Coleman Technologies Blog

The workplace has undergone a dramatic shift over the past several years in favor of remote work, due in no small part to worldwide circumstances. In fact, many workers who would prefer to work in-office found themselves unable to, pushing the button on the topic of remote work even more. While there are some outspoken companies that want to see the return of in-office work, experts in the industry seem to be of the opposite opinion.

The numbers suggest that a hybrid workplace environment is the growing norm, and companies are adopting policies and procedures to put these accommodations in place.

Really, Not That Many Companies Are Pushing for In-Office Work

The news might report that various companies like Goldman Sachs or Tesla have labeled these efforts as a way to force out “uncommitted” employees; after all, if they can’t come work in-house, they shouldn’t be working here at all, right?

This isn’t really the case; it’s quite rare to see this happen.

In fact, the exact opposite is happening. More companies than ever are willing to accept a hybrid workspace. According to data cited by Prithwiraj Choudhury, one of the associate professors at Harvard Business School, approximately 30% of United States workdays are completed remotely and office occupancy has hovered at around 50%. The numbers don’t exactly represent mandating a return to in-office work.

Hybrid Efforts Can Be Designed for Specific Organizational Needs

You don’t have to stretch too far to see the benefits of a hybrid approach for business, particularly for its employees. The flexibility is helpful and can be a great boon for recruitment purposes. Granted, this is assuming that you can find a way to make hybrid work for your workflows. Your departments might need different things, and you might have to work with your staff to create in-house schedules for various purposes.

Ultimately, however, the flexibility offered to employees through hybrid work arrangements is such a value to them that they could truly thrive in these types of environments when given the chance to do so. Flexibility is sure to be one of the biggest requirements on the radars of highly qualified candidates in the near future.

Work with Us to Improve Your Hybrid Workplace Technology

If your business is ready to consider hybrid technology a priority, we’re ready to help! To learn more, call us today at (604) 513-9428.

With remote work remaining popular, employees can benefit from flexibility and work-life balance, but at the cost of certain challenges on the business side. The big one is security, as your network ends up spread out across multiple locations rather than siloed in-house. Here are three rules you should consider when planning out how to approach remote work.

Protect Your At-Home Wi-Fi

Security at home is non-negotiable for the remote worker.

If you haven’t already equipped your wireless network with a strong password, you should do so immediately. Additionally, you should change the default name and password if you haven’t done so already, as manufacturers will share this information online in case users need to find it. Be sure that your wireless network is also using the latest Wi-Fi security protocol—if this sounds foreign to you, just let us know and we’ll be happy to explain it to you.

This next solution helps to protect data while it’s moving to and from your network.

Implement a Virtual Private Network

With a VPN, you can keep your data secure even on an unsecured wireless network, making it valuable for a remote or traveling employee.

A VPN creates a secure, encrypted tunnel connecting your business’ infrastructure to the employee’s device. If a hacker tries to steal or monitor data while it travels along the network, they’ll see an encrypted bundle of data. A VPN is a solid tool that can help your business conduct operations from anywhere, even in places like airports and coffee shops where you cannot guarantee the safety of the wireless network.

Managing Mobile Devices

With so many devices accessing your network, it becomes important that you have a way to manage them.

Since you have smartphones, laptops, desktops, tablets, and other devices accessing your network, you’ll want a comprehensive way to manage them all and keep tabs on them. First, you’ll want to keep software updated, including their operating systems and antivirus/antimalware tools. You’ll also want to keep their password updated and ensure they have implemented multi-factor authentication to protect against theft or account stealing.

Don’t let security hold you back from remote possibilities. Learn more by calling us today at (604) 513-9428.

IT support is essential for businesses, but traditional on-site support can be expensive and inefficient.

Thankfully, remote IT support, such as that offered through managed services, is now available. This is a game-changer for small to medium-sized businesses. Let's explore the benefits of remote IT support.

