Remote Work Infrastructure For The Long Term

How Prepared Are You to Support a Remote Work Infrastructure For The Long Term?

Are you looking for a complete list of the technologies your organization requires for successful long term remote work? This brief guide explores the five key technologies you need to support your remote team in 2021 and beyond.

When the Covid-19 restrictions initially took effect, chances are you had very little time to settle into a remote setting. But with remote work set to carry on far beyond 2021, you need to implement a proper long-term remote work strategy.

An excellent starting point is going through our list of five key technologies for long-term remote work.

Which Tools Does Your Remote Team Need For Secure & Efficient Remote Work?

Here are the five broad categories of tools your remote team needs to work efficiently and securely:

• Mobile hardware tools.

• Project management tools.

• Virtual collaboration and communication tools.

• Cybersecurity.

• Performance and employee engagement tools.

Are you interested in learning more? Let’s take a close look at each!

Mobile Hardware Tools

While this may sound like common sense advice, your remote workers still need to access the physical equipment, tools, and hardware they’d use in your regular office setting. These include printers, computers, telephones, and so on. Naturally, this means it’s your responsibility to provide smartphones, laptops, and any other pieces of equipment your employees may need to get the job done.

Apart from hardware, your remote workers also need fast reliable, internet connectivity. We recommend investing in the latest mobile hardware tools and the fastest subscription plans that fall within your organization’s IT budget.

Hardware forms the foundation of your distributed workplace, making it arguably the most important element of your remote work efforts.

As a business leader, you must provide each remote worker with the following basic tools:

• Laptops.
• Smartphones.
• Internet access.

Additional equipment, for example, printers or monitors, may not be essential based on each individual’s financial resources and needs.

Virtual Collaboration and Communication Tools

Virtual communication and collaboration tools are crucial to any successful remote work plan. Outlook, Gmail, and other email tools, as well as voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP), are essential as they enable workers to communicate effectively. But the reality is that these are dated technologies. These days, many more teams are working and collaborating in virtual spaces like video conferencing environments and chat rooms.

The very best applications, for example, Slack Chat, enable remote teams to communicate efficiently and securely. However, the dialogue is quickly moving away from the chat screen and into the video conferencing space. The modern worker is much more used to chatting apps like Skype that enable them to collaborate “face-to-face” and in real-time, almost as though they were working in person. The best chat apps include Skype, Slack, Rocket Chat, Matter Most, Flowdock, etc.

Project Management Tools

Coordinating and managing projects in a remote work setting without the right tools and procedures can easily turn into a nightmare. But it doesn’t have to be such a headache. With virtual project management apps, project coordination and management can be incredibly straight forward and take place completely online. This will eliminate tedious in-person meetings and stifling micromanagement.

Often, virtual project management applications will integrate third party or collaborative tools of their own into their environments. The best available tools will allow your team to easily set the objectives and tasks, monitor their progress, hold each other accountable for missed deadlines, and check off completed work. Great project management tools include Basecamp, Microsoft Teams, Asana, etc.

Performance and Engagement Tools

For most people, performance reviews are a daunting prospect that may even feel biased or unfair. Sadly, the remote work model makes performance assessment much more challenging as employees and supervisors don’t meet in person every day. For instance, it can be difficult for a manager to measure and reward an employee’s growth when they are working from home.

Traditionally, employee performance would be reviewed through often inaccurate and tedious organization-wide service once each quarter, annually or so. Today, evaluations, appraisals, and goal-setting can be done in real-time using performance tracking tools. These tools will enable you to identify winning strategies and address the areas that need improvement without needing a single face-to-face conversation. Handy performance tools include Trackstar, SAP SuccessFactors, etc.

Cybersecurity

Many remote workers rely on public internet connections to access the various virtual environments and cloud platforms they need to do their jobs. Unfortunately, this can endanger your data as hackers take advantage of public Wi-Fi and launch cyber-attacks.

While it’s easy to safeguard your office environment, ensuring the same level of protection for multiple home offices can be a tall order. That’s why you need to invest in robust cybersecurity technologies and best practices.

Here are a few cyber-security must-haves for any remote team:

• Multi-Factor Authentication.
• Real-time security monitoring.
• Virtual private networks (VPNs).
• Multi-point network backups.
• Employee monitoring software.
• Antivirus, anti-malware, firewalls.

Looking for the Most Trusted Remote Work Support In Rhode Island & New England?

Our experienced IT professionals at Technology Advisory Group are eager to help you get the most out of your remote work now and going forward.

CONTACT US NOW | Call Your TAG Team (401) 228-6400 For the Most Reliable Remote IT Support in Rhode Island & New England.