At the office, everything employees need to get work done is provided by the company. They have their PCs, standard keyboards, mice, and perhaps headsets if they do lots of calls. However, circumstances like community quarantines during viral outbreaks may force you to have staff work from their homes. Question is, what hardware and software must they have for their very own work-from-home setups? Beyond the obvious items such as a PC or laptop and a smartphone to help them keep in touch with superiors and colleagues, here’s what you’ll need them to get. Communication Systems A reliable phone system may be the difference in the success of your companies lock down and remote working. Having a phone system like 3CX will allow everyone working remotely to keep in touch through chat, free extension to extension calling and various other features. A reliable keyboard and mouse PC users obviously need external keyboards to operate their machines and work on files, but there are laptop users who splurge on external keyboards because they prefer how these feel or love to customise some or all of the keys. Some aspects you want your staff to consider when choosing a keyboard are: Interface – Is it wired or wireless? They won’t have to worry about a power source with wired boards, though battery-powered ones can easily last a year. Choosing a wireless one will mostly depend on whether or not they like to move around and still type away as normal.Comfort and ergonomics – How do the keys feel on their fingertips? There’s now a wide variety of key types to suit their fancy. And if they’re worried about carpal tunnel syndrome, there are now keyboards with keys laid out like a very wide V so that users can hold their wrists at more natural angles.Extras – Does it come with a number keypad and/or a track pad? Does typing fill the room with sound, or is it muffled and silent? Make sure that the keyboard they choose has at least the things that would help them do their job, and at most make them happy whenever they have to work. When picking a mouse, they’ll want to think about interface, comfort, and ergonomics, too. And while some are satisfied with a trackball or trackpad, the majority might prefer the ease of use a mouse offers. They’ll most likely have to work for hours on end, so it all boils down to what they’re most comfortable with. A computer monitor (or two) PCs, laptops, tablets, and smartphones all have their own screens, though most prefer screens they can easily read from and use. If your employees are among the lucky ones who work on a file with one screen while using another one to display their references, then they might find it difficult to go back to a single-monitor setup. Thankfully, replicating a dual-monitor setup is just a matter of getting another monitor, connecting it to their computer, and adjusting their display settings. Of course, setting up dual monitors is their prerogative. If they’re buying monitors, screen aspects to consider are size, aspect ratio (i.e., the proportions of its width and height, resolution (i.e., image quality), and interface (although ports mismatching video cables is a problem that’s easily fixed with adaptors). However, they don’t even have to buy a new screen if they have a smart TV or a TV they’ve connected to a Chromecast or other similar device. Laptops running on Windows can detect such internet-connected devices, and all they have to do is go to Settings > System > Display > Multiple displays, then adjust their settings as they like. Webcam and headset If an employee’s computer doesn’t come with a web camera, they’ll most likely have to purchase one separately, especially if you regularly keep in touch with your team via video conferencing. They’ll need to primarily consider video resolution and sound quality, plus other features such as noise cancellation and auto-focus. To reduce external distractions, they might want to use a headset, though isolating themselves in a room and hanging a “Do not disturb” sign might work just as well. Letting your staff work at home can be a big boon for your company — provided that employees set their devices up properly and that you have a good remote work policy in place. If you’re interested in taking full advantage of remote work but don’t know where to start, talk to our experts at Multi IT. We're more than happy to help.

