Setting up Your Remote Workforce for Long-Term Success

policies and best practices for maintaining a safe and disciplined approach to remote access. This might entail documentation, training, and one-on-one check-ins with remote staff to ensure they understand and follow the proper protocols.

Network and access monitoring are more important than ever when workforces have shifted to remote locations. Not only will activity originate from a whole new rift of IP addresses and devices, but workers will be logging in at unusual hours as they juggle home-life responsibilities and their jobs. MSPs must vigilantly separate approved access from suspicious activity.

Service Call Preparation

While much of the value MSPs provide can be provided off-site, there are still occasions when an on-premises visit is required. Whether it’s a hardware failure, adding or swapping physical storage, or handling another essential task, sometimes there’s no way to avoid going there in person.

To ensure the safety of employees and customers, service teams should take several precautions. Not only should these visits be kept to a minimum, but if employees must go onsite, they should make the most of it. Before heading out they should have any equipment and parts they could need, and their to-do list should include both the urgent matter at hand as well as any other routine or preventative tasks they can complete, minimizing the need to return any time soon.

Employees making service calls should pre-install any mobile apps for essential functions on their devices so they can get in, get the job done and get out as quickly as possible.

Beyond maximizing the efficiency of these visits, staff should also be armed with the right supplies to maintain proper health and safety. This includes masks, gloves and hand sanitizer, as well as training on best practices to minimize contact with other people and surfaces.

Remote Friendly Monitoring and Management Systems

For remote work to actually “work,” MSP employees must do everything they normally can do in the office. That means the interfaces and systems they use daily must function the same on a laptop in someone’s basement as they do when they’re sitting in the NOC.

This includes remote access to all critical applications, along with collaboration and virtual meeting tools to conduct important meetings. They’ll also need easy access to any and all IT documentation for every client.

Using fewer separate systems to manage customers is best, particularly given the challenges of a remote workforce. Employees should be able to easily jump from service tickets to remote endpoint management for quick and efficient issue troubleshooting. Each additional interface and set of credentials slows things down and increases the switching costs and learning curve.

A Daunting, but Doable, Undertaking

Empowering a remote workforce will pay dividends for MSPs in both the short and long term. Not only will it enable MSPs to maintain business continuity and keep their current staff employed and engaged, but it also opens up future possibilities when it comes to staffing and office space.

MSPs can cast a wider net for workers if they embrace remote work. Both full-time and contract workers can be located anywhere, which means more candidates to pick from a more diverse talent pool, not to mention potentially lower costs for staff located in different geographic areas. And with more employees working from home, MSPs can spend less money on square footage and furnishings to improve margins and reduce overhead.

There will be bumps in the road, be they technical or cultural, but the ability to ramp up or maintain a virtual remote workforce will serve every firm well going forward. Using a thoughtful, strategic approach to this endeavor and relying on tools and solutions optimized for this situation is key to making it smoother for everyone.

This guest blog is part of a Channel Futures sponsorship.