Coronavirus is here and the evidence can be seen throughout the day. Store shelves are empty as everyone prepares for the worst by hoarding everything from toilet paper to cleaning supplies. This may seem like a crazy panic to many but the reality is that there is big unknown and we need to try and protect ourselves. But are you also looking at protecting your business and your workers?
We are starting to see the effects of the Coronavirus on the corporate world. There are estimates on how hard the airlines will be hurt and discussions about the ramifications of supply chain disruptions. If you are a business owner, CEO or executive you should be looking at how to prepare your business for the potential risks of Coronavirus. There are many areas that you will need to review. This article will review some steps you can take to make sure your IT infrastructure is prepared.
When looking at the Coronavirus we see a number of areas that your infrastructure may need to be prepared as well as ares in which your infrastructure can help prepare your company. We will start with preparations you can take to make sure your technology is there to assist your company with Coronavirus and then we will move into areas where you should prepare your infrastructure.
Be prepared for remote workers
If Coronavirus begins to spread you may have workers that are not going to be coming into the office. They may be sick, in quarantine or just scared to be in close proximity to others. When these workers are no longer at the office they will need to have a computer available to telecommute. It is best to prepare for these workers in advance since there may not be an easy way to get them a computer after they are already at home. Here are a few ideas to have computers available to your workers.
Identify all workers who already have a laptop or currently work from home
Ask your employees if they have a computer at home that could be used to work remotely
Take inventory of existing laptops and desktops that can be deployed to people homes. If your company is on a computer replacement schedule you may have machines that have been upgraded but not yet disposed. You may also have shared laptops that are assigned to workers for occasional travel.
Make sure you have monitors, keyboards and mice for any machines that may need to be deployed. These can be sent overnight from Amazon if you need to deploy them quickly.
Reassign laptops and workstations to key employees in order to make sure you can have these remote workers ready.
Test your VPN or other remote access
Remote workers require some method to access their work resources. Some resources may be cloud based but they are also likely to need access to people or resources that will be physically located in the office. Be sure to have your remote work solution implemented and tested ahead of time. A common solution to accessing the corporate network remotely is VPN. Make sure your VPN is working and that the required workers know how to connect and login. If they have not used it in a while it’s likely they will have forgotten their password.
Prepare your phones
Remote workers often need access to a phone. If they are making outgoing calls only they may need nothing more than a cell phone. Other workers will need to receive calls from the corporate phone system or PBX. You should identify how these workers will receive these calls. A few options to look at include:
Remote Extensions can be a good option if your PBX supports this feature. With a remote extension you can have a phone that is not on premises which connects to the corporate phone system. Ask you IT staff or MSP if your phones support this.
Hosted Phones can also be an option. With hosted phones the provider supplies the phone system and the phones are remotely connected via the internet. If you have this sort of solution you can likely just take the company phone home. Be sure to test this before you need to work from home!
Forwarded Extension is another good choice. Many phone systems will allow you to forward an extension to another phone number. This makes it very easy to send peoples calls to their cell phones when they are working remotely. Ask you IT staff or MSP if your phones support this.
Rearrange work spaces
One of the keys to preventing Coronavirus has been to keep people more than 3 feet apart. After you send some employees to work from home it is likely that there will be a need for certain worker to be in the office. These workers may include people like warehouse workers, sales rep’s in a store or security staff. You will need to identify who will need to be physically in the office before the emergency hits in order to make sure that they have room to work in a work space that does not force contact with others. Make sure that computers, printers and other infrastructure are setup in a manner that allows for physical separation.
Engage your IT staff or MSP early in the process so that you don’t risk getting them sick if they need to move equipment. Keep in mind that there may be a need to move network cables or setup WiFi networks to support these moves. This may require outsourced resources or equipment purchases which means you don’t want to leave this to the last minute.
Change your meetings
Companies love to meet and the conference room is often the busiest room in the office. These meetings and rooms are also a great opportunity to share illnesses. This is a great time (and opportunity) to look at moving your meetings online. If you don’t already have a service like GoTo Meeting (gotomeeting.com) or Zoom (zoom.us) it the perfect time to start moving to online meetings.
When you begin using online meetings you may find that your productivity at these meetings is increased. The reason for productivity increases is because these meetings offer features that help to keep your team more productive than if they are in a meeting room.
Use the ability to record a meeting to allow users to take less notes and pay more attention to the meeting
Use screen sharing to review important files. Participants will be able to see these files much better on their PC than they will on a shared projector or TV in a large meeting room.
Use presentation tools to draw and highlight on the presentation to create interactive meetings.
Allow more participants to share by moving the presenter role from person to person.
Be prepared to disinfect
Anyone who works in IT operations can tell you that computing and technology equipment are collectors of germs a virus’. Helpdesk technicians who work many different computers and shared equipment (like printers) are often sick more than the average employee. When an illness like Coronavirus is on the spread you will want to make sure that any shared resources are sanitized and the users are protected from any risk of transmission. This is an area that each company will need to assess since the requirements will be very specific to each business. Here are a few thoughts to consider.
Limiting the use of shared equipment is always the best solution when it is possible.
Having users wear protective gear like gloves and masks around shared equipment may be help to limit transmission.
Assign a single technician to service each piece equipment that needs to be regularly serviced.
Review your core business functions
When emergencies hit we often need to change in ways we don’t expect. This list will help you to be more prepared but nobody can prepare for everything that can happen. The most important part of being prepared for Coronavirus or any other emergency is to know your business and be nimble. The first key to being nimble is to know your core business and be aware of what can slip and what cannot. If you sell products you need to know that this is key to your business. If you cannot deliver all the product required you may need to identify the most important customers. You may also need to identify an alternate supply chain if your current supply chain is interrupted. Labor can also be a challenge if your works start to be get sick.
The best defense to any scenario is to know your business and prioritize you operations. This will allow you to cut back in certain areas and keep the most important functions operational. Technology can be a part of this equation. Technology may be able to make your workers more efficient when you are down a few workers. Technology may allow you to pivot your supply chain or customer base when you are working under limited resources. Technology may also be able to help you replace sick worked with outsourced solutions or temporary labor. The key is to know your risks and how you will deal with them should the worst case occur.
About Keith McLaren
Keith J. McLaren is the CEO of Capstan Services, Inc. His extensive experience in IT operations allows him to lead a team at Capstan who provide best in class services to their clients. You can contact him at kmclaren@capstanservices.com if you have questions or comments on this article.