Laptops may not be the most powerful computers, but the benefits they provide are indisputable. For one thing, they deliver a similar user experience as your huge desktop PC, but much more conveniently and affordably. But before you reap their many benefits, here are five steps you should take before using them to improve their performance. 1. Update your laptop’s operating system One of the first things you should do before using your laptop is upgrade its operating system (OS). Assuming you did not purchase the laptop when it was first released, your laptop will still be running an older OS. With important patches and fixes released with each new update, it is recommended that you install the latest one to ensure your laptop is free of any vulnerabilities. 2. Remove bloatware When turning on your laptop for the first time, you might notice that there are several preloaded software in the system — some of which you will probably never use. These are known as bloatware. These apps take up a lot of your valuable drive space, so consider getting rid of them. The easiest way to do this is by downloading a bulk uninstaller, which allows you to check all the bloatware apps you don’t want and remove them in one fell swoop. 3. Install protection software It’s no secret that the world we live in is unsafe. And with so much confidential information nowadays becoming digitalised, it is necessary to protect yourself against losing important data from your computer. The solution to this is very simple. By installing antivirus software that can automatically — or manually — scan your computer at a scheduled time, potential attacks can be thwarted before they become more serious. Not only is your laptop’s data vulnerable to cyberattacks, but there is always a chance your laptop can get lost or stolen. While there are preventive steps you can take — such as being mindful while using your laptop in public places — another solution would be to install anti-theft software. Security features such as Find My Device for Windows 10 and Prey for other operating systems can help you locate your device if it’s ever stolen or misplaced. 4. Optimize your power settings One of the most frequent problems that laptop users have is that their batteries run out of juice too fast. However, you can actually extend the battery life by making a few tweaks to your power settings. Reduce your display brightness, but not so much that it causes eye and mental fatigue.Use the Sleep or Hibernate mode for your operating system. 5. Set up a backup plan Imagine spending months working on an important project and suddenly finding it nonexistent the next day just because your laptop crashed. Deadlines will be missed. Profit margins will decrease. Customers will leave unhappy. And if worse comes to worst, you’ll be out of business. Why add stress if you can prevent it from happening in the first place? By setting up an automatic backup system, you can regularly save all your important files; that way, you’d still be able to recover your data should anything happen to the original file. You can also store all your important documents in the cloud, which ensures access whenever you need, even if your laptop crashes or gets stolen. Getting a new laptop can be fun, but the joy might be short-lived if you don’t set up any preventive measures from the start. Call us for information on how we can help you secure your company’s laptops today.

Events out of your control can disrupt your business operations. While you can’t necessarily control the unexpected, you can take some precautions to prevent most business disruptions. Here are some things to consider when developing a business continuity plan (BCP). Backup your data, applications, and servers Today, companies are more dependent than ever on IT and data. If these critical components suddenly become inaccessible, there’s little chance your business will survive. Regularly backing up these elements ensures they can be restored quickly in the event of a disaster, security breach, or damage to IT equipment. In the past, most businesses would create backups on-site and with tape backups, but today more and more businesses are using the cloud, and here are several reasons why: Cloud backups are affordable and cost much less than onsite backupsBackups can be automated, therefore saving you timeCloud providers usually back up your data to multiple locations (so if one of their facilities goes down, your backups are still safe at another site).Backups can be accessed from anywhere, whether it’s at an employee’s home or at an alternate office.If you need to access them, backups can be restored quickly Virtualise servers and desktops When you virtualise your servers or desktops, they can be used at any location – be it at your workplace, home, or a coffee shop in the Bahamas. In terms of business continuity, this is useful in case your main office suddenly becomes unusable due to hostile weather conditions. Have a backup power supply No electricity means zero productivity and money down the drain. Having a backup power supply will ensure that when the electricity goes down, your employees can continue working. A good solution is an uninterrupted power supply (UPS), which gives employees a fair amount of time to finish their work as if nothing ever happened. Also, if you have a server room, a UPS will ensure your vital servers stay cool. Utilize social media Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, or Google+, most people are on at least one social network these days. And if there is any kind of outage or disaster, social media is usually one of the first places customers, colleagues, staff, and vendors will check the status of your business. So when it comes to business continuity, keep at least one social media account active to keep your customers and followers informed. Implement unified communications Unified communication (UC) creates a virtualisation communication infrastructure. That means instead of your communication tools – like phones, instant messaging, and video calls – all being stored locally at your workplace, you can access them anywhere. So if your office is inaccessible, employees can still use your phones and other communication tools from their homes. What’s more, UC tools can route business calls to your employees’ smartphones. That means they’ll never miss an important call, even if they’re not in the office. Keep in mind that these are only the first few items you have to address in your business continuity plan. You’ll also need to consider things like training employees and having a communications plan for informing stakeholders. If you want more advice on these areas or need top-class business continuity tools, contact us today to ensure your business continuity.