This is a scenario that employees in regulated sectors, such as pharmaceuticals or finance, are familiar with. And this, well before the Covid-19, well before the confinements, well before the forced and forced teleworking.
“When I wanted to switch to telework, one day a week, technicians came to my house to ensure the quality and security of my telephone installation”, testifies an employee of a large French bank. But not only. The security of his accommodation was also tested, a usual protocol in the banking world.
Admittedly, not all employees who switch to hybrid mode, or even to full teleworking, have their housing and network subjected to such audits. And the brutal and massive implementation of teleworking during the first confinement proved, often painfully, that home boxes and routers could take over from switches and Wi-Fi splitters in companies.
For 20% of remote workers, collaboration and communication are the biggest problems of working remotely
The fact remains that now that the fever has subsided, and that hybrid working is becoming the norm, employees must be able to count on the performance of telecommunications solutions now designed and dedicated to teleworking.
For 20% of remote workers, collaboration and communication are the biggest issues in remote work. For 18%, it is the ability to disconnect from work. And for 3%, it’s about finding stable Wi-Fi. In short, for 40% of teleworkers, the biggest challenge of teleworking is related to telephony and communications (source: “State of Remote Report 2020”).
And of course, the first quality criterion is good connectivity. Relying on your employee’s home box (and on his unlimited plan, or not) could be justified in an emergency, but this is no longer the case. And there are many technical solutions to offer an alternative. We will cite three of them; the 4G box, connection sharing with the pro smartphone, and the 4G key that is plugged directly into the computer. Of course, the presence of a 4G network is essential.
VPN, VoIP and solutions in SaaS mode
On the security side, a VPN (Virtual Private Network) access seems necessary. VPN access must allow employees to access the company network and their professional documents in an encrypted, and therefore secure, manner. A must when resources are hosted internally.
Next, a new generation telephony solution based on VoIP (Voice over IP). The idea: software installed on a computer or smartphone. Enough to send and receive telephone communications, but also to access many features, such as videoconferencing or porting the line to other media.
Finally, it is worth thinking about collaborative tools and office automation tools in cloud computing mode. Teams or Slack take care of unified communications, while Trello or Office 365 take care of this task on the office side. Enough to allow teleworkers to connect easily and anywhere to their email, but also to have access to their professional data, or to consult their agenda and plan meetings. Software in SaaS mode therefore becomes essential for simple access to company applications.
The ultimate idea is to guarantee continuity between the office and home, and to abolish distances to make employees as efficient at home as between the walls of the company.
Note that Arcep publishes a regularly updated guide on teleworking and the technologies essential to the home office. The issues of internet access, collaborative tools and secure data sharing are addressed.