On-Demand Assistance

One of the greatest advantages of remote IT support is immediate assistance. When an IT issue arises, there's no need to wait for a technician to arrive on-site. A remote support team can start troubleshooting right away.

This rapid response significantly reduces downtime, allowing your business operations to continue with minimal disruption, which boosts productivity.

Additionally, remote support gives you access to a diverse team of highly skilled IT professionals who can handle various tech issues. This is particularly beneficial for small and medium-sized businesses that can't afford a full-time IT team.

Cost Savings

Remote IT support can lead to substantial cost savings. You can avoid the expense of maintaining a full-time, in-house IT staff and instead pay for services only when needed.

This allows your team to focus on core business activities while the remote IT support team handles the technical side. It's a smart way to allocate resources.

Managed IT services also often include regular reporting and analysis, helping you make informed IT planning and spending decisions, leading to further savings.

Proactive Maintenance

A key benefit of remote IT support is proactive maintenance. Managed IT services can identify and prevent issues before they occur, resulting in less downtime and increased productivity.

Remote IT support also enhances cybersecurity. Timely updates and patches are crucial in today's digital landscape, and a remote IT team ensures your systems are always up-to-date.

Scalability

Remote IT support is highly scalable. As your business grows, your IT needs will evolve. A remote IT team can easily adapt, providing the support you need at every stage.

Support for Remote Work Environments

Remote IT support is ideal for remote work environments. With more companies allowing employees to work from home, it's crucial to have IT support that can assist them no matter where they are.

Remote IT support helps remote workers resolve most technology problems, enabling them to work efficiently from anywhere.

24/7 Monitoring

Another benefit is 24/7 monitoring. Remote IT support teams can continuously monitor your systems, identifying and fixing problems before they become major, ensuring smooth and uninterrupted business operations.

Remote IT support from a managed service provider is a wise choice for businesses of all sizes. So why wait? Start reaping the benefits of remote IT support today. Call us at (604) 513-9428.

Many business owners considered allowing their employees to work from home like opening Pandora’s box; once opened, there was no going back. Unfortunately, for these administrators, they were faced with the very real prospect of losing their business if they didn’t allow it. Millions of people started working from home in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, but now that public fear has diminished, how have companies reacted? Let’s discuss some remote work statistics to get an answer.

Employees’ Side

Before we get into the business side of this issue, let’s briefly take a look from the remote workers’ side. As you would expect, remote workers like being remote workers; even if it's only for part of the time. Some insights include:

• 98 percent of remote workers would work remotely for the rest of their careers.
• 98 percent of remote workers would recommend remote working to others.
• 90 percent of remote workers think they are more productive than they were in an office.
• 66 percent of remote workers think remote work should be an employee’s legal right.
• 29 percent of remote workers believe they should receive a raise if they were asked to return to a traditional work model.

So it’s safe to say that people who work remotely like working remotely. This isn’t a big surprise, but as many people who currently work remotely have done it for a few years now, the percentage of remote workers who consider it essential for a positive work experience is staggering. 

The Business’ Side

Not surprisingly, the fact that many businesses started supporting remote work out of necessity leaves a sour taste in managers’ mouths. After all, we’ve all worked for a manager or two who only rubber stamps things they think are their idea. Being forced into supporting a work strategy that they would have never supported in normalcy will skew their judgment. That’s not to say whether or not it is a fit for their business. Still, with the overwhelming support from employees, it’s hard for business owners to roll back their employees' flexibility and freedom while working from home. 

Let’s take a look at some statistics on how remote working affects businesses:

• 47 percent of businesses still have remote teams working today.
• 78 percent of CEOs see remote collaboration as central to their long-term success.
• 30 percent of business owners see maintaining corporate culture as the biggest concern in using remote teams.
• 71 percent of businesses have taken steps to track employee productivity remotely.
• 61 percent of businesses have increased the amount of online meetings with remote employees.

