New Reality

The immense changes within our society brought forward by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic have brought front and centre the subject of working from home. The topic while not taboo has been looked down upon, for years, and seen as a refuge for the lazy and underachievers.  

This could not be any further from the truth. It is no longer mission-critical to have all employees under one roof, especially within SME's. Recent studies have concluded that employees are more productive at home. 

Next generation

With Cloud-based SAAS (Software As A Service) such as Unleashed, Xero, Shopify, and the latest innovation VOIP protocols we can now safely have a success-full and productive work from home scenario. Not only are these options much more user friendly than products such as Sage50 but are also more economical. 

The elegant simplicity of these systems is evident it their operational requirements. All you need is internet access and a computer or tablet, you could use your phone but that is going a bit overboard. It is not even platform dependant, Windows or Mac, it does not matter.

Previous to the new SAAS solutions your only option for work from home was with remote desktop solutions such as TeamViewer, this is a great option for a few work stations, however, it becomes more challenging as you add terminals. This comes down to your internet connection*.  

The only major infrastructure improvement I would highly recommend is having a modern phone system, a VOIP PBX. (Updated version of a traditional switchboard.) 

All they need to do is either log on to their virtual phone on their computer or connect their phone to any internet connection, and nobody would know they are not physically there.

Environmental benefits

By not having to commute daily you significantly reduce your carbon footprint. As there is nobody else physically next to you it encourages all your communications to be conducted digitally, significantly reducing the paper wasted under normal circumstances.  

Moving Forward

I do not doubt that within the next decade there will be more people working from home than commuters. COVID-19 has now accelerated this trend by a decade. As the benefits from work from home become more evident I predict that at the end of this crisis we will see fewer people return to their workplace physically, permanently.   

If you wish to learn more bout the systems and variants discussed here please do not hesitate in contacting me.

* Most connections broadband are asymmetrical, which means your connection on average provides you with 10% of your download speed as your upload speed.