Web-based systems, remote working, and business resilience
As a business, due to the current health crisis caused by the Covid-19 virus, we have already moved to working from home. During this period, we continue to support our clients remotely for those that need it rather than going out to client premises. We are fortunate insofar as this industry gives us all the tools we need to continue to work uninterrupted during the current crisis, whilst it is appropriate to do so.
Unfortunately there are many employees and businesses that don’t have this option. But there are also many that could work remotely from home given the right tools to do so. We see examples daily now of people being furloughed from their jobs, not just because the companies cannot afford to employ them due to falling demand, but because they cannot travel to work and/or work in an office environment due to social distancing rules. Many are also classed as non-essential workers, even though they may be “essential” for the business itself.
This crisis has highlighted the need for businesses and organisations to take more seriously the need to build additional resilience into their systems and working practices. One way to assist with this is to use more web-based software systems and databases they can access remotely to run many elements of these businesses, such as admin systems and other core business functions.
Web-based systems allow for, facilitate, and encourage remote working. Some key advantages of web based systems include:
- Users are not fixed by location – they can work from the office, home, or from other locations.
- Web-based systems are simple to provide to new employees, new areas of the business, new locations, branches etc. without the need for sometimes convoluted connection requirements such as remote desktop connections to computers in the office that have the software installed, or relying on complex network infrastructure and VPN’s etc.
- You often do not need dedicated hardware for the task – any computer or device with an internet connection, a web browser, and a reasonable screen size, such as a tablet, or even a modern mobile phone, will suffice in many circumstances.
- You do not need to install any software onto the hardware devices in order to use the systems. Furthermore, future updates and improvements are also centrally managed with no additional visits needed to the hardware to install updates.
- Environmentally friendlier – users do not need to commute to work to get to where the systems are, the systems come to them. Many systems can also have a customer facing element that customers can access, meaning that you don’t need to print and send out so many documents.
It is widely accepted that the centralisation of data into databases used to control business functions is a good thing, rather than the previously dispersed data of yester-year. However many businesses have still not made the extra step to centralise their software systems and “front ends” that allow remote access to these databases. This continues to tether users to the office, and restrict their flexibility and subsequent business resilience.
For any businesses ready to improve their business resilience with a bespoke web-based software system, we stand ready to help – contact us.
