Right tech, right place: How to support your teams in any location

Table of contents

Fully remote

Hybrid approach

In the office

Today’s workplaces are more dynamic than ever, with 76% of businesses offering their employees flexible working arrangements. For many SMEs, juggling support for remote, in-office and hybrid teams all at once can be a challenge at the best of times. However, each workstyle comes with its own unique challenges, and businesses need a tailored solution that can address them.

Let’s take a quick dive into each workstyle so you can see how the right tech can help you access new levels of productivity for your teams in any location.

Fully remote

The benefits of fully remote working are huge – offering flexibility to employees and continuity to employers. But with teams spread across locations, it can be hard to ensure communication and collaboration run smoothly. And without central oversight of everyday operations, data security can also be a concern.

Luckily, it’s not difficult to replicate in-office productivity with the right tech. Here’s how:

• Invest in cloud-first tools: Look for solutions that support video conferencing, file sharing and secured remote access to ensure your teams stay productive no matter where they’re located. For many businesses, Microsoft SharePoint is the go-to tool for safe collaboration and content-sharing capabilities.
• Scale with demand: With scalable infrastructure in place, your resources can easily shift as your remote teams expand or shrink. This gives you greater operational flexibility and better control over your finances.
• Take care of your endpoints: With security that focuses on endpoint management, you’ll be able to keep devices protected in non-traditional setups. So no matter where your teams are working from, you’ll have peace of mind knowing your data and users remain safe.

Hybrid approach

For many businesses, hybrid work is now the norm – blending the freedom of remote work with the structure of the traditional office. However, keeping things consistent across different working environments can be a concern. How can you ensure your teams have access to the best tools, support and protection whether they’re in the office or at home?

The key is a hybrid setup that prioritises agility, scalability and security, and here’s what it should look like:

• A unified platform: To avoid the silos that are often a part of hybrid working, pick a unified platform that can be accessed from all locations and provides secure access to synced data and services.
• Easy oversight: Monitoring tools help your IT teams keep on top of important metrics like system health, usage and performance. This gives them the power to seamlessly optimise key systems in line with the latest data.

In the office

The traditional office setup still has its place, and provides teams with valuable opportunities for in-person collaboration. But a physical space isn’t a shortcut to productivity. Its success hinges on having the right technology to keep everyone secure and working with maximum efficiency. Here’s what we recommend:

• Unify your communications: Enhance efficiency and reduce the time spent on ad hoc integration with tools that bring voice, messaging and file access together.
• Add robust security: Always consider the full range of security solutions available. For example, a Virtual Private Network (VPN) encrypts internet traffic to protect data while web application firewalls (WAFs) detect and block malicious traffic.
• Supply a smart workplace: Use technology to make your office ideal for all kinds of employees, with solutions that monitor and manage bandwidth and provide support for hotdesking and resource scheduling.
• Manage your costs: With more people in your office, energy usage and resourcing pressures can rise – intelligent management systems can help you optimise these essentials, without affecting your teams’ performance.

Your business shouldn’t have to choose between workstyles. You know your business and what will work best for it – and you can be empowered to make that happen. With the right infrastructure, and a partner that can unlock its benefits, you get support for any way of working.

At Focus Group, we don’t offer generic fixes. We tailor our solutions to your real-world experience, so you can access the best tools for your teams, however they choose to work.

If you’d like to get started building your ideal workspace, get in touch.