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Virtual Office Scalability: Is Your Technology Setup Scalable?
/in Blog /by Chris HigginsIf you aren’t thinking about virtual office scalability right now, you should be. Thanks to a microscopic virus, everything changed in an instant, including the business world. While we know that things generally fluctuate over time, markets rarely change so drastically without some leading indicator.
So, what does this mean for you? No doubt, you’ve already found your employee needs changing quickly. While some businesses are seeing consistent falls, others are picking up speed quickly or fluctuating month by month. As such, your employee requirements may be changing over time. Adding, removing or changing employee roles can often be a major hassle, wasting time and resources in the process.
If you’ve been following our series this month, you know that we’ve been focusing on virtual offices mobility and security. In this article, we’ll be focusing on how virtual offices can help to keep your operations as scalable as possible.
Virtual Office Scalability: Quick Review
A virtual office is a system where all of your office technologies are cared for and stored in a cloud-based service rather than using on-premise servers. It allows seamless access, wherever you are, while maintaining security. They work well because, depending on your industry, few (if any) of your employees really need to work in a physical office all the time.
Under a true virtual office setup, all of your programs, communications and storage operate like you’re at the office regardless of device. Since your MSP still monitors the network, they maintain a safe atmosphere and can quickly resolve any issues.
Pre-COVID Operations
Most businesses fluctuate in their employee needs over time, with many designed to be seasonal. But what happens if you need to hire, replace, move or eliminate employees in a hurry. The short answer to that has typically been “You can’t” or “These sorts of things take time.” After all, you need to find them a place to work, equipment to work on and, of course, software licenses depending on their role in the company. In addition to this, you have to worry about the maintenance and upkeep of both their physical workspace and equipment.
As a result, bringing on new hires, replacing people who have left, or scaling up and down quickly becomes a major burden. You either end up holding on to a bunch of technology just in case or scrambling every time you hire. But not scaling effectively can cost you even more in the long run in terms of lost productivity and opportunities. It’s a bit of a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” proposition.
A Brave New Solution for a Brave New World
Virtual office is the answer to any scalability challenges. To understand just what we’re talking about, let’s use a made-up, real-world example.
Let’s say there’s a company with 50 employees. The owner realizes that the sales, marketing and accounting people have no need to actually be in the office to do their jobs, especially under current circumstances. So, they sent all of them to work at home using their own devices. Remote servers handle the computing rather than the systems themselves, eliminating concern over the speed or age of computers at home. The typical VPN security concerns also go out the window. As long as they have a stable internet connection, they are good to go!
A little while later, the owner decides that they need to ramp up staffing to prepare for busy season. Said owner gives their MSP a call, explains the situation, and the technician sets up all the new licenses needed within the hour. Simple as that! Instead of having to wait to provision and deploy hardware, IT can handle any scaling seamlessly.
Virtual Office Scalability, Taking Advantage of the Opportunity
While 2020 quickly changed our idea of what a normal office is, it’s really been a long time coming. Companies have been migrating to similar solutions for almost a decade with varying degrees of success. However, with current technology and infrastructure, it’s never been easier to implement a virtual office solution like this.
If you’re struggling with a piecemeal system you rushed together earlier this year or if you are looking for a way to make your technology more scalable, contact us today! Virtual office scalability is something all companies should be actively maintaining. We can show you how affordable a virtual office can be and just how quickly it can be in place. If there is any silver lining to this interesting year of ours, perhaps it’s the kick in the pants we needed to move our businesses into the future.
Virtual Office: Can You Gain Mobility?
/in Blog /by Chris HigginsIn our last article, we discussed the security benefits of using a virtual office. In this blog, we’ll cover how a virtual office can help to make your job easier and more enjoyable.
Let’s face it, you can have a beautiful corner office — but it’s still an office. Very few normal human beings enjoy being stuck in an office let alone commuting to one everyday. Thankfully, it seems that physical offices are becoming sparser these days for a wide variety of reasons.
Virtual Office: Why Consider Mobility?
Many of you reading this might have been skeptical about the idea of a mobile office. Back in the 1980s, mobile working meant having a giant word processor, dot matrix printer and wired car phone. Compared to what we have available today, that seems more like a nightmare than progress. Today, you may be concerned about how you can effectively manage your employees in a remote environment.
For the past decade or so, more businesses have been moving to mobile workers. This allows for flexibility, creates an always-on (or always-accessible) workforce, and eases national recruiting. Once the recent pandemic hit, much of their day to day operations continued without consequence. Those that hadn’t considered mobility were quickly forced into finding a way to send employees remote. Since we don’t know how long the current crisis will continue or what the future may present, the current COVID-19 pandemic is an excellent example of why it’s best to consider creating a virtual office.
If you can work from home or on the go, you’re free from the office and can work wherever, whenever. Have a doctor’s appointment? Keep up with your clients, so you don’t have to take personal time. Did last night’s weather make the roads unsafe? Run your reports from your home office while not putting your life at risk. It’s no secret that employees who have the option to work from anywhere are happier employees who often stay at their company longer.