This shows that, while skeptical of remote work, business owners now understand that a lot of today’s prospective (and current) employees view remote work, whether completely work-from-home, or in a hybrid setup where they come to the office at scheduled times, as the new normal. 

Largest Challenges of Remote Work

Make no mistake about it, there are challenges in business regardless of where your employees work. To finish off this look at remote work statistics, let’s look at some of the biggest challenges that supporting remote work brings to a business and what they can do to overcome them. 

1. Maintaining collaboration and communication - It stands to reason that there would be a gap in communication in a situation where someone is two towns away instead of two desks away. Businesses have begun to really lean on technology to make it possible for remote teams to complete tasks and keep projects on the rails. Collaboration software has packaged everything you need into one platform: Instant messaging, group chats, one-touch communication, file sharing, and application integration to speed collaboration up and to keep work efficient.
2. Maintaining productivity - The main point of contention of many business owners and managers about remote workers is the distractions that workers need to overcome to get their work done efficiently. The best way a business can confront this is to shift the thinking away from the traditional model of hour-based metrics to a more task-based tracking system where productivity is measured through results rather than time.
3. Work/Life balance - Employees have always been frustrated with their ability to balance their work with their home life. Remote work gives them a little more freedom as it eliminates the daily commute and allows them to handle issues they would otherwise have to deal with before or after work. Remote work does more than any other strategy to promote a palatable work/life balance for employees.

Overall, remote work seems to be here to stay, so if your business is looking to maximize its potential with the help of remote workers, you need the technology in place to make it work. To learn how the IT professionals at Coleman Technologies can help you streamline your process and make it work with distributed teams of employees, give us a call today at (604) 513-9428.

It’s true that there are a lot of businesses that rely on their workforce to show up every day. Many of these businesses were forced to shut down or operate at limited capacity during the pandemic but are just now getting up to speed. Outside of operations, there are a lot of administrative uses of technology, some of which involve protecting employee and customer information. Let’s get into some of the strategies that businesses can use to get the most out of their workforce at this time. 

Remote Operations

Ironically, until this whole COVID-19 mess is over with, the most prudent decisions are going to be made using technology that supports remote work, even if you’ve mandated employees to work at your place of business. Not only does it remove physical interaction of your staff to protect them from contracting potentially dangerous viruses, it protects clients as well.

This strategy includes the use of internet-based tools and substantial training initiatives. According to an IMB survey just over half of remote workers during the pandemic were actually trained to protect work-related resources, so making employee training a priority makes sense. 

Hybrid Operations

There’s a saying, “You have to crawl before you walk.” It means that you have to work up to something. If you already have a remote workforce and you are looking to get them to move back to the office or the workplace, you should start implementing a strategy that gets people in waves. The most important thing is to prioritize employee health during this time, as any COVID-19 outbreak could make it difficult for you to conduct business at all. 

In regards to the IT deployment, this strategy is probably the most resource intensive because you have to both be cognizant of your network security inside your business, while also keeping abreast of how your remote workers are using your computing resources. 

Onsite Operations

Getting back to “business-as-usual” will be nice, and if you can accomplish it now, that’s great. It’s just not a strategy many businesses can support at this juncture, especially if they feature open office spaces and shared bathroom facilities. IT management is simpler for IT administrators when everyone is in one location and on the same page. 

Regardless of what your plans are for your human resources, you need to ensure that everyone understands how to mitigate the numerous types of threats your business faces each day. To talk to one of our security professionals about your business’ situation, call us today at (604) 513-9428.

Mindset is important regardless of what someone is doing, but it plays an especially important part in the workplace. This only becomes more true when that workplace is distributed, and work is actually done in the worker’s home.

Let’s go into the kind of perspective you want to encourage in your team as they utilize remote work.

A Positive and Resilient Mindset will Help Your Team and Company Alike

Just a few years ago, the University of Zurich released a study wherein the attitude people had going into remote work had measurable impacts on the outcomes they experienced. Specifically, the researchers were attempting to measure how much impact a more black-and-white viewpoint on whether or not an individual can be successful while working remotely has on their productivity.

