In the rush to implement remote working, businesses increased demand on IT infrastructure, security protocols and collaboration tools. Christian Hennrich, Westcon-Comstor EMEA Services Delivery Director examines why now is the time to assess current capacity, optimise and streamline capabilities, and drive customer success.
Businesses of all sizes have had to pivot to remote working to combat the spread of the coronavirus. While some organisations can work through the issues that come with a surge of remote workers – such as increasing the number of licences for their firewalls and VPNs – many don’t have the ability to provision or optimise the resources they need to fully support their teams.
For many, the shift has been cultural as well as technological, with many teams working from home for the first time. For remote teams to work well they need tools, infrastructure and connections good enough to support their work-related activities. But for many, the rapid transition has left them underpowered, disengaged or vulnerable to cyberattacks.
It’s now time to focus on optimising, streamlining and upgrading home-working IT, not just for the rest of the lockdown but for the long term. Take stock and map your capabilities against business requirements. Look at your software, collaboration tools and security, from the endpoints to infrastructure and apps.
Key considerations
- Did you have the right policies, processes and protocols in place ahead of the move?
- How are you managing and keeping your endpoints up to date and protected?
- Does your team have access to the same applications and data they would have in the office – and with the same security and protection?
- Do you have the right network and bandwidth to guarantee voice and access to apps?
- Do your devices meet the needs of their users?
Assess to optimise
A remote-working assessment can help answer all these questions, providing an overview of current capabilities, infrastructure, capacity and maturity. Identify any gaps, weaknesses or vulnerabilities, and highlight any actions to mitigate risks and optimise IT.
Be a trusted adviser
As a reseller, your position as a ‘trusted adviser’ will be cemented, even in the lockdown, by proactively supporting your customers. You’ll stay close to them; their data will be protected and business continuity maintained. Their remote-working tech will be optimised which, in turn, keeps users fully engaged, effective and productive. It’s a win-win for you and your customers.
Drive customer success
Now’s the time to engage remote services to drive customer success. The multi-vendor and multi-technology capabilities of services teams can identify gaps, fine tune configurations, add features to deployed equipment, or configure virtual solutions in cloud platforms – all done remotely.
We understand these are challenging times for all our partners and customers. Remote services is just one way we’re helping them to adjust to home working, continue to operate and thrive.