Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, in the first half of 2020, many businesses were forced to start working remotely; however, it has also proven to be a very successful business model, with a lot of workers greatly preferring to work from home. Although, there are some businesses and users that have not got on well with a full remote working environment, which is why Hybrid working has become another major trend in business working patterns. Hybrid working means a business can empower their users to work precisely how they see fit, in order to maximise satisfaction and productivity.
Challenges
When a business is transitioning from being an on-premises organisation, to a remote or hybrid organisation, there are a number of challenges that need to be addressed and resolves.
To start with, when managing a distributed workforce within a hybrid business, it could potentially be a challenge to ensure all users have access to information that they need when they need it – especially if, prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, your business was a fully on-premises organisation with established on-prem infrastructure.
Another challenge is ensuring all remote employees, their devices, and their data are protected with the right type of cyber security. Depending on your sector, you may also have compliancy regulations to consider as well.
Apps that help
OneDrive – This one of the two Cloud storage solutions included with Microsoft 365. OneDrive is geared towards individual storage, as an alternative to your PC’s internal disc space. Utilizing OneDrive can make it easy to share files to colleagues. . If you are unsure where to check this, speak to any trusted IT Support Providers and they will be able to help you. New features to OneDrive are designed specifically for hybrid work optimisation. For instance, there is a new Quick Access feature in the OneDrive app lets you pin and organise your frequently used files for easy access.
SharePoint – Every business using Microsoft 365 should be utilizing a carefully designed SharePoint environment. SharePoint is so configurable, and have so many capabilities that it is an essential platform for hybrid working. It is a great way for storing shared resources among teams and departments, and ensures that everyone in the company can have access to exactly what they need for work, and the security features ensure that company data is strictly protected.
Teams – Microsoft Teams is a platform that combined unified communication and collaboration. You can instant message, call both internally and externally, and host video conferences, webinars, and video meetings. Teams is integrated with nearly all Microsoft products, so it is easy to access files, as well as create documents and other resources all within the platform.
Enterprise Mobility + Security – This service is included with all of the Business and Enterprise licenses of Microsoft 365. It comes with a host of tools that make it easy to protect and secure your company resources. For example, there are tools for unified endpoint management, which enables you to apply company policies and security to any device that is logged into a licensed M365 account – this means that you can protect all of your remote employee’s devices (whether they be mobile phone, tablet, laptop or desktop) and make sure that all the company data stored on the devices is protected with enterprise-level security.