Enabling Home Office. How do you do that?

In the current situation, the employees' requests for home office options are becoming louder. The Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BBK) also recommended creating home office options as early as April of this year (BBK action recommendation). However, this poses a surprisingly large challenge for many companies.

In order to send employees to the home office, certain conditions must be met:

• The employee must be provided with the technical means to be able to accomplish all tasks.
• The employee must have full access to all work-relevant data and systems.
• There must be simple communication options for internal and external communication.
• The security of the systems must not be compromised.

The right technology for the home office

The first step to the home office is providing the right technology. Of course, you can let your employees work with their own PC, but this has several disadvantages.

• You cannot ensure that the computer is adequately protected and that up-to-date antivirus software is installed.
• Programs that may be needed cannot be pre-installed, but must be installed and configured by the employees themselves.
• Required connections, such as VPN, cannot be set up by the company.
• Your own PC offers a high degree of distraction possibilities, which can reduce productivity.

Therefore, you should make sure to provide your employees with the necessary technology. The simplest way to do this is with laptops. Laptops do not need to be set up separately and offer a high degree of flexibility. All necessary settings can be made by the company and required programs and systems can be pre-installed. With built-in cameras, speakers, and microphones, which are now standard equipment, video conferences are also possible to maintain communication.A familiar and secure work environment for your employees can be created without much effort and cost.

Access to everything that's important despite working from home

The most important prerequisite for effective work from home is access to all work-relevant files and systems. The right implementation varies for each company. However, what always makes sense is the transfer of files from local systems, hard drives, and internal network storage to a cloud.

Many people get alarmed at the mention of "cloud". But the idea that a cloud is not secure, or that data is stored on some American servers without control over who has access to the data, is far from the truth.Storing in a cloud simply means that files are stored on a server and are accessible via the internet. This can also be the company's own server, on which any measures for the security of the server and the data can be taken.

The advantages of a cloud are obvious. The data is accessible to anyone who has the authorization to do so. With a suitable backup system, like our Veeam backup solutions, data loss is ruled out. Also, in a cloud, it can be tracked who last made which changes to which files.

Enabling access to the cloud from the home office is then just a small step. If the cloud is accessible from the internet, employees only need their access data.However, this is not recommended if sensitive or particularly protected data is located in the cloud. In this case, it is more sensible to limit access to the company's internal network and set up VPN connections or Remote Desktop.

If you do not yet have a cloud solution in your company or need help setting up VPN and Remote Desktop, feel free to contact us. Our cloud solutions have something for everyone.

The connection must not be lost

Despite spatial separation, communication within the company must be maintained and contact with potential customers should be kept as unrestricted as possible. The latter can be relatively easily accomplished with company mobile phones.However, many people are greatly concerned that internal communication may break down. Therefore, it is important to provide employees with suitable systems and take the right measures.

To keep track and discuss completed and upcoming tasks, it is advisable to hold a short daily meeting. Microsoft Teams, which is included in the Microsoft 365 offer, is particularly suitable for this. Microsoft Teams not only gives you the ability to host video conferences, with all necessary features such as screen sharing and a message chat, but also offers many other useful features. You can create task boards, link file systems, build an information system, integrate Azure DevOps, and much more.This way, your internal communication is secured and can even be sustainably improved.

How do the systems stay secure?

There is often a fear that opening internal systems to the outside leads to many security problems. However, here too, only the right measures need to be taken to avoid potential risks.

In addition to the universally valid security measures, such as password protection, using long passwords, and automatic locking of computers, which can be relatively easily implemented, securing the communication channels is often the bigger problem. Nowadays, however, external access can be secured just as well as internal. The first step is to adequately secure the computers themselves.The best way to do this is with antivirus programs such as Panda Endpoint Protection. Afterwards, a secure connection, usually via VPN, must be established. Company-owned devices can also be configured so that the VPN connection is automatically established and the device behaves as if it were directly connected to the network in the office. This also prevents private use of the devices.

As you can see, not much is needed to enable your employees to work from home. We are happy to support you in each of the necessary steps. If you do not have your own resources for the setup, feel free to check out our offer for the Home-Office Complete Service.We take care of all the steps to prepare your company for home office, individually tailored to your needs.