Virtual Office: An Office In Your Pocket
Here’s an important question: why do you go into work all? Some people have to be at a location to do a specific task. For example, you won’t find too many jobs as a carpenter working remotely. If a particular job requires that a person be on location, there isn’t much you can change.
However, many of us come into the office every day just to sit at a computer and use commonly available software to do our job. Other than meetings (that can usually be an email) or for workplace gossip at lunch, there’s no reason you have to go to that office to sit at that computer. If a portion or all of your workforce fits into that category, why bother wasting all that money on a large workspace? Many companies find that even if a few employees have to be in the office, they can still cut down the size and location of facilities significantly. It’s not uncommon to see a company with 100+ employees using an office with less than a dozen offices or workstations.
A Real Solution
Up to this point, we’ve only talked about this concept of a mobile office in the abstract. What exactly is a mobile/virtual office?
You can log on to any system mobile, desktop, laptop or otherwise and have the same exact experience as you would have on your desktop computer. All of the apps are there, in full functionality, all with single sign-on and secure multi-factor authentication.
Besides being as secure as a bank vault, this style of a virtual office gives you the ability to work at any location on any device. Just a generation ago, no one could have dreamed of this kind of freedom or flexibility! Start your day off on your desktop, run a quick errand while connecting to your smartphone, sit on the back porch with your laptop, then end your workday lounging on your tablet—all while connected to the “office.” What happens if your device gets lost, damaged, or stolen? Nothing. Your data isn’t stored on the device itself and logging in requires multi-level authentication, which we routinely monitor.
While it’s true that other types of systems have existed in the past that allowed remote access to systems, they were rather clunky, slow and nonsecure.
Bring your operation into the 21st century! If you can move some or all of your workforce into virtual offices, now is the perfect time. Contact us today to see how we can quickly get your operation virtualized and running at peak efficiency—anytime, anywhere!
Is your Virtual Office Secure?
/in Blog /by Chris HigginsVirtual vs Physical Office
When some of you hear the term “virtual office,” you’re probably thinking of someone at home on their computer, all their work online. While that’s true, it’s important to understand that what we’re talking about is more specific than that. A proper virtual office allows someone to actually go to work in the most literal way possible without even stepping foot in a building. All the software and data that your employees would need would be available after logging into your system, often via a login on your company’s webpage. Once inside, your employees can literally do anything they need to do. They would be remote clients of every software your company uses, including accounting packages.A Safe Solution
Virtual offices are one of the safest ways for your company to do business remotely. The biggest reason for this is the lack of any software on your employees’ own computers. Even if their computer gets hacked, there’s nothing on the hard drive that would belong to the company. In addition, since the employee is logging into the system, unless someone is literally behind their shoulder, there is no way for them to see what they’re doing. Much of the time, hackers get information based on the connection between your computer and the server you’re communicating with (the website’s hosting server). You could think of it like being wiretapped — the person listening in can get all the information you’re sharing with your friend on the other line. With a digital office, you’re basically entering a digital building, doing all your business inside, then leaving for the day.What a Digital Office Is Not
Some of your smarties reading this article might be thinking, “Oh! They’re talking about a VPN.” While VPNs and virtual offices share some similarities, there are a few important differences. For one, VPNs work by encrypting your communication between you and the website you’re visiting. However, once you’re in contact with that website, you’re still vulnerable. What if the site uses cookies to track you or if their servers have been compromised? That VPN won’t do you a lick of good. Also, VPNs are often used on a network. It’s true that the entire network will be better protected with a VPN than without one, but if one device on the system gets infected, your entire network is defenseless. Even entire VPN services have been hacked in recent months, leaving millions of customers vulnerable. Let’s use the example of your child opening an infected email. If you’re using a virtual office, none of your company’s files, passwords or any other type of data will be in danger. The only way to access that information is to have the credentials to enter the entire system. This might make you think that gaining access is just as easy as someone stealing your password. However, entering the virtual office would require a password in addition to multi-factor authentication that would be monitored by your MSP. While any system could theoretically be breached, this form of accessing the system is about as ironclad as you can get these days.A Smart Solution
Of course, we’d be lying if we said that virtual offices are an impenetrable castle wall that would be 100% safe. Even with physical castle walls, it isn’t just the bricks and mortar that protect that people inside — it’s the design, workmanship and upkeep that stop the enemies from rushing in. Understanding how a virtual office works, best practices in its implementation and maintenance is what will decide the quality of your system in the long run. This sort of workspace can be complicated to set up and get used to, but once your company works this way for a short while, the peace of mind you have will make you wonder why you didn’t do this years ago. Naturally, with something this important, you’re going to want a company that knows what they’re doing from years of practical experience, not just from learning by watching a YouTube video on the topic. Especially when putting all your eggs in one basket (so to speak), you better make sure that basket is made from galvanized titanium covered in diamonds. Well, maybe not literally, but you get the point. Our team has been working with virtual offices (in whole or in part) for decades. We know what needs to be done and understand the very real danger of not doing it right the first time. If you’re finding your workplace become more and more sparse with your employees working remotely, don’t wait to call us today. We’d be happy to go over your specific needs and help develop a solution that will make your virtual office a secure workplace.