People working in an office

For the past four months we have been primarily a work from home company and are just now starting the transition back to our office.

When the UK-wide lockdown began at the end of March, we had only a few days’ notice to set up thousands of users to work from home. We were able to do this while also transitioning our own work force over the same time period. Despite the disruption to our regular working patterns and a record number of calls to our support desk, we were able to maintain our great customer interactions and honour our service level agreements throughout this period.

Like many companies, we have been evaluating the pros and cons of home working and planning for how and when to return to the office.

We’re sure many of you are doing the same and we want to let you all know that your Carden account manager will be contacting each of you individually to discuss how and when your workforces might return. Please let them know how we can best assist you in the transition back to the office.

Others of you may be considering continuing working from home indefinitely and your account manager can discuss some IT solutions to facilitate this, ensuring that you continue to be as efficient and secure remotely as you were at the office.

The events of this year have shown many business owners how quickly the entire economy and circumstances under which they trade can transform. We are sure many of you are thinking about how you would respond if something of similar proportions were to happen in the future. An event which requires everyone to work from home is just one of the scenarios which our disaster recovery packages protect against.

This transition has also demonstrated that hardware and data are just one part of disaster planning. Making sure that staff are aware of all the procedures in place and what their responsibilities are in the event of a business interruption incident are equally important.

We recommend speaking to your account manager about what your potential vulnerabilities are in a range of business interruption scenarios and work with them to find the solutions and safeguards we can provide. Automated backups, off-site storage, scalable VoIP phone systems and remote system monitoring are all services which can help you prepare for and respond to the next disaster.