On 4th March 2020 Facebook disclosed that Coronavirus had been diagnosed in a contractor in its Seattle office and immediately told all employees of that office to work from home until 31st March
But what if your business cannot operate without a core staff being in the office? What if you have to have Warehouse personnel present for shipping goods, food service, security guards, janitorial staff or any other personnel that are involved in a position that cannot be done from a remote location?
At that point, there will probably also be some kind of management team in the office overseeing everything so that the business survives during an uncertain time.
A 2011 survey by Information Week showed that 33% of businesses do not have a business continuity plan.
With the UK slowly but surely plodding the same path as other countries, it is likely that we will be placed into lockdown in the coming few weeks. This could cause businesses across the UK to have to quickly find new ways of working to avoid loss of business and productivity.
Video conferencing will become a big part of keeping businesses running. Keeping effective lines of communication open is vital so that workers who are working from home can still get their work done with those still in the office.
Meeting spaces and video conferencing will take on a whole new life while they work to enable even the simplest of calls that normally would have been done face to face.
Making sure that your business video conferencing setup is coronaproof is something that needs to be acted on now so that your business is ready for any potential lockdown.
How to quickly increase video conferencing capability
Quickly increasing video conferencing capability can be achieved quite easily and we are able to help as we have a lot of equipment in stock that can be delivered and installed before any emergency happens.
There are only two things to consider
- Increasing the hardware
- Increasing the licences
The video conferencing hardware you implement can vary widely in cost and quality so it is important to partner with a qualified, professional company like 21st Century AV.
We have over 20 years experience implementing video conferencing solutions and would love to talk to you about protecting your business from a coronavirus lockdown
We can also advise on any additional software licences you might need and work with you to make sure you have everything in place and ready to go before any lockdown of the UK happens
Increase the number of video-enabled office meeting spaces to cope with extra demand.
No matter if you use Microsoft Teams, Zoom or Bluejeans you can easily scale the number of meeting spaces you have ready in the office for people to communicate with homeworkers.
Having increased video conferencing ability all set up and ready to go will ensure your business can continue through any lockdown.
We can quickly set your meeting spaces up with equipment for any video conferencing software. Contact us today to discuss your requirements. If you are already a client of 21st Century, you can rest assured that we already have some knowledge of your requirements and can easily make sure any new equipment needed to increase your video conferencing capabilities will be 100% compatible with whatever you already have.
Increase office bandwidth to cope with the extra demand
If your internet bandwidth is overdue an upgrade then it is definitely something to consider if your business is going to rely on intensive video conferencing. Whilst modern video conferencing solutions like Microsoft teams, Bluejeans or Zoom use very little bandwidth compared to the quality they provide it is still important that you have plenty of headroom in your office internet bandwidth to ensure all video calls are completed well.
Secure VPNs for additional access points
The irony of your business contracting a different virus than COVID-19 is not lost on IT professionals. If your remote workers are going to have to log in to company networks or access internal documents remotely then having a secure and fast VPN setup is vital.
Dig through the old IT cupboard
Working from home for some people will be an experience they are not prepared for in their homes. They may not have the necessary equipment needed for this style of work. Digging through your old IT cupboard and setting up old laptops with all required software and video conferencing capability is a great way to prepare for the worst. Having a batch of laptops that can be distributed to staff temporarily working from home can smoothen out any productivity drop during times of emergency.
Using video conferencing technology across all aspects of a business from the boardroom to multi-site offices is much more affordable than it used to be. It now makes business sense to integrate video conferencing solutions into everyday business operations as a means to save time and money. Many companies find that the full cost of implementing a high-end video conferencing solution is easily recouped within the first year through reduced staff travel costs and productivity increases.
If you want to understand how your business can survive through times of adversity and also thrive day to day then talk to us and one of our experts will be happy to help.
