Now that your staff is all working remotely we need to have a conversation about improving the productivity of those workers.
At Harbor we’ve always worked remotely so we know what it takes to support remote workers and we also know that not everyone is cut out for remote work. It’s a sad fact, but at job interviews I always tell people that if a person is going to fail it’s because they can’t manage to work remotely. When you work remotely you have to be the kind of person that wakes up in the morning, gets dressed for work, sits down and knows what they have to accomplish for the day and gets started doing it.
Here’s a short list of what your remote workers need:
- good computer equipment just like they would have in their were in your office
- fast internet
- more cloud. The less they have to remote into the office the better. It’s faster, it’s more secure
- daily kick-off meetings
- great communication tools, like Teams
- to not feel disconnected from co-workers
- clear daily work product goals
To get there we really should evaluate what people have at home because this thing where we set everyone up to remote in from home regardless of what the home situation was, might not be the best thing for your business. If you weren’t already configured for people to work from home then it’s all ad-hoc and it now needs to be formalized.
I know this is going to be a rough time. We’re hearing about layoffs and deep ones at that. One of the considerations will have to be the home office environment. If a person is working on an old computer, on a slow internet connection, remoting in via VPN, you’ll never get a full days work from them. Old and slow is the death of productivity.
Businesses that have adopted cloud technologies have a huge advantage right now. They have great access to data, uninterrupted communications, modern tools, superior security and near normal productivity. If that’s not your business, it’s not too late. We can still do migrations and still train your staff. Now is the time to re-position your business.
I hope you all got your EIDL, PPP and State emergency funding applications in place. It looks like this thing is going to linger. Figuring out how to leverage technology to enable your business success is what we need to do now and we shouldn’t wait.
We should start with an audit and technology review. In the last week we saved a client thousands of dollars a month by reducing the number of software licenses they were paying for and for another we found a double billing in their website hosting resulting in a $1000 savings. We completed two more full cloud migrations enabling a construction firm and legal office to continue business as usual.
As part of our commitment to always care about your business and be the best partner for you, we are not charging for planning and audit meetings.
Customers have these things to say about our efforts. Let us help you too.
As this craziness was just starting to happening when we were in the process of switching to the cloud and office 365……I want you to know that Parrish has kept us up and running and is really a great example of a vendor that really thinks like part of our in house team. He handled the priorities as needed….or told us which things were real priorities …….I am set up and able to work remotely , so thanks to all of you! I am sure your all swamped but thanks for the attention when we need it.
Harbor treats you like a partner they want to see grow and improve. You get a solid explanation and choices for everything they do, in regular English and no ‘man-splaining’ or talking down to you. You don’t feel dumb and the choices are yours. It’s not managed care, it’s partner care.
About Harbor Computer Services
Harbor Computer Services is an IT firm servicing Southeastern Michigan. We work exclusively under contract with our clients to provide technology direction and either become the IT department or provide assistance to the internal IT they already have. We have won many awards for our work over the years, including the worldwide Microsoft Partner of the Year. We’re the smallest firm to have ever won this most prestigious award. We were recognized as one of the top 20 visionaries in small business IT by ChannelPro Magazine. And as the top Michigan IT firm for Manufacturing. Our CEO was recognized for Forrester as one of the top 100 most influential IT professionals in north america.
There are a few simple things that make Harbor Computer Services the best choice for your business. •We are Professionals •We are Responsible •We are Concerned About The Success of Your Business
