensure your company computers and network are secure and protected from malware, viruses and cyber-attacks. The home computers and devices of employees could be littered with unsafe programs, tons of downloaded music, videos, images and more. Because it’s more exposed, it can invite malware into your network. Rather, provide a company-approved and secured computer/laptop for employees to use at home. 2. Secure their WiFi access point. Without a secure WiFi access point, you’re essentially leaving a back door open to hackers. That’s because WiFi signals are often broadcast far beyond your employees’ homes and out into the streets. Anyone close by can potentially join the network and see the traffic.  Also, drive-by hacking is popular among cybercriminals today. A few tips for securing your employees’ WiFi access points:

• Use stronger encryption and a more complex password
• Keep your router's software updated and patched
• Use a firewall

These security measures are not difficult to set up. But if you have any questions or need assistance, we will be happy to help get your employees set up remotely. 3. Use a two-factor authentication VPN. VPN stands for virtual private network. It’s essentially a private, encrypted tunnel that goes directly to your IT network in your office. Ideally, you’ll want your VPN to support two-factor authentication. This means it’s doubly secure because your employees will need to call in to access the network. We can also set up a remote tool, Screen Connect, for your employees to use. We are offering free licenses to help businesses during these difficult times. It is encouraging to see many businesses and organizations pulling together within the community to help support other local businesses.  Our team wants to help your business survive and thrive during today’s unique and challenging environment.  We are offering discounted prices and free tools as well as resource information to help.  If you need extra hands right now…or solutions to help your employees work SECURELY from home, please feel free to give us a call to discuss how we can help.