These Tools Allow Employees To Work Remotely During Coronavirus Outbreak

Companies around the United States this week are considering allowing or mandating that their employees stay home while the spread of COVID-19 virus continues to worsen. At SWICKtech, we’ve heard from several business clients that are preparing their hardware and technology for such a move soon.

Luckily, the stack of software Microsoft provides can easily allow for organizations to send their staff home immediately without losing any productivity.

HERE’S A LIST OF THE MICROSOFT PRODUCTS THAT ALLOW FOR REMOTE WORKING:

OFFICE 365 OUTLOOK:

By now most of us are utilizing the power of cloud-based email to stay connected on our phones or on our browsers at work. Still, accessing email offsite is the first step in allowing your workforce to operate remotely.

ONEDRIVE:

Filesharing in the cloud by using OneDrive allows your employees to access their Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or other files from any device and collaborate within those files in real time. Looking for instructions to get started on OneDrive? Check out a previous SWICKtech tutorial.

ONENOTE:

Your employees can take and share notes or documentation amongst each other using the cloud-version of OneNote. OneNote has organizational tools and robust search feature so your team can easily find and collaborate with notes.

TEAMS

Microsoft Teams is an all-in-one, customizable collaboration tool with chat and file sharing for your organizations. Microsoft calls it “The hub for teamwork in Office 365”. At SWICKtech we use and love Teams for internal collaboration. Microsoft offered up six months of Teams for free in the wake of the Coronavirus outbreak. If you’re taking up Microsoft on the offer and need to get started on Teams? There’s a tutorial for getting started on this page.

VOICE FOR TEAMS

If you didn’t already think Teams was a great tool for a mobile or remote workforce, Voice for Teams puts it over the top. Teams replaces a traditional phone system in the office and runs inside of the Teams app on your computers. There’s also a Teams app for smartphones that allows your employees to make calls within the app.

IF YOU’RE NOT USING MICROSOFT’S CLOUD-BASED APPS, BUT NEED TO BE REMOTE NOW

We know that some businesses haven’t yet migrated to Microsoft services in the cloud or are using multiple providers and on-premise solutions for collaboration. The option for remote access to non-cloud-based tools is through VPN access to your firewall.

At SWICKtech, we can upgrade the Microsoft software tools in your suite or make the necessary upgrades to your company’s firewall to allow your employees access to everything they need to work from home during the coronavirus outbreak or any other future emergency.