As it turns out, there’s a very strong correlation between whether or not people feel remote work is an inherent capability or an acquired skill and their ability to work remotely. By polling 113 knowledge-based workers each week over a period of five weeks, the study showed that the perspective each worker had regarding remote work had a direct impact on their productivity. 

In essence, a worker’s attitude toward remote work served as a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Similarly, it is important to remember that—while a lot of remote work can be done to benefit the employee—a lot of remote work may be done out of necessity. Just look at the events of a few years ago for a prime example of such circumstances. In these cases, it is important that your team is also able to be resilient in the face of these matters. Not only does resilience make it easier to respond to these stressors, but it also makes it easier for us to solve problems, work with others, and be productive in various situations.

You Want to Foster Positive Remote Work Habits in Your Team

Resilience and positivity are soft skills you want your employees to have. So, how can you help them develop them?

Build Trust

This is really a two-way street. You and your employees need to mutually trust each other not to take advantage of the situation—you need to trust them not to slack off, and they need to trust you not to blur the line between work and home and expect more of them as a result.

To create this trust, your expectations and goals must be communicated clearly, and you need to understand how your employee expects remote work to play out.

Enable Your Team to Work

If you want your employees to work successfully, they will have to trust that the tools you have provided them will be there for them. We’ve all felt the frustration that comes from trying to accomplish things with tools that aren’t doing the job we need them to do. Just like your remote workers need you to support them, they also need you to support the technology they rely on.

Encourage Communication

We’ve all seen the value that communication offers businesses and the employees that make them up in the office, so it should come as no surprise that communication needs to be equally prioritized in a distributed workplace. It can be too easy for remote employees to be forgotten or isolated, especially if it isn’t an organization-wide thing. Both you and your employees need to take the initiative to reach out and involve everyone in the workplace.

We’re Here to Help

We mentioned that your team needs to be able to rely on their technology, regardless of where they are working. If this is a hurdle to you fully utilizing remote work and enjoying its benefits, Coleman Technologies is here to help. Our managed services allow us to ensure a business’ technology is operational and optimized for its needs, regardless of whether it is being used in the office, remotely, or in a hybrid environment. We can even help you manage that aspect.

Give us a call to learn more at (604) 513-9428.

Remote work has seen unprecedented adoption in the past few years. While we’re all for the benefits that this trend brings, it is critical that any business that embraces remote or hybrid work does so securely.

Let’s discuss a few measures that your business can and should implement to achieve this security.

How to Secure Your Remote Operations

Let’s review some of the most key safeguards that anyone working remotely should have in place.

Use a Virtual Private Network

Which sounds like the more secure option to you: your organization’s protected and monitored network infrastructure, or your second-favorite coffee shop’s GENERIC-5G network, with password coffeebeans247 scrawled on a chalkboard for its patrons to use?

If you answered the latter, please give us a call right now, because we need to have a serious talk about cybersecurity. 

Of course a properly maintained network is going to be more secure, but what happens if you need to get some work done while you’re waiting on and/or sipping your macchiato? The smart answer is to use a VPN, which encrypts your connection and shields its contents from spying eyes, while allowing your team members to safely access the materials you’ve saved on your network.

The use of a VPN should be enforced wherever a remote worker happens to be operating from, whether that’s at home, away on a business trip, or if taking a working lunch at a cafe.

Only Use Approved, Secure Devices and Software

On a related note, it is important that wherever your team members might be operating from, they are using the right tools to do so. Unapproved technology being used for business purposes without IT’s knowledge or approval—given the ominous designation of shadow IT—brings a variety of issues with it. Not only do you not have any form of control over the device or the data stored on it, there are compliance issues to be considered. 

The same goes for software. If your team members aren’t using the software that you’ve designated they use, instead seeking out alternatives online and downloading potentially dangerous data packets, you are vulnerable to some serious issues and compliance concerns.

This makes it paramount that you provide your team with access and support for the exact tools you want them to use.

Maintain Your Equipment and Software

It’s also critical that the tools your team members are using are kept in proper working order, as this will not only make them more efficient, but more secure as well.

Your remote workers will need to have devices that are remotely monitored for threats and other issues, helping ensure that they remain secure even while they aren’t in the office under your watchful eye. The same goes for the software that gives these devices some direction—threats are actively being developed to undermine it, so it is important that you are just as diligent in keeping these devices up to date. We can use the same remote monitoring and maintenance software we use to manage your in-office devices to ensure your remote team is properly equipped.

Establish Basic Security Standards

We’ll never stop talking about how important it is for businesses to maintain their cybersecurity protections, and this importance is in no way diminished by remote work practices. More than ever, you need to ensure that your team is maintaining the cybersecurity standards you expect them to. Reinforce that they’re to abide by best practices—keeping an eye out for phishing, using secure passwords with multi-factor authentication, and others—and hold them to that expectation.

We’re Here to Help Businesses Operate Effectively and Securely, Regardless of Where Their Team Members are Working.

Give us a call at (604) 513-9428 to learn more about how we can assist you in making the most of your business’ technology.

Let’s go over a few solutions that can assist your business’ continuity in these testing times.

The Fear of Infection

The primary concern that comes from this specific variety of disaster is generally one of widespread infection, which makes it an uncomfortable prospect for people to congregate anywhere. This is especially true of the workplace, where papers and files were traditionally distributed (and redistributed) as work was done.

Naturally, this is the perfect storm for any illness to spread: materials being passed around, with many people together in a relatively enclosed space. With COVID-19, this is especially problematic, as the CDC believes that it is spread through respiratory droplets and close proximity to others. As a result, it is better to avoid this situation… but how could your business possibly cope with its entire staff being absent, due to either illness or preventative “social distancing?”

Fortunately, the technology exists today that allows you to see the best of both worlds.

Securely and Safely Working Remotely

Many common technologies today can be used to enable your employees to do the same tasks they would do in the office from the relative comfort and security of their own home. Let’s go through some of these technologies and applications and review why they are valuable to a remote work policy.

• Mobile devices - If your employees are going to work productively from home, they’re going to need access to the proper tools to do it. Supply your staff with laptops or thin clients that permit them to bring their tools out of the office if need be.
• VPN (Virtual Private Networking) - Of course, once your technology has been taken out of the security of the office, the data that it accesses can be put at risk. Utilizing a virtual private network can help decrease that risk greatly by shielding the data that is in transit.
• Cloud solutions - Of course, in order to effectively work remotely, your data and applications need to be accessible to your team as they need them. Hosting these resources in the cloud enables your team to access them from wherever an Internet connection can be established on many different types of devices.
• VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) - Communication is absolutely critical to business productivity, especially when it comes to remote resources. Without communication, you can’t expect to accomplish much at all. Certain solutions, like VoIP, allow you and your team, to maintain this communication--again, from wherever an Internet connection can be maintained.

While productivity is crucial to your business’ success, so is the well-being of your employees. Giving them the option to work remotely can help attend to both needs. For assistance with implementing the needed solutions, reach out to Coleman Technologies at (604) 513-9428.

The holidays and the new year are perfect times to reflect on how you can make your team’s jobs easier and more efficient. One way you can do so is by opening up the option for remote or hybrid work, provided their roles can be removed from the office, either part time or full time. Today, we want to highlight some of the tools that a remote workforce needs to be successful—as well as how you can get them.

Cloud-Based Services

The future of business is online, and companies that understand this are leveraging the cloud to great impact.

The standard way to acquire software for your business is by purchasing software licenses per user. More companies are moving toward cloud-based apps, which can be accessed through the Internet browser. Going the cloud route means you’re purchasing access to the latest versions of the apps rather than buying them outright, so you’re saving money while making them much more accessible.

Chances are that you can find a cloud-based version of most apps your organization uses that allow for remote access, making it easier and more affordable for your remote team to stay productive.

Remote Secure Access

Your team needs access to data, and more so than that, it needs secure access to data.

The issue with remote and hybrid work is that they increase the surface area of your network, meaning it’s more accessible and harder to stay in control of as your remote/hybrid workforce expands. It’s for this reason that you need policies in place regarding who can access what data. Access control and an encrypted virtual private network (VPN) solution are a must to ensure that no hackers have unauthorized access to your data.

Remember, remote and hybrid work open up more opportunities for hackers, so taking security seriously is a must.

Communication and Collaboration Tools

Of course, communication is another non-negotiable for your remote or hybrid workforce, as they will not be in the office as often as your in-house team.

Most cloud-based productivity suites have collaboration and communication tools built right into them, including voice and video chat, instant messaging, and task management. You should also have a project management solution of some sort to keep everyone collaborating on the same page. It’s a nice bonus if you can implement tools that integrate well with your other critical apps and tech infrastructure.

Some examples of tools you might consider include email and messaging, Voice over IP, and project management software.

Need a Hand with Transitioning to Remote or Hybrid?

We know considering all of your options for technology is challenging, and remote technology is no different.

That’s why we make it as easy as possible for you so you can focus on running your business. Instead of worrying about which vendors to go through or which solutions to buy, you can divert your attention to what you’ll have your team do with their newfound productivity. While remote and hybrid work isn’t a great solution for everyone, it can be when you implement it well.

To ensure this happens, give Coleman Technologies a call at (604) 513-9428.

One of the biggest arguments for remote work is that it poses environmental benefits, but how much truth is there to this statement? Today, we want to dive into the details and see if there is actually a solid benefit to working remotely—for the environment, at least. The answer might surprise you.

Remote Work Doesn’t Completely Eliminate Carbon Emissions

Remote work does remove the commute, and you’d think that this is enough to move the needle toward a more environmentally friendly working solution, but the answer isn’t that clear. There are other factors which also play into carbon emissions, more than gas mileage. There are numbers that could sway your opinion in either direction. On one hand, a look at April 2020’s emissions showed that they were reduced by about 17% worldwide compared to the prior year, but as you might imagine, those numbers have come up once again, even with people still working remotely.

Here are some other challenges which can complicate whether or not remote work is a more environmentally friendly approach.

Electricity

Even when your employees are working remotely, they are consuming electricity—just not from your office. In fact, their combined homes will likely use more electricity compared to your office. And how exactly is this energy being generated, anyway? Is it an environmentally friendly and sustainable way, or are the providers relying on fossil fuels? You can see how the answer gets a little murkier.

HVAC

The same thing can be said about heating, ventilation, and air conditioning. How much energy is being used to keep homes warm, cool, and ventilated, and how are these solutions being delivered? It’s easier for your business to control the office’s thermostat and impact the environment from one location compared to your workforce doing so from several different places.

Greater Hardware Needs

Laptops and mobile-friendly solutions are great for making your business more mobile, but if you haven’t already equipped your team with this technology, then you will have to procure it for them before the big shift to remote work. This means that there will be more waste created as a result of more technology being introduced to the world through the manufacturing process. And, of course, you can’t forget about e-waste, which is a big problem in its own right.

We don’t want to say that remote work is bad by any means, but whether it’s bad for the environment is actually up for debate, and the issue is not as clear-cut as you might think at first glance.

It’s Not All Doom and Gloom for Remote Work

There are plenty of great reasons to implement a remote work policy, but just understand that your primary one is probably not going to be to save the environment. A remote or hybrid work strategy can actually be remarkably effective, provided you have thought the whole thing through. Coleman Technologies can help you with this step. To learn more, reach out to us at (604) 513-9428.