Helping Your Business Flourish, With Employees Working From Home

COVID-19 is rapidly changing the way we do business, and our only option is to adapt. One option for many businesses is for employees to work from home. Digital Link has already adopted this practice and we’d like to give you some ideas. Please note, this article is to offer suggestions and answer a few questions. If you want to implement a work from home strategy, contact us. We are happy to help. 

Office365  

Microsoft Office365 is much more than Word, PowerPoint and Excel. With cloud storage that lets you work on projects from anywhere in the world, and apps built with businesses in mind, Office365 is your go to software when it comes to employees working from home. Here are some of the apps we want to highlight.  

• Teams: Unified communication and collaboration platform. Combines workplace chat, video meetings, file storage (including collaboration on files), and application integration. The service integrates with the company’s Office 365 subscription office productivity suite. It also features extensions that can integrate with non-Microsoft products. Microsoft Teams is a competitor to services such as Slack and is the upgrade path from Microsoft Skype for Business. 
• Planner: Enables users and teams to create plans, assemble and assign tasks, share files, communicate and collaborate with other users. It also allows users to receive progress updates via various means on the Office 365 platform. 
• Onedrive: Cloud storage that connects devices and allows users to work on documents together.  
• SharePoint: Allows your team to share files, data, apps and more. You can work from anywhere with any device. Business activities such as: signature approval, document review and approval, and issue tracking, can be initiated, monitored and completed with SharePoint.  

Digital Link is a Microsoft Partner and is licensed to resell Office365. 

Video Conferencing 

A good option to keep in contact and communicate with your team is through video conferences. We use Zoom and recommend it to our clients. There are free accounts, which allow you to have forty-minute sessions. During the Pandemic, Zoom is waving this forty minute maximum for many users. Zoom allows you to share your screen with your co-workers so everyone can see what you are presenting. There are also paid accounts, which give more control and allow longer meeting times. These additional features include the ability to place participants in other rooms, allowing break-out sessions during your meeting. 

VPN 

VPN stands for Virtual Private Network, which provides a cable like connection between a remote PC and an office’s server. VPN’s establish secure point-to-point tunnels through the internet with your office so data can be safely accessed. A VPN is a must for any office that wants its employees to work remotely. Without one, your data is not secure. Our technicians are more than qualified to set you up properly. 

Digital Link is a Sophos authorized partner. 

During the COVID-19 Pandemic, there are real solutions for you to help protect your employees and your business. At Digital Link, we do digital differently. We would love to talk with you about how we can help your business succeed during this time. Give us a call at 780-616-3120 or email [email protected] and let’s talk!