Working remotely - seizing opportunities in a "remote-first" world

Working remotely is the new normal. Employees prefer to have the choice between commuting to the office, participating in meetings online or offline, and working on collaborative projects from home. While some remote work solutions are focused on one department, role or task, flexibility is absolutely essential.

From on-premise to the cloud: Seizing opportunities in a "remote-first" world

Three factors are critical to high "remote-first" productivity. Let's take a closer look at them.

#1: True location independence

If you can't offer your employees workplace independence, you run the risk of losing them altogether. Indeed, that's how important it is for modern businesses.

The first factor is that your employees can work wherever they want, whether that's at home, abroad or at your office. But while it may seem obvious at first glance, there's a lot that goes into arranging true location independence.

If your employees can work from anywhere, they must have seamless access to all of your organization's information. That entails access rights and data management, something you need to execute with the utmost care, and it becomes increasingly important as your business grows.

Working anywhere also means having the ability to reach and work with colleagues, customers and partners without difficulty. Effective collaboration means having the right communication tools and a structured data landscape for fast management and knowledge sharing.

#2 Security

Security risks can jeopardize your organization's productivity. At their worst, threats like malware, viruses, phishing attempts and rogue links can lead to business downtime. They can also become incredibly expensive and difficult to resolve. If your current hybrid work environment is not nail-bitingly secure, the risks are significant. With people working from home or conducting their work from their own computers, it's clear why problems arise. An inadequate data structure is another problem that can lead to data breaches involving confidential files that are critical to the organization, resulting in reputational damage that takes a long time to rectify. Getting security and management under control is critical for organizations that are serious about productivity.

#3: Access to essential applications

For productivity, it is critical that your teams have quick and easy access to essential work applications. Companies use a large number of applications, often as many as ten or more. If access is slow or limited, it can take a serious toll on your employees' performance, productivity and job satisfaction.

Let's say your finance team can't process invoices because your purchasing department can't send them because the app is blocked! These are issues that make a difference. If you are experiencing bottlenecks or want to improve your organization's productivity, these are three factors to consider.

Next steps

With the right strategic advice and the right technology (like Microsoft Azure) to support your hybrid and remote working goals, you can increase employee productivity while controlling your organizational costs.

Thanks to the power of this secure and flexible public cloud solution, your organization is ready to welcome the new